Christian Summer (Jesus) Camp Rant-Also, How was Your Experience?

[AnonSan]

The summer season is such a great time to play outdoors, chill at the beaches, grill up the BBQ, and more! In lieu of the summer fun, however, also exist them dreaded Christian summer camps, programs, and retreats to further brainwash the youth to give up their freedom for a good week or two. Okay, I do admit that getting free food/snacks and recreational activities were enjoyable (and kept me sane), but beyond that was where fun ended. 

 

The best I can describe my summer camps at my church of origin were being mild versions of the extremist version seen in the "Jesus Camp" documentary. Being from a legalistic "denomination," however, summer camp "fun" was defined as...well, you guessed it: MORE BIBLE STUDIES! The week-long summer camp consisted of: waking up at 6:30AM, morning bible study/lessons from 7:30AM-12:30PM, lunch break from 12:30-3:30PM, mandatory cabin "nap-time" from 3:30-4PM, 4PM-7:30PM Bible Study, 7:30-8PM Dinner, and remaining time is evening bible study/lessons until 10PM so that people can get ready for bed by 10:30PM. Even in the middle of the Redwood Forest, men have to dress in their suits while women have to wear long skirts or dresses. My displeasure with the dress code was counteracted by wearing neon basketball shorts underneath my skirts, which surprisingly no one reprimanded me for doing so...

 

The more I think about it, the more I realized that it was more of a prison in the woods. Lunch time was the only down time my peers and I had to be our authentic, degenerate selves before going back to them 2.5 hr. ear torture of listening to an old man rant about the corrupt youth culture/secular friends/gays/women/other churches. But even with lunch break, some of our overachieving (brainwashed) peers continued with memorizing 50+verses/day until 1AM. There were basketball and volleyball courts at the campsite, though there were times that no one can use them because it was already preoccupied by another camp (denominational) group in which we were told to not interact with them. If lucky enough, and depending on our church supervisors at the time, would we be allowed a 20 minute drive trip to a nearby beach to explore and check out an old, rusty war tank stranded there. Otherwise, I only experienced the fraction of what the campsite offered (i.e. ziplining through the redwoods, swimming at waterholes, paintball, long hiking trails, horseback riding) because (1) Church supervisors and peers will check that you are present after coming back from break, so I cannot ditch them easily; (2) Teenagers were too broke to pay some of the activities provided on the campgrounds; and (3) All of their operating hours conflict with the church's militant camp schedule. Within Day 3/4, being removed from technology, my peers be yelling "HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! CHIRST IS OUR SAVIOR!" while singing hymns on top of their lungs. My church described this as being "drunk with Christ," "rejoicing in HIs Spirit" and "being One with Him."

 

Congrats, you have become brainwashed until you leave the campgrounds and return back to secular society ...for the most part. 

 

 

Overall, I missed the aspect of getting away from family issues and society's rat race by going to a forest campground, but in exchange I had to "surrender" to God for a week.  It was alright for the most part, being a teen at the time who has mastered maladaptive daydreaming over the years. While the church has extended the program for college students due to the popularity of these retreats over the years, I have not been back since I became a college student. Instead, a college retreat at a Midwest college campus I attended became the last straw for me being associated with my family's church of origin- that will be in a different post for another time. 

 

I guess this brings me to wonder: What was your (Xtian) summer camp experience like? Were they just like any other summer camps and just Xtian affiliated? And/Or were similar to scenarios filmed in the Jesus Camp documentary?

[◊ Weezer ◊]

I would call what you went to as sumer bible school..  Not a sumer camp.  I only went 1 time when 12 years old, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was a regular sumer camp with regular camp activities, arts and crafts, hiking, volleyball, swimming (segregated)(boys from girls) etc.  But we did have "devotionals" in the evening.  But they were not long and were mostly singing church songs around a campfire.

 

The camp was held on a small christian college campus which was located in the woods outside town, and the counselors were all college students, and they were not very strict.

 

It was a 2 week camp and I was really disappointed when we had to leave early.  It was in 1952 and there was a polio scare. One kid got sick with it and they sent all of us home.

 

 

[AnonSan]

9 hours ago, Weezer said:

It was a 2 week camp and I was really disappointed when we had to leave early.  It was in 1952 and there was a polio scare. One kid got sick with it and they sent all of us home.

 

Ouch, sorry to hear that summer camp got cut off too soon!

 

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I would call what you went to as sumer bible school..  Not a sumer camp.  I only went 1 time when 12 years old, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was a regular sumer camp with regular camp activities, arts and crafts, hiking, volleyball, swimming (segregated)(boys from girls) etc.  But we did have "devotionals" in the evening.  But they were not long and were mostly singing church songs around a campfire.

