Story also said to be apocryphal.

[skeptics.stackexchange.com]

Yes, my friend and I went on a Baptist church trip to Bude as teens, we camped in the top of a barn. I really don’t recall the finer details, but no fuss, just a fun holiday.

@girlwithsmiles problem is when things “happen”, it is usually kept hush-hush.

@Canndue Unfortunately in cults this is often the case. I know that if any of the girls came up to me telling me there was a problem butts would have been kicked and the perpetrator would have some serious issues with his family. Not to mention that the male leader may well have made an offender do a forced march with him (he was in the army reserve) Same if a boy came up to us with an issue, but these kids all supported each other.

@Canndue true, but like anything there are a lot more cases of good people doing good things. Christians may be a bit misplaced in their though patterns, but these guys honestly just wanted to take a fang of kids to the seaside for a nice break, and that’s exactly what happened.
(I’ve been a Child Safety Officer, grooming is one of the many unfortunate things I’ve had to become knowledgable about; my reading to the children of the book they had about ‘stranger danger’ was updated,( off the cuff), to included people they know and always telling their parents or caregivers if someone makes them feel uncomfortable, even if the person threatens to harm their parents if they tell).

@girlwithsmiles I did a program with my class called protective behaviours. Basically the start is to talk about feelings and how different feelings feel in your body. Then getting them to label the feelings and when they get them. That sometimes the same feeling in your body could be good or bad ie the scary feeling on a roller coaster or before having to speak in public may feel the same as the scary feeling you get when you are around a certain person. Then we start identifying when those feelings would be good or bad. After that it is talking about their body and that they have the right to tell someone NO.
There are two catch phrases that you repeated at the beginning of each session
Everyone has the right to feel safe
There is nothing so bad that you can not tell someone about it

They have to list 5 people only one of whom can be a family member that they could go to for help and they are taught to keep telling people until they feel safe. We encouraged them to put a friend on their list and then taught them that if someone told them they felt unsafe to use their own list to tell people to get help.

It was a great program but as it needed two teachers to deliver it the department in its wisdom said they could not afford to fund it.

@Budgie oh what a shame, this is one of the issues. On finishing one course I wanted to run free sessions at the local community centre and to ask for a gold coin donation for the stuff needed for it. The local community centre said unless it was totally free there were fees for the hall; hence my attempt to supply my services for free were foiled.
Sometimes you have to wonder why a lot of good works have to be charity based whilst a lot of the worst of human behaviour makes money!
Ho hum, sorry to be a downer.
I’m sorry your program was cancelled, how about we make a pact to keep trying

@girlwithsmiles I fit bits of it into my health program but not the full program as too many parents would go ballistic when you start to talk about body parts with students. Even with departmental approval we had to get parents sign a form to allow their child to participate way back then,

Better late than never hopefully one day she will gain liberty!

I’ll go along with either of these...or dickheads!

@Marionville C, All the above, and oh so many more.

True, a lot of the issues coming from their own insecurities. The fact that their invisible, ‘father’ is the boss in their lives makes them more impotent than non religious men; adding another dimension of powerlessness. Overcompensation may be demonstrated where they do have control. So many unhealthy aspects to religion

@girlwithsmiles Yes...and that emasculation makes them cruel and overbearing in the things and towards the people they do feel they can control.

@Marionville @girlwithsmiles I have no time for any man who feels threatened by any woman simply because she is strong, intelligent or clever. I approach all people, regardless of gender, on equal terms unless and until they demonstrate that they are deserving of being treated otherwise.

@anglophone Yes that’s as it should be with all men...but we’re not talking about you, or men in general at all. We’re specifically talking about these religious relics who belong in a bygone age.

@Marionville Understood and agreed. And thank you for sharing that, your value.