Ever had a "Jesus Camp" experience?

[Rocknrule]

Have you ever gone to a Christian camp or other type of meeting and found it to be full of wackos? I went to one back in the day, and it wasn't nearly as batshit insane as Becky Fisher's but I noticed alot of racism towards Asians. I'm 1/2 Asian and not only did alot of campers make fun of me for it (I guess they don't think Asians can be Christian or something) but during a "counselor dress-up" thing, the pastor wore a conical hat and behaved like a stereotypical Asian. It pissed me off royally - certainly not a display of Christ like behavior. Has anyone else had similar experiences at these places?

[Cleita]

1. Yes, for ten years. It was called Catholic school. n/t

[HockeyMom]

12. Ever go to a retreat?

I did. Spend the entire time questioning and arguing with the priest. He actually told me to shut up. If he couldn't hold his own against a 16 year old girl, imagine the trouble he would have in the "real world"?

[Cleita]

17. We had to do three day retreats every year when I was in high

school. We were not allowed to argue with anyone. We had to keep silent, read religious literature, go to church services of various types and shut up when we were lectured by the priest(s) that were conducting the retreat. Most of us used the opportunity to catch up on our reading. I made a point of reading all of Alexandre Dumas's books, most of them on the condemned list, with a dust jacket swiped from the library of various Bishop Fulton Sheen or Thomas Merton books covering it. Yes, I was that rebellious, but my rebellion was underground. I knew better than to call attention to myself.

[JitterbugPerfume]

2. yes, when I was a kid

they cast out demons and everything

but they sure did f-up when it came to me LOL

[TomInTib]

3. I was raised Southern Baptist in the '50s.

Man, the music was killer.

All those years of Sunday School, Training Union, Vacation Bible School and the like set my life's course.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. The idiots didn't know that Jesus was Asian?

What delicious irony.

[fenriswolf]

13. thought jesus was middle eastern?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

22. The Middle East is part of Asia.

[treestar]

19. Or that there are Asian fundies

There are Korean and Chinese Christian churches all over the U.S.

[Rosemary2205]

5. I grew up at camp meetings.

I went to one recently and I have to say, it's actually LITTLE better now than it was then, but not much.

[PDJane]

6. yep.

It was billed as a retreat. I was convinced to go along by a friend who decided I needed the "relaxation."

It was the middle of nowhere, the folks were absolutely out there orbiting Pluto (maybe the cartoon character, possibly the planet), and there was no damn way for me to leave, since they discouraged the use of private transportation. Of course, after about 36 hours, I understood perfectly why.

I must have looked gobsmacked or desperate.....a gentleman I'd met at the thing came up behind me, whispered "bizzzzzzzzarrrre, baby!" and asked me if I wanted to leave. We left, on his bike.....and the friendship with the person who dragged me there ended.

It was interesting, however, in retrospective...I have never felt so suffocated in my life.

Oh, yeah, I've also had a faith healing in a Georgia washroom, but that's a whole other story.

[saltpoint]

7. I've never gone to a camp like that, although I did see the film you are

referencing.

And it scared the bejesus out of me.

Becky Fisher is a REALLY scary person.

I'm not seeing any excuse for racism, no matter who does it. The guy who dressed up and placed millions of people on the earth in parody for cheap laughs should have been challenged.

At moments like that a coconut cream pie in the kisser would have been just the ticket.

[stillcool]

8. Three years in AA...

and some of the bible-thumpers were certifiably wacko..and had the papers to prove it.

[LanternWaste]

9. Worked a Rennaisance Fair one summer

Worked a Rennaisance Fair one summer. I honestly thought I'd be working with tolerant people, nice people, artistic people. When they found out I work a 'suit & tie' job, that was the end of it-- pretty much all of them turned their backs to me. During the closing Funky Formal, one of the guys I'd been working with rented a suit and came as... Me. In a fit of pique, he ran around all night saying, "I'm a corporate wage slave-- you're fired!"

It wasn't all bad-- I met a girl there and we dated for almost three years, so I suppose there were a *few* tolerant ren workers...

[Neshanic]

10. Methodist revival camp in 1970. First night was like Reefer Madness.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

11. in the deep south it's the norm! Imagine how mid-easterners feel in America...

[backscatter712]

14. Had one back in college.

Back then, I was more religious than I am now, I could have been described at that time as a moderate Presbyterian Christian. I was approached by one of the dorm staff that worked in the cafeteria, and asked to join a Bible study group. I went to the meeting, and my impression was



Really fundamentalist. Very political, and this guy was clearly trying to shove his religion down our throats - telling us if we didn't believe in being pro-life, pro-Creationism in schools, etc., we were going to Hell. I didn't know about Pentecostals, but he was a genuine tongues-speaking, demon-casting-out, batshit-insane fundie.

