Letters to the Editor
glaspell
Published Letters: 10 Editor's Choice: 2
-
From a liberal-raised person who did more than go to Christian summer camp...
[Read the article: Our kids want to go to Christian summer camp]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hi. I thought I would weigh in on this, since I feel my personal experience is particularly relevant. And, to sum up my argument, I personally feel you should let the kids go because for me my roots won out and I learned a ton from my experiences in the Fundamentalist Christian church.
Basically, I was this writer's kids. But worse. I was raised pretty liberally - my parents were progressive Mennonites, then divorced, my mom came out as bi, and both of them stopped going to church. With pacifist parents and a strong connection to the LGBTQ community (my mom took us to "Love Makes a Family," if you're familiar with that), I was an unlikely candidate for indoctrination into a fundamentalist church.
However, in high school, I went with my cousin to her church, and fell in love with the contemporary worship style and rekindled my "love for Jesus." The youth group, and God, became my solace. I was an inquisitive kid, always asking my youth pastor questions he'd never thought of that no one else had asked him, but I was also pretty willing to believe. I signed on board. I went regularly. I was in youth leadership at the church and went to "See you at the flag pole" events at my high school. I taught Sunday school. I was baptized. I went on retreats; I built houses in Mexico and sang "abres los ojos de mi alma." I scared my mom by my confusion with what the Bible appeared to say about gay folks: that for them to have sex was wrong. I still didn't think it was a sin to be gay, or that gay people had a choice, but I thought the sex acts were sins. (Obviously, I hadn't had sex, or I wouldn't have thought calling for abstinence for everyone who happened to be gay was an option.)
Basically, I can understand concern about this. My mom should have been MORE terrified - maybe she was. Throughout, however, she was supportive and loving - even as I judged her for having sex before marriage with her boyfriend. She calmly explained how it's more complicated than my current world view allowed for.
In the end, my true values won out. I ended up being denied the right to teach Sunday school because I didn't think gay people were sinning because they were gay. I went to a very liberal "liberal arts college." I left the church. I'm a hard & fast liberal, and honestly I feel stronger and more loving - more in touch - for having had that experience. I can't make blanket statements or judgments about "Bible thumpers" when I was one, when many of my best friends and mentors were.
I do NOT agree with their politics. I think their failure to achieve that transcendent love they preach is deplorable, but human, and I can forgive them for it. Personally, I feel I have a greater depth of experience than most of my liberal peers for having lived and breathed the fundamentalist doctrine for four years. I never ceased being a pacifist, I never decided being gay was a choice, but I learned about a side of the population that I now know that very few liberals can say they have loved.
My "worst case scenario for a liberal parent" high school experience is probably not going to happen with your kids, but making this church camp a forbidden fruit isn't going to help. Even if they get head-over-heels into fundamentalism, it might be just a phase - an important part of their growth as human beings. You've instilled good liberal values in them, and certain elements of that (loving our fellow human beings of all sorts) can even be strengthened by (a temporary lapse into)fundamentalism. Like Mr. Tennis said, kids aren't always thinking of the larger structural/cultural context of their choices. I sure wasn't.
-
Correction...
[Read the article: Our kids want to go to Christian summer camp]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My previous letter was sort of under the ridiculous assumption that these kids are at some sort of age of reason. Like, at least 12. If they are younger, I would change my advice to "UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES LET THEM GO!! FIND ANOTHER FUN CAMP!!" as many other fine folks have basically said.
Also, "inoculation" is a brilliant point. BUT you want weak arguments that allow people to create arguments against it, not super strong indoctrination rites.
(And basically what happened to me...doubt I could EVER go back to being a fundie. Good thing most of the religious right's arguments aren't very well constructed - or at least my youth pastor's weren't. Probably will never regain my ability to be religious at all, which may or may not be a loss. We'll see.)
-
Agreed: I'm not seeing the big deal
[Read the article: So how about those Miley Cyrus photos?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Maybe I'm missing something (only seeing the wrong photo or what not), but that "topless" photo of Miley Cyrus seems more "girl with the pearl earring" than "scandalous sex kitten." Ah well, I'm out of touch with the Hannah Montana phenomenon, so who am I to judge.
-
Third the Motion that the Pics with Dad are Disturbing
[Read the article: So how about those Miley Cyrus photos?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Some excellent points have been made. I almost want to see Broadsheet take on the father-daughter dynamic here, especially since I also looked at that photo and was like "My god, why is her guy so old?!?" and then read the caption and was like, "Oh, it's her father. Weird."
In addition, the point that Miley Cyrus has already been marketed/exploited seems like a good one to consider.
In any case, the South Park episode that was referenced definitely taps into the effed up nature of our treatment of our young women in the media. Of course, boys and young men can also be hurt by the exploitative nature of the system (ie, Michael Jackson in Jackson 5, Macaulay Caulkin's frightening "dadager"), but there does seem to be a qualitative difference - if only in the way that we do not tend to sexualize our young men and boys as much. (I think - feel free to spout examples of how we DO do that.)