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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There's a hashtag and profile on IG called #DoBetterYoungLife. I'd check that out.

I was involved with Young Life in the 90s, from middle school through college. Setting aside the fact that my leader was molesting boys and the "leadership" (a volunteer board of parents) did nothing but move him to another school, it was problematic for its black/white thinking (anyone who is not a Biblical literalist/evangelical/fundamentalist is not a "real" Christian). My father, a church-going expert on ethics, told me later that he was worried about the cult-like aspects of it, and he just had to trust that I was smart and would figure it out some day. Well, I did, but it wasn't fun to then be shunned by my friends for "backsliding" when all I did was decide to see nuance in the world.

I cannot imagine allowing my children to participate in any type of activity that discriminates openly against LGBTQ folks. In the 90s, we were less aware, and it was easier to expect those folks to remain in the closet and conform.

When I was a leader there was a training where they drew a ladder of high school kids from the most popular to the least, and then they circled the second rung of the ladder and told us to focus on those kids as our hook because if we only had the most popular kids, we'd scare off the others, but we didn't want to focus on the outcasts, because then no one else would come (I mean, thinking about this in terms of the attitude of Jesus towards outcasts is just sickening).

So no, I would not let my kids do Young Life. There isn't enough oversight to make sure that the leaders aren't idiots or pedophiles or failure-to-launch cases trying to redeem their high school years by befriending your high schooler. They are causing real, serious harm to LGBTQ kids. They drive a wedge between kids and parents if they aren't already evangelical Christians (Catholics, mainline "liberal" protestants, and all other religions are going to hell). They have an actual formula for building emotional tension during their camps so that kids will be overwhelmed when it comes to receiving the Young Life version of Jesus as their lord and savior.

If you are a character in the movie Pleasantville, sure, join Young Life. Everyone else, beware.[/quote]

I attended Young life with my Catholic friends and we certainly never heard any messages that Catholics or mainline Protestants we’re going to hell.

The black/white thinking and  LBGT stuff is basically the same as what you see in most churches that are not “affirming” like UU and maybe the Episcopalians and some others.

But yeah some kids do get caught up and take it to extremes (these kids were called “straight edge” back in the day lol). Me and my friends went but never took it too seriously. I see it like any other church group, which I no longer attend. I’m agnostic and always have been even in the YL days.[/quote]

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