Midstate pastor pleads not guilty in fake kidnapping

(Harrisburg) -- A Dauphin County church and its youth pastor have pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from a mock kidnapping of a youth group that was meant to be a lesson in religious persecution.

Glad Tidings Assembly of God Church in Lower Swatara Township and 28-year-old Andrew David Jordan of Elizabethtown have waived an appearance at a formal arraignment on charges of false imprisonment and simple assault.

Prosecutors said the half-hour ordeal in March included interrogation and staged torture using power tools.

They said masked congregation members bound and blindfolded the teens and drove them in a van to the parsonage on the church grounds, where the men pretended to torture Jordan.

The mother of one 14-year-old girl filed a complaint with police.