Christmas Child group under fire
A Christmas charity scheme involving thousands of Northamptonshire schoolchildren has been accused of using gifts as 'honeytraps' to convert youngsters to a fundamentalist branch of Christianity.
Thousands of boxes full of gifts are sent out to developing countries every year through Operation Christmas Child, a charitable scheme run by a US-based organisation called Samaritan's Purse.
But now concerns have been raised that the scheme has fundamentalist Christian motives which are not made clear to children, teachers and parents.
Paul Crofts, former director of Northampton Race Equality Council, said: "Many people who take part in this scheme do so without realising Samaritan's Purse is a US-based evangelical Christian organisation which distributes proselytising leaflets – in many cases targeted at people of other faiths.
"Samaritan's Purse is somewhat coy about this aspect of their operation and until 2003 they made no mention of these 'extras' that were added to the shoe boxes, until forced to do so by the Charity Commission.
Even now their leaflets promoting the scheme are hardly explicit on this matter."
Dr Margaret Atkins, chair of Northants Secular and Humanist Society, added Samaritan's Purse manipulated the kindness of children.
She said: "Samaritan's Purse is an unabashed missionary organisation with evangelical zeal.
"The gifts given by the children out of a desire to help are being misused.
The gifts are used to target children who are in a state of distress and are especially vulnerable following some catastrophic event in their lives such as war or a natural disaster.
"Each gift is used as a bribe and carries with it religious literature designed to be attractive to children.
"Samaritan's Purse is a fundamentalist organisation and its objective is to convert the children.
"Religious fundamentalism is threatening to tear apart the fabric of societies.
Hatred, intolerance and violence are generated by religious zealots of every type.
I appeal to parents and teachers to research carefully the credentials of charities and weed out these trouble makers."
'There is no hidden agenda here'
Jane Simmonds, midlands manager of Operation Christmas Child, told the Chronicle & Echo Samaritan's Purse was a humanitarian organisation, but added the motivation to run the scheme came from Christian beliefs.
She said: "We are very open about the fact that Operation Christmas Child is a project run by the Christian humanitarian organisation Samaritan's Purse.
Every copy of the leaflet we distribute explaining how people can take part and donate a shoebox – and we distribute over four million of these promotional leaflets annually in the UK – makes this abundantly clear.
"What we do not do is add any literature, religious or otherwise, to the shoeboxes.
The shoeboxes we send out from the UK are distributed by indigenous organisations, often charities, in the destination countries, not by ourselves.
In less than half of these countries, some of the local organisations may have a simple booklet of bible stories available because it is Christmas time, and this is explained in our promotional leaflet.
"What is important to understand is that there is no requirement for anyone to take a booklet.
The shoeboxes are a present given absolutely on their own and those readers who may have been kind enough to donate one can be assured that their shoebox goes to a needy child as something for them to enjoy, play with and share as intended.
"There is no hidden agenda in what we do. There is no 'honey trap'; no 'targeting'; no 'proselytising', no 'adding of extras'.
Our aim is to deliver a little happiness to a needy child at Christmas, and thanks to the continuing generosity of so many people – children and adults – who look at what we do and understand the special way that Operation Christmas Child helps them give a personal gift to a child living a difficult, challenging, sometimes lonely life, we will continue to do our best to make sure that what they donate is what the child receives."
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