A Matter of Perspective

When I was a kid, I went to Solid Rock Bible Camp in Cushing every summer from about the age of 12 or 13 until I was 19. I loved Bible camp. I was a troubled teen. I felt responsible for my younger brother’s death, and so I dwelt on death—a lot.

But at Bible camp, I would hear about Jesus and His great love for us. I heard it at church on Sundays, too, but at Bible camp, it felt like the words were just for me—that Jesus was calling me individually!

Every night, we had an altar call, and I would watch as other kids’ lives were “altered at the altar.” It was truly transformative. Solid Rock Bible Camp is no longer there, but the memories live on.

I heard about a Bible camp that took place this summer at a different place sponsored by a different church. I know things have changed since I was a kid. Today, kids have their cell phones and devices with them all the time. The music has a lot more despair and angst in it, and I would say, a lot more curse words.

One younger participant at this Bible camp told me that they had no rules at camp except for one: they had to be kind. That meant that no types of music were off-limits. I was told that they jumped and danced around to songs with the “f-word” clearly sung.

Being kind is great. We should all be kind. However, my feeling is that at a Bible camp, we should be living and attempting to set a higher standard. I find it hard to believe that the leaders felt it was okay to set this type of example.

We are in the world, yes, but we are not to be “of” the world. A higher standard should have been set, in my humble opinion. The young person who told me about camp said that having the “f-word” in the songs made them better. All of this young person’s friends agreed.

I disagree. If you have to use a curse word, then maybe you need to rethink your idea of fun. How does saying the “f-word” enhance a song or story? I don’t think it really does.

I can actually handle the “f-word”; it is when people take the name of the Lord God in vain that I get emotional. I know we are trying to reach our teens for Christ, but if we have to bow down to the world’s standards, are we reaching them, or is the world reaching them?