Article from Elizabeth Esther and My Experience with Fundamentalist Christian Camp

The false, glittering promise of Christian conferences by Elizabeth Esther

I know exactly what she's talking about, and I've never been to a Christian conference (unless a ladies' retreat counts as a conference). The Christian camp I attended and worked at for several years created the same environment Elizabeth described. Everyone was on some kind of high by the end of a camp week, and as a worker you hit high after high throughout the summer, only to pack up and go back to reality in August. So many people I knew - both campers and staff - went home after their time at camp and crashed. They had made friends, made decisions, felt the rush of spiritual experience... and then when they went home it was gone. They eagerly came back the next year, hoping to regain the spiritual ground they had lost and yet again strengthen their resolve to do better. The term "camp decisions" exists for a reason....

Christian camps seem uniquely geared towards creating this phenomenon: campers/staff are completely bubbled in from the rest of the world, repeated doses of indoctrination through devotions and services, and everyone is tightly bound by strict rules and expectations that further the sense of being in a bubble (like the military, you always have someone to tell you what to do and where you can and can't be, etc.).

Now that I think back, I know a lot of fun was had at camp, and it helped me grow as a person in many ways, but the world of fundie Christian camps is not a healthy one.

Article: So, a Catholic Walks Into a LifeWay Store

This post, written by a Catholic, really caught my attention. Read it here.

Catholics v. Protestants goes back a LONG way. Hopefully more people will continue to wake up and realize that the bad blood accomplishes nothing positive. I was raised to view Catholics and any other denominations as not really Christians - only us fundamental Baptists had the truth and were living a life that was pleasing to the God of the Bible. What a childish worldview!

On a funny note, the large amounts of shelf space in Christian book stores that is dedicated to things like Veggie Tales and Duck Dynasty really is ludicrous. Between that stuff and the Christian romance novels... yeah.... I never was a huge fan of Christian bookstores.