I fled in terror. Later, I fled from Christianity in general - that kind of religion-mongering made me question all of my beliefs. I absolutely cannot stand having religion shoved down my throat. :mad:

[rucky]

15. Does Jew Camp count?

a.k.a. Ultra-Zionist freak-show.

We had our camp director do a completely botched version of the blue-eyes/brown-eyes experiment on us that ended up backfiring miserably.

For those wondering: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Elliott

[woodsprite]

16. As a kid, definitely.

My parents made my brother and I go with my neighbors. I guess it gave them some 'alone' time. My mom started questioning me when I started throwing up on Sunday mornings, or in our neighbor's car on the way. At 7yo, my doc put me on nerve medicine and recommended that my Mom not send me with my neighbor's anymore. He called it 'separation anxiety'. I think maybe it had to do with them scaring the bejeezus out of me. Let see -- End of the world was always tomorrow, the streets would run as high as a horses bridle in blood. I spent my childhood looking for signs of the end of the world. Of course, now that * is in office, .......

My in-laws invited us to their 'rebaptism' a few years ago. They went from going to a presby church to a fundi church. They said the presby baptism didn't 'take' since it wasn't full immersion, so they and the minister walked out into a local creek in May and they were rebaptized.

You guys should come to the church I attend now. Yeah, I got brave enough to go back, and I am glad I did. It's full of dems, some more liberal than others. Today my son went down for children's chat and the minister started asking "Do you say prayers at night", "When you do, do you pray for people not related to you?", "Do you pray for ...say... Pres. B*?" My son answers everything loud and clear, this time he said "No". Everyone laughed, including the minister, and I received several pats on the back accompanied by "Good girl, your teaching him well!" The moral of the story (which comes out in more detail in the adult sermon) is that we should pray for everyone, regardless of whether they are good or evil, rich or poor, etc. The adult sermon talked about a person who used his position to take more money from the poor and give it to his masters to curry favor. When he wants to curry favor from the people, he takes less. I was thinking Bush, tax cuts, big pharma and oil companies. Worked for me.

[treestar]

18. I've been to some

When I was a kid - one minister told us we would not live to see the age of 30, because Armageddon was coming sooner than that (I'm now 48 and I guess he's still waiting).

Another one - I heard one girl telling another that even if she were raped, she'd have the baby, because that would be God's will.

I've heard speaking in tongues - and it's hard to say they were making it up - they'd have to be complete frauds, and easily could have been, yet I knew the people involved and thought they were basically honest. Maybe they whipped themselves into a frenzy.

[fenriswolf]

24. how screwy

gods will that you are forced to have sex against your will then to raise a child who every time you look at them you will be forced to be reminded of what happened to you, what a kind and benevolant god she worships.

[Der Blaue Engel]

26. I've spoken in tongues

It's called group hypnosis, mixed with peer pressure and the terror of hell (if you didn't speak in tongues, you weren't spirit filled, and therefore not a real Christian, and would be left behind during the Tribulation).

Like chanting a mantra, it can put you in a "transcendent" state, and it's easy to believe you're having a spiritual experience when you allow your mind and body to separate in that fashion.

While I'm positive some people are in fact complete frauds, I'd wager the vast majority are simply brainwashed and truly believe they are speaking in tongues. The alternative is waking up and realizing the entire bag of goods you're being sold is a sack of putrid crap, and that's simply too much for some people to take.

[eppur_se_muova]

20. Book rec ... maybe worst possible case ...

Jesus Land: A Memoir by Julia Scheeres

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51G5JSJ1K9L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg

A very upsetting, and sad, book. Or google "escuela caribe".

[Mend]

21. fundie college in Virginia in the 60's....chapel every day, twice on Sunday,

complete disgusting segregation (no Blacks, no Asians), had to have naked photos on arrival (some of you will remember those), exhibit in biology lab of three skeletons: "human", "Negro", ape in that order (I kid you not). I hated it there and finally my parents let me transfer out.

[Der Blaue Engel]

23. I attended a fundie summer camp every year as a kid

And sometimes more than once a year, as they would have weekend retreats over some holidays.

Faith healing, speaking in tongues, anti-abortion films showing "partial-birth abortion," laying on of hands, slain in the spirit, you name it.

This was in the 70s and 80s, and the camps were not usually quite as militant as Jesus Camp, but there were definitely "Christian soldier" types.

Still recovering from it to this day.

:scared:

[leftofthedial]

25. I got laid at jesus camp

I pretended to be "saved," complete with invented religious hallucinations, in order to get in the pants of one of my fellow campers. She was way hot. We were both 16.