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Via Twenty Major, it would appear that hoardes of good-hearted teens are descending upon Dublin in order to restore ..something.. about the city, by way of cleaning up graffiti.

The Irish Times reports:

Teenagers from across the globe will gather in Dublin this week for a four-day community project.

Youngsters from Belfast, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Scotland, the UK, Africa and Dublin will come together for Urban Soul, an initiative to clean up parts of the city.

They will paint over graffiti and run community activities in Dublin 1, 2, 7 and 8 There will also be events each evening led by American Reggie Dabs, who has spoken to millions of teenagers around the world about how to influence their future.

The children come from various religious and cultural backgrounds and the project will run until Friday.

Aw. Now, that sounds lovely. Who couldn’t be opposed to that? I feel all fuzzy in my belly.

Well, with the thoroughness of a 0.38-second search on Google (see how I reach beyond the press release? The Irish Times should just employ me now), it seems that this is in fact some form of Christian initiative: irishchristians.ie and urbansoul.eu

I’m open to correction – I hope to be proven wrong – but this to me just sounds like a creative form of Christian evangelism: a sort of grooming project, modelled on the tried and tested methods of Opus Dei.

Hm. Less fuzzy, more creepy.

Update:
A further bit of searching (0.62 seconds) reveals that an address – 13 The Pines, Kiltimagh, Co. Mayo – is that of registered charity [PDF], Irish Christians Online, and also that of the Tine Network, “A Catholic Leaders’ Network for the New Evangelisation”. It is also the contact address of Prayer for Ireland, whatever that may be.

I like my street art just the way it is, thank you.

* shudder *

Update 2:
It seems that the websites/organisations above are run by Tim and Kathy Nichols. Tim Nichols also operates Barnabas Media, which “offers a low cost alternative for churches, organisations and businesses to tap into the potential of the internet“. Have a glimpse of their client list.