Africa-Themed Vacation Bible School Plan Racially-Insensitive?

Editor’s note (06/11/219): Group Publishing, Inc. has deleted its initial public statement and released an update to its controversial “Roar” Vacation Bible Study. Read about it here.

Editor’s note (06/09/2019): Group Publishing, Inc. has published a response to concerns about its “Roar” VBS curriculum. Read it here.

A Christian company that claims it is “trusted by thousands of churches,” has been criticized for its 2019 Vacation Bible School lessons that require elementary-age students to pretend they are slaves and mimic an African dialect with “clicks.” The Vacation Bible School curriculum also refers to Africa as a country.

“As I have been prepping for each day of @GroupVBS ‘Roar’ this week, I have been *horrified* to find: 1) having children play at being slaves (while being yelled at and told that they’re worthless slaves); 2) a reference to Africa as a *country*; [and] 3) leaders and kids asked to mimic and mock a click language by making up ‘new names’ in their imitated language,” Leanne Masters tweeted on June 6. Masters is a Presbyterian Church (USA) pastor in Lincoln, Nebraska.

“I know that after this, I’m going to be having my church take a hard and critical look at ordering from this company in the future,” Masters added.

“Also, for the record, I edited the heck out of it for my church. These are lessons we cannot be teaching our children,” the PC(USA) pastor wrote.

Christian writer Shannon Dingle also tweeted about Group Publishing, Inc.’s “Roar” VBS curriculum. Dingle shared a photo presumably of the company’s employees that Faithfully Magazine traced to an official Facebook page.

“Oh, @GroupPublishing, when you put out a curriculum but your team looks like this, it’s not shocking that racial and ethnic sensitivity might be lacking,” Dingle tweeted. The dozens of people seen in the photo appeared to be mostly White.

Oh, @GroupPublishing, when you put out a curriculum but your team looks like this, it’s not shocking that racial and ethnic sensitivity might be lacking. pic.twitter.com/Z8tnoAMU4Z

— Shannon Dingle, M.A.Ed. (@ShannonDingle) June 7, 2019

Vacation Bible School is usually a week-long set of faith-based activities churches use to engage young students during their summer break from school. Group Publishing, Inc. is a Christian organization that provides churches with ministry-related resources, including annual Vacation Bible School curricula. The Loveland, Colorado, company released “Roar” as one of its summer 2019 Vacation Bible School themes, and describes it as an “epic African adventure.”

The seven-day “Roar” curriculum, also available in Spanish, features various activities meant to “reinforce relevant Bible Points and immerse kids in new adventures.” Among the activities is “Wild Bible Adventures,” according to a digital leader manual Faithfully Magazine purchased from the company.

Slavery as an Adventure

The “Roar” curriculum instructs adult leaders to draw children’s attention to the ancient Israelites’ enslavement in Egypt. “The Israelites understood injustice, as they struggled to endure backbreaking labor and suppression at the hands of the Egyptians,” the VBS leader manual states in part.

As part of the “Wild Bible Adventures” activity tied to the day’s theme, children are required to “make bricks for Pharaoh” so they can “discover how unfair life was for the Israelites as slaves in Egypt.” As the leader pretends to be “a mean Egyptian guard,” he or she is instructed to shout lines to the children such as:

• “I told you we’re going to experience the Bible story, so hop up! You’re going to be Israelite slaves! And I’ll pretend to be a mean Egyptian guard. Ready? Here we go!”
• “Get to work, you slaves! Pharaoh needs more bricks! …”
• “What are you doing? Don’t you slaves know anything? You need straw to make bricks! …”

The “Wild Bible Adventures Leader Manual” features images of children giving shape to clay-like clumps under the direction of a guide.

Communicate With Clicking

In the “Sing & Play Roar and Safari Celebration Leader Manual,” the provided leader script simultaneously refers to Africa as a continent and as a country. The manual states that “some parts of Africa really are cool…as in cold” and that “a lot of the country is very hot.”

“You’ve been able to see some of the people in Africa and the amazingly wild things they do!” the leader script declares.

Some of the “Sing & Play Roar and Safari Celebration” activities highlight certain African tribes or ethnic groups. For example, in the lesson featuring Maasai warriors — which it spells as “Masai” — children watch a decontextualized clip of some Maasai men jumping. Children are then required to jump “for 30 seconds as high as they can, like the Masai.” Leaders are instructed to inform the children how “their feet make the sound of a crazy stampede!”

In another activity, children are encouraged to “communicate with clicking,” an apparent reference to Khoisan languages spoken by certain ethnic groups originating in southern and eastern Africa. After children watch a video of a man speaking a Khoisan dialect without any provided translation or explanation, they are then encouraged to practice “clicking their tongues.” Eventually, they are to come up with new versions of their names by randomly incorporating a “click.”

Encyclopedia Britannica states that “clicks are a regular part of the consonant system” in Khoisan languages.

This isn’t the first time Christian Vacation Bible School materials have caused offense. In 2003, LifeWay Christian Resources drew heat for its VBS curriculum titled “Rickshaw Rally: Racing to the Son.” The “Rickshaw Rally” activities played on stereotypes “in Southern Baptist churches like rickshaw races, kimonos, chopsticks, takeout boxes and karate uniforms.” LifeWay did not apologize to Asian Americans for its culturally-insensitive curriculum until 2013.

Group Publishing, Inc.’s other Vacation Bible School curriculum for summer 2019 is titled “Athens.” It is described as a “holy land adventure” featuring the Apostle Paul.

Group Publishing, Inc. describes itself as “a team of people who create experiences with one goal in mind: to help people grow in relationship with Jesus and each other.” Thom Schultz is the president and founder, while Joani Schultz is the company’s chief creative officer. The company was founded in 1974.

Faithfully Magazine was not able to speak with a Group Publishing, Inc. representative before press time.