Letters to the Editor
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Be prepared for concerns about you going to hell
Christian summer camps can be great, aside from the Christianity that is. 10 year olds are fascinated by notions of heaven and hell -- will their parents be there, will their friends be there, will their pets be there. If they've told your kids (as the Christian camp leaders told me as an 8 year old) that their athiest parent(s) would be going to hell, they might come back and try to save you; all the while getting ulcers and lack of sleep.
Those concepts are a lot for a kid to grasp, and can be a lot more worrisome than adults may realize.
That's my whole problem with fundamentalism of any kind really -- it's one big threat. Scare them enough about hell and you can mobilize millions of people to curb their "sinful" behaviour. Better stay away from those comic books and devil music!
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Let 'em go
If your parenting is effective, your kids will be o.k. Besides, they like their aunt, who seems to be alright. Yes, Christian camps can be manipulative, but if your kids do go off the deep end it's because they have issues of their own. I grew up in a Free Will Baptist church in Mississippi, and there are some fundie psychos out there, but there are also some liberal left-wingers who are psycho. Yor children's personalities will be tested, but not necessarily in a bad way. Growing up in church, I saw kids of the same age hear the same preaching week after week, year after year, and in the end we all became what we already were anyway. Some of us were quaking for fear of hell, and some of us were planning the party later that night.
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"Yor"?!
Judas freakin' priest, you can take the boy out of the woods, but...
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Perspective
Maybe something is missing from the letter, but it doesn't sound like a big, scary brainwashing camp to me. LW says that last time the kids went, they came back "determined to honor their mother and father, read the Bible, pray and go to church." That, mercifully, ended in a couple of weeks and they were "back to normal." LW then goes on to ask how they can send their kids to a camp teaching values so "diametrically opposed" to their own. I was raised Catholic, so I have no idea what reading the Bible does for you, but honoring mom and dad, praying and going to church don't seem like horrible, devastating behaviors. I'd say, depending on the age of the kids, reading the Bible, praying and going to church are a pretty good ways to get talking/thinking about faith, spirituality, organized religion, and how it all fits together with your own values. It doesn't have to be fundamental or atheist.
I admit, I'm pretty wishy-washy on the religion thing. I'm not devout; I'm a little leery of the fundamentalists, but I'm not terrified of them as so many atheists seem to be. Of course, I was never abused or intimdated by my religious upbringing.
My point, in case it got lost, is that telling your kids they can't go to camp, lest they fall prey to those who might teach them to honor their parents or read the Bible, could make the question of religion more powerful than it needs to be. They don't need to be afraid of it or avoid it, as if they might catch it, like some kind of horrible virus that they can't protect themselves from. It's just an idea. Why not use it as a way to teach them about your own values and beliefs? Or as a way to spend a week with their cool aunt this summer?
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Cary really missed the mark on this one
I find that I am almost always in agreement with Cary -- but not this time. I, too, am a long-time atheist. I had religion and its purveyors figured out a long time ago, and it isn't a pretty picture. When I was raising my daughter, I saw protection of her fragile, suggestible, developing brain as my highest calling. You could not have forced me send her to bible camp if you had had a gun to my head. Nor would I ever have allowed her to attend church with friends or acquaintences -- not even once. Church and religion stand in opposition to every principle I hold dear. There is nothing benign about religion. It is poison -- pure, unadulterated evil.
Please accept the suggestion of another poster here and rent the documentary "Jesus Camp." Then, go onto Amazon or run over to your local book store and purchase two books by Sam Harris, "The End Of Faith," and "Letter To A Christian Nation." Then, read them both, cover to cover. You will be forever changed. I believe Harris' books will open your eyes to all of the various issues involved here and will equip you with the knowledge necessary for you to be strong and sure in your convictions. And never again will you have to wonder how you should handle this type of challenge. Finally, send the kids to horseback riding camp, or cooking camp, or fishing camp.
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It depends on the camp
I saw that movie about the camp where the kids were praying to Bush's cardboard cutout, or something like it, so that would be a camp I would stay away from, but if it's just a typical bible vacation camp I don't see the harm. I went to many with my Baptist friend growing up and although I do recall feeling quite spiritual one evening as we watched the sun set over Lake Michigan once I came home everything went back to normal. It can be helpful to get a glipse of the other side as long as you don't wallow in it for too long. Just make sure you make enlightened comments to you children to make up for any medeval thinking they might have gotten from the camp. I recall soon after one of my camp experiences talking to my mom about the definition of lesbian (We were warned about them at camp). Mom just said it was two women who fell in love with each other. That hardly sounded sin worthy to my 10-year-old self, so after that I ignored the big fuss religious people made about gays (as well as about anything else they made a fuss about).