 

Now that you mentioned it, my "summer camp" from my church of origin did call it a school, but to attract more attendees and be more close to God, they switched the location to a campground- gave the illusion being a summer camp (summer sessions used to be located at one of the church's branches nearby). My peers and I were always stuck in the campsite's meeting hall for Bible study most of the day, while other groups that shared the same campsite did what you have described in your experience. Lucky!

 

The children in my church (5-12 yrs old.) attended "Bible Camps," but camping in the woods never occurred. They were basically extended Sunday schools at the same church branch location on weekdays with more snacks, crafts, and prizes by memorizing more Bible verses until around 2PM. From a young age, the summer events from my church organization were used as opportunities to enforce further indoctrination by having children and teens give up a good chunk of their summer vacation. 

[Casualfanboy16]

I personally never went to a Summer Camp. I forget what the event was called, but we went to this cabin or something for an overnight stay and we did a lot of the typical stuff like talk about God and sing songs. We weren't allowed electronics except for certain circumstances, but that didn't stop me from taking my phone in watching Minecraft Live in secret lol.

 

One part I remember was we had to write stuff down that was troubling us on a piece of paper and burn it as some sort of act of symbolically getting rid of our sin or something like that. Don't remember the moral lesson I was supposed to learn. They also encouraged us to talk out loud about it too for some reason and like go around and share stuff and some of it was highly distressing. Obviously, for personal reasons I won't discuss it, but looking back it was definitely a kinda fucked up experience???

 

I think I mentioned this a while back, but it still pops into my head every now and then.

[TheRedneckProfessor]

The jesus camp film was pretty much my childhood.  The part where that angry old woman was ranting about Harry Potter being stoned to death was almost trance-inducing, like she was channeling many of the camp counselors from the summer camps I went to as a kid.  We called them "cancelers" because they always canceled all our fun; and, other than "counseling" us to accept jesus and be filled with the holy spirit, I don't really recall much counseling that they actually did.  We had bible study every night, that would often last until long after kids ought to be in bed.  I remember one summer a girl got up to testify how she had been filled with the holy spirit and had learned to speak in tongues.  I felt so guilty because I hadn't had that experience yet.  I felt like god must not like me or approve of me.  The shame and sense of self-punishment has been a constant antagonist throughout my adult life.  Stupid Camp Maranatha.

 

On the plus side, though, I did get my first kiss at summer camp.  So, here's looking at you, Tina; you'll always be my hottie student body.

[☆ moxieflux66 ☆]

For me it was euphemistically labeled "Vacation Bible School" or VBS. And I loathed it. 

 

It wasn't enough to screw up half of every weekend going to Sunday "School" and church services, there was always summertime VBS. It was free babysitting so my folks of course thought, "Why not?" and it wasn't really up for discussion. We were going and that was that.

 

It lasted 2 weeks or so with varying days, hours and activities. Lots of Bible study/reading/discussion. There were crafts (bible centered, of course) and socializing of the sort that was too boring to remember. 

 

My favorite church camp memory occurred when we went to a college campus during summer break and stayed in the dorms for a week. My brother and I met up with some kids from Las Vegas, we schemed and found a way to get beer and tape record our party on a cassette. I don't know how we didn't get caught. But we did have vicious hangovers. 

 

 

[AnonSan]

On 6/11/2024 at 10:08 AM, Casualfanboy16 said:

 We weren't allowed electronics except for certain circumstances, but that didn't stop me from taking my phone in watching Minecraft Live in secret lol.

 

Lucky! The campsite I went to lacked any wireless data access, so any internet access on phones was very limited (by going to the nearest town 20 minutes away via car) or using the only 4  computer stations in the recreation room. Not surprisingly they were always occupied and internet connectivity is slow.

 

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They also encouraged us to talk out loud about it too for some reason and like go around and share stuff and some of it was highly distressing. 

 

 

Yikes! How is prying into people's most vulnerable thoughts in a corner a good learning experience? Would have definitely ran into the woods for sure!

 

[AnonSan]

On 6/11/2024 at 1:15 PM, TheRedneckProfessor said:

We called them "cancelers" because they always canceled all our fun; and, other than "counseling" us to accept jesus and be filled with the holy spirit, I don't really recall much counseling that they actually did. 

 

Them camp cancelers *surely* knew how to party hard . They are probably full-time Karens today. 

 

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I remember one summer a girl got up to testify how she had been filled with the holy spirit and had learned to speak in tongues.  I felt so guilty because I hadn't had that experience yet.  I felt like god must not like me or approve of me.  The shame and sense of self-punishment has been a constant antagonist throughout my adult life.  

