Send a Christian to camp

Christian Century, July 14, 1999 by Ellen Charry, Dana Charry

A community that has among its members mature married adults who themselves have a healthy respect for the risks and pleasures of romantic love can provide help that might be spurned if it came from parents. They can help youngsters understand the opposite sex and the vicissitudes of love. They can nurture the skills required for stable companionship, model the value of loyalty, and convey the satisfaction of exclusive sexual love in an atmosphere of mutual respect.

Living in community inevitably provides everyone with an opportunity to realize his or her own sinfulness. Surrounded by theologically competent adults who are also psychologically sensitive, youngsters can recognize their own limits and accept those of others. They can learn repentance and experience God's grace in a loving environment.

To succeed, a camp program of this sort must capture the imagination of church leaders who will devote to it the treasure and talent of the community. The program must be compelling enough to turn the young away from video and computer games. It must penetrate the isolation from adults that so often defines young people's lives. Perhaps such a camp would have to begin with the youngest ages, and grow by adding one age group at a time.

A summer camping program like this is costly in time, money and resources. Are our children worth it?

Ellen Chatty teaches at Princeton Theological Seminary. Dana Charry is a psychiatrist practicing in Bridgewater, New Jersey.