She’s one mad mom. “With soda, you’ve crossed a line. That was my son’s first drop of soda. And it was given to him AT CHURCH, of all places!”

The furor hit social media, blogs and a television talk show site over the past week. It all started when a California “mommy blogger” sent her six-year-old son to a local church’s vacation Bible school.
The boy, a soda virgin, tasted his first root beer float. At church.

The mom wrote: “Soda should not be served to six-year-olds. This should not have been in the curriculum. I find it disgusting that my son now associates God with soda.”

Others joined the fray:
• “I’m very nice and easy going…until you feed my child soda without my permission. Then I’m not nice anymore.”
• “Has soda and sugar consumption become the last accepted form of addiction?”
• “Fundamentalist Christians are by far the heaviest of all religious groups.”
• “I’m not a churchgoer, but this whole experience has left a bad taste in my mouth.”

Then others chimed in with alternate opinions:
• “I certainly hope you wouldn’t begrudge volunteers at a soup kitchen for giving the homeless people a cookie with their dinner.”
• “I’m terrified to plan our VBS snacks this year because I feel like someone is going to be angry with me.”

The snack in question is one suggested in Group’s 2012 VBS program, “Sky.” Other suggested snacks in “Sky” are popcorn, strawberries, pretzel sticks, cheese and grapes. However, churches are free to serve whatever they wish during their VBS programs.

Conducting ministry in these days of heightened parental concern for child safety presents ever-changing challenges. From food allergies to scares over sugar, salt, gluten, food coloring, dairy and meat–it’s hard to spend as much time on spiritual food.

With all the fears of the day, what are our kids learning about faith in God? Are we as concerned with their spiritual health as we are with their dietary health?

The mommy blogger wrote, “This isn’t something I think would follow the saying WWJD.” When it comes to refreshments,  what would Jesus do? I suppose some would say he’d turn wine into water.