{"id":1499,"date":"2005-10-06T22:50:41","date_gmt":"2005-10-06T22:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2005\/10\/nowidiots.html"},"modified":"2005-10-06T22:50:41","modified_gmt":"2005-10-06T22:50:41","slug":"nowidiots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2005\/10\/nowidiots.html","title":{"rendered":"Now:Idiots"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alabama youth ministry features goldfish swallowing<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n

The First Assembly of God Church has a Fear Factor ministry that had youths swallowing live goldfish \u2014 if they were up to it. The church’s youth minister says it teaches children about fear, but a grandparent questioned it and a pet shop owner called it animal cruelty.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

"Fear Factor" is a reality TV show in which contestants compete by participating in dangerous activities or by eating stomach-turning foods for cash prizes.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

"We need to be realistic about what the Bible says about fear and not be afraid to share our faith in school," youth minister Anthony Martin told the TimesDaily in a story Thursday. "We can’t let that fear rule our lives."<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Dang, why can’t we learn from the Protestants? Ingesting fish = evangelizing fire! Of course!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alabama youth ministry features goldfish swallowing The First Assembly of God Church has a Fear Factor ministry that had youths swallowing live goldfish \u2014 if they were up to it. The church’s youth minister says it teaches children about fear, but a grandparent questioned it and a pet shop owner called it animal cruelty. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. 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