Reply to If you are not Christian, what is your opinion of Wyldlife, Young Life, etc.?

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Reply to "If you are not Christian, what is your opinion of Wyldlife, Young Life, etc.?"

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[quote=Anonymous]As someone who participated in multiple church youth groups as a tween/teen, including YL (because I grew up in a small town where there was nothing else to do but drinking parties, IF you got invited to those), I have mixed feelings and would tread carefully. Especially when the parents of the child in question, if they aren't Christian, may not be fully aware of what kind of messaging is going on in those groups. Because make no mistake, there IS messaging -- that's part of the point.

In the most active and evangelical-type group in which I participated, for instance (which did a bunch of YL related things and also participated in True Love Waits), every week there was a Scripture selection that was expounded on by the youth leader -- like a mini sermon, framed as "cool" and "relatable" for teens. There was a heavy emphasis on purity culture, rigid gender roles, girls being responsible for boy's bad (sexual) behavior by how they dressed or flirted, etc. Also, while this wasn't the first or even second or third "sell," there was also pressure (both overt and subtle) to eliminate non-Christian things from your life in order to be a "better" person/Christian -- i.e., listen to only Christian music instead of pop, make more time to study the Bible or do church-centered activities instead of non-church activities, hang out primarily with your Christian friends unless you were trying to bring non-Christian friends into the fold, and wear your Christianity on your sleeve -- sometime literally, with T-shirts, jewelry, bumper stickers, etc.

Many of those messages were not necessarily front-and-center, but they were built up over time and in small ways. They weren't always a blatant part of the fun activities, but they were always there in one way or another. Perhaps some kids could participate and ignore them wholly -- but it is a form of peer pressure and not to be underestimated as an influence, IMO.

There were lots of fun activities and even some travel trips, but not much in the way of, say, volunteer work to actually do good in the world or community. I can't remember any actual service to the community beyond the church, TBH. Most of the "service" activities were doing things that the church needed done, supporting other church events or fundraising for the youth group itself. It was very inward-focused.

Now, because of the messages I heard from my parents -- my mom in particular, who was very practical about things like the likelihood that I would have sex before marriage and it didn't mean I was lesser, sinful or worthless -- I don't think I was substantially harmed by my participation. I do think there was some value in things like Bible study where I learned about varying interpretations and was allowed to question the intent of the writer (this was in a Methodist youth group, not the one mentioned above). I still attend church weekly with my family, although I am very skeptical about many things related to church and religion in general. But personally, some of the messages that evangelical Christianity sends are not ones that I want my children to internalize, and I would want to be damn sure that anything they're hearing in that context, I am balancing out at home very strongly.

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