Saturday, August 18, 2012

How The Lutherans Lost Us

My two oldest sons got the idea they would like to recapture bits of their childhood and tent-camp at Camp Calumet Lutheran, where we brought them from 1982-99 (though the last few years they were there less).  They brought Jonathan's wife and two daughters, attempting in 44 hours to hit all the high points: Pizza Barn, Big Yellow Tent, sandbar, Jackman Ridge, Yankee Smokehouse, Conference Center breakfast...

Church camps have activities for children, of course, and Emily not only went to tie-dye, but a story time as well.  My daughter-in-law described it to me. Santa Goes Green, in which Santa notices one November that the North Pole ice is melting, and so decides to save everyone by giving extra toys to children who recycle.  I would have predicted that both the children's and adult activities had focused on the environment, but the grown-ups' study - and I use all three units of that advisedly - was about Wellness.  I should have seen that one coming. The New Lutherans have more than one new god, after all.

I would like to be clear that I don't object to any Lutherans owning the book or being involved in Wellness, and teaching it all to their children.  It's silly, but it's the current fashion, and people do lots of silly things. On their own time.  But when you bring it into church, you are making a declaration that this is part of the faith as received.  And these aren't.  Not close.

This is where they were going decades ago, especially at camp.

3 comments:

james said...

At least "Financial Peace University" is optional here...

karrde said...

I have known several members of my church who got videos from Dave Ramsey (of Financial Peace University).

He's got good advice, if you're looking for budget-your-money-carefully-and-plan-for-the-future style of financial advice.

However, I've never known a church to adopt that as Biblical teaching, or part of The Faith.

Even though I would be more friendly to a church that brought in Dave Ramsey than a church that brought in Wellness and Ecological-friendly teaching, I would still fault them for adding unnecessary items to the Faith.

Texan99 said...

It's what Lewis called "Christianity and Spelling Reform" -- where the faith is valued in proportion to its ability to exert influence on some secular crusade.