Love Without Hypocrisy
I was sharing a story from when I was a teenager with a friend of mine and I thought perhaps I shall share it with all of you as well. To my memory I was 15 at the time this all happened.I was attending a bible camp called Worldview Academy. They still exist today, and I believe are run by the same core set of pastors. Worldview Academy is a week long session of all day theological training sessions for young people ( teenagers ), that also includes outdoors activities like a ropes course and various sports.
Their main focus on teaching is to teach "Servant Leadership". The rough principle being that to be a leader you do not give directions. Instead you lead by example and by helping others. By having and portraying the truest principles not just through your words but by your actions. Being humble in how you do this, not arrogant, but declaring yourself as a represtative of truth and knowing that being so it difficult and requires sacrifice on your own part. You cannot be a servant leader by gaining power. You do it by being hardworking and honest.
I was a very serious teenager attempting to form my life around solid biblical principles, particularly around those of being loving and caring to others without being a hypocrite on the principles I stated to be following myself.
I attended Worldview Academy two different summers. I took detailed notes through all of the sessions. I sat in the front row.
I did not, though, participate passively. At the camp we were challenged to be servant leaders ourselves and to act rightly and according to what was being taught. We were invited to challenge the ideas and to prove out what was true. So I did. I quested what we were being taught using principles they were teaching as well as others within the bible that I was aware of at the time.
My main focus? Be loving and caring to others. Be respectful and do not be rude or harmful to them in any way. Be supportive. Be a living example of how to live and behave, and insist on the highest standards.
What I quickly noticed at these camps is that the pastors running the whole thing did not portray or behave by the very principles they were teaching. They were very demanding and nearly oppressive in what they insisted on. They did not act in care and love.
After at least one of their very agressive and condemning sessions I broke down in tears, because just the tone of what they were saying and the delivery was very harmful and hurtful to those listening, including to me. I told the pastor so, while in tears, that he was not being loving and he was being hurtful instead and that it is hypocritical.
He listened, but he did not change his behavior. We were also told to hold each other accountable, and to have accountability partners we confessed to and such while at this camp. I took accountability seriously and decided to myself hold the pastors leading this camp to account, as a leader myself, doing what I was being asked to do, to insist on the highest standards and to hold those around me to those same standards so that we can all learn to behave better.
What the pastors expected though was not for themselves to be held to account or to live out what they were preaching. They only wanted these things to be applied to the students. I did not find that acceptable.
So along came an opportunity.
At this camp there was a lake. At the lake there were paddle boats. I was observing the lake and observed misbehaving youth throwing water on other kids who were paddling around the lake against their wishes. The kids were upset having water thrown on them and did not find it funny at all. The kids doing this were behaving as bullies.
There was a camp counselor nearby loosely observing, and doing nothing to stop this behavior. I knew that if I told him to do something about it, that he wouldn't, because he clearly was seeing it and choosing to do nothing.
So I went to the kids throwing water and asked them not to do that. They didn't care. I told them then I was going to go out on the lake in a paddle boat as well, and asked them not to throw water on me as I did not want to be wet, and told them I would be upset if they did. I mentioned the principles of love and respect for others that we were being taught to them, and pointed out that it would be the opposite of loving if thye ignored my request. They of course just listened and didn't care what I had to say.
So I got in the paddle boat and paddled out into the lake. They followed and threw water on me as well, getting me all wet. All according to plan. It is honest I did not want to be wet, and I was actually upset about them doing it, despite that I let it happen on purpose.
So I went to the camp counselor nearby and complained that I was upset, that I did not enjoy being wet, and that it was disrespectful to me and in opposite to the principles we were being taught.
This camp had a point system for teams where different cabins would gain or lose points based on how you behaved and if you demonstrated the principles being taught. I asked that the kids be reprimanded, and points deducted from their team, for engaging in the bullying behavior not just to others but to myself as well even after I politely asked them not to do so, making it clear that it wasn't in good fun, and was intentional bullying ignoring my request not to.
The camp counselor said he didn't care and wasn't going to do anything. I pointed out to him that it was in opposition to the principle of being loving to each other, and that I was upset, and none of it aligned with what the camp leaders claimed to believe and want us to do.
He still didn't care and refused to do anything and told me to drop it. I, of course, did not drop it. I told him that I would then go the next step up and report both the children and him for their wrongful behavior. He didn't care.
So I did. I went to the pastors running the came and giving the lessons in biblical leadership principles. I told them everything and challenged them that it was improper and rude behavior. It was not loving. It was actively harmful. And it harmed me, and they needed to hold the people involved accountable under the principles of accountability they had taught us.
The pastors refused to do so. They told me to drop it. They didn't like me, a child, demonstrating clearly that their own camp counselor was being a hypocrite. I knew, of course, that they were the real hypocrites themselves. The very leaders teaching us servant leadership were not following their own teachings.
So I was not surprised. I calmly explained back to them the theology and methods of being loving and respectful to each other that they had just taught to all of us. I told them to their faces that they were not being loving and were being hypocritical. I demanded they live up to the standards they were preaching to us, and to reprimand the counselor and the kids involve and deduct points from their team following the loose game aspect of the camp.
They refused.
I advised them that is a poor choice, and that I would ensure they are held accountable by escalating further. They scoffed and said they didn't care.
So I went to the athiest owners of the physical camp location. They lived on site. I went over to their house, knocked on the door, and when they answered I explained the whole scenario to them.
I told them that it was disrespectful and hurtful of them to me, and hyporcritical because it did not match the principles that they were teaching to us. I asked the owners to reprimand the pastors and demand that they apologize to me, and that if the pastors refused to apologize to me that they be banned from ever renting the camp location again.
The owners of the camp agreed with me from my detailed story. They said that yes it was clearly upsetting me and was wrong and they did not find it acceptable behavior from renters of their location.
They went to the pastors leading Worldview