Kentucky Church Goes Viral Over Skit That Forced Kids to Watch Firing Squad. But Drag Queen Story Time Is Bad?

A Kentucky church is facing online backlash for subjecting an audience filled with children to a skit that included a tactical military assault in which church staff shot “the devil.” The video, which has been widely circulated and reviewed by Them, shows an audience of children and adults gathered for Vacation Bible School at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Lexington. In the video, church staff members dressed in camo and bullet proof vests storm down the aisles of the auditorium, armed with airsoft rifles, towards a person representing the devil curled up on the steps of the altar. As the children and adults chant “take him out, blow him up,” the soldiers open fire on the devil, pretending to shoot the person multiple times. (Think Tony Montana in Scarface levels of shooting.) After killing “the devil,” the soldiers drag the actor off the altar and through a side door, all as the crowd seated in the church pews cheer. The reception to the violent video has been largely negative, with Kentucky parents and religious officials expressing concern about the content of the skit. “If I had sent my child to that VBS, I would be horrified,” Reverend Leah Schade, a seminary professor and ordained minister, told local NBC affiliate LEX 18. “I was shocked. I myself was traumatized thinking about all the children who witnessed this enactment of violence.”Particularly as gun violence continues to be the leading cause of death for children and teens in the United States, per Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, parents pointed out the disturbing nature of a simulated shooting performed in front of kids. “Vacation Bible School and our churches should be safe spaces for children,” Kathi Crowe, a volunteer with anti-gun violence organization Moms Demand Action, said in a statement provided to the Lexington Herald Ledger. “Subjecting kids to a full-scale simulated tactical raid and firing squad is just an appalling abuse of that space, and a major