 

I feel ya. Over 50% of my peers testified about how much "Christ has dispensed into themselves" and other phrases related. Then, people in the audience would say "AMEN" in response- the louder it was, the "better" the testimony and social approval. I also felt that I was NEVER good enough for God because my testimonies and experience pathetic compared to my "star" peers- that it impacted my self-esteem for a long time. Once I left my church of origin, I have grown to realize I do not need anyone's approval, especially from my former church peers expecting me to conform to their dogmatic practices. 

 

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On the plus side, though, I did get my first kiss at summer camp.  So, here's looking at you, Tina; you'll always be my hottie student body.

 

[AnonSan]

15 hours ago, moxieflux66 said:

It lasted 2 weeks or so with varying days, hours and activities. Lots of Bible study/reading/discussion. There were crafts (bible centered, of course) and socializing of the sort that was too boring to remember. 

 

I was getting real sick of campsite cafeteria food by Day 4 that I once packed instant ramen in my travel bag for "emergencies." Any more bland camp meals on top of dragged out Bible study/reading/discussion past Day 7 would have absolutely broke me. Probably go mad enough that any cross-shaped crafts given to me would have it "fashionably" inverted . I do recall one gal trying to have a conversation with me to talk more about a Bible lesson an elder gave, but I excused myself as I couldn't relate- boring for sure!

 

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My favorite church camp memory occurred when we went to a college campus during summer break and stayed in the dorms for a week. My brother and I met up with some kids from Las Vegas, we schemed and found a way to get beer and tape record our party on a cassette. I don't know how we didn't get caught. But we did have vicious hangovers. 

 

LMAO!! I was hoping for something like this when I attended a national Xtian conference at a very well-known party college in the Midwest, as housing was on-campus surrounded by neighboring frat/sorority houses. Unfortunately, the dorms and neighboring houses were completely vacant of any local college students so there was no opportunity to meet them and a chance to ditch a Bible meeting or 2... I should have camped in the college's cornfield used for agriculture studies 

 

 

[Casualfanboy16]

59 minutes ago, AnonSan said:

Yikes! How is prying into people's most vulnerable thoughts in a corner a good learning experience? Would have definitely ran into the woods for sure!

 

Honestly, I have no clue what they were thinking, but there was definitely highly personal things that should have been said in a therapist's office and not around the campfire. I do remember a girl like full on sobbing and her friends had to comfort her someplace else.

[◊ Weezer ◊]

As I mentioned above, I thoroughly enjoyed the week I spent at camp when 12 (almost 13) years old.  What I didn't tell you was the highlight of that week.  One day in an arts class we were working in small groups with clay, building something on a low table.  Most of us were sitting in chairs, but the 14 year old girl across from me stood up part of the time and leaned over the table when working.  She was well endowed for 14 years of age, and was wearing a low cut, loose fitting blouse, and no bra.  That was the highlight of the week!!

 

Also there were 2 nights our college age counselor sneeked out of the cabin for about an hour after he thought we were all asleep.  Rumor had it that he was meeting his girlfriend in the woods.  She was also a counselor in one of the girls cabins.

[☆ moxieflux66 ☆]

On 6/12/2024 at 9:04 PM, Weezer said:

As I mentioned above, I thoroughly enjoyed the week I spent at camp when 12 (almost 13) years old.  What I didn't tell you was the highlight of that week.  One day in an arts class we were working in small groups with clay, building something on a low table.  Most of us were sitting in chairs, but the 14 year old girl across from me stood up part of the time and leaned over the table when working.  She was well endowed for 14 years of age, and was wearing a low cut, loose fitting blouse, and no bra.  That was the highlight of the week!!

 

Also there were 2 nights our college age counselor sneeked out of the cabin for about an hour after he thought we were all asleep.  Rumor had it that he was meeting his girlfriend in the woods.  She was also a counselor in one of the girls cabins.

That sounds to me like a whole lot'a sinnin' and debauchery! 

[◊ Weezer ◊]

22 hours ago, moxieflux66 said:

That sounds to me like a whole lot'a sinnin' and debauchery! 

And there was more.  One of the older boys in our cabin was a real rebel.  Told dirty jokes and once when our counselor left us alone for a few minutes he told us to listen.  He started singing the song LOVE LIFTED ME.  His version went like this.  "I was sinking deep in sin,...YIPEE!".  The rest of the week when no adult was around, someone would start the song, and we all would jump in at the end with, YIPEE!  We were hard core sinners.