By Jim Brown
October 14, 2002

(AgapePress) - A widely known, anti-violence group is being accused of concealing its true identity in order to share the gospel with public school children.

The Anti-Defamation League has launched a nationwide campaign against Rage Against Destruction, which provides anti-violence school assembly programs nationwide. The ADL claims Rage Against Destruction's school assembly program is masked as an anti-violence initiative to expose "unwitting teens to an unabashed Christian message."

But Rage spokesman Mark Sutherland says the ADL completely misunderstands the program.

"The first thing we do is we break out with giveaways -- we give away about a thousand dollars worth of stuff at each assembly," Sutherland explains. "After that, our artist ... who is a hip-hop artist comes out and does a couple of high-intensity, positive songs. Following that, our speaker comes out and gives a short, six- to eight-minute motivational speech on believing in your dreams, believing in yourself."

Sutherland says the ADL's accusations are prejudiced and bigoted against a group that is proven to reduce violence in public schools.

"We've had phenomenal success with the program, incredible recommendations from the schools that we've been in," he says. "We actually just completed a year-long survey on the effectiveness of the Rage Against Destruction program, and we asked students: Has Rage Against Destruction's message prevented you from using violence against yourself or against other people? And we got an incredible 90% response that said yes, the message has influenced students in that area."

Sutherland says the ADL's accusations are blatantly false and misrepresent the goal of the program. The youth outreach group is funded by Joyce Meyer Ministries, as well as other organizations, corporations, and private individuals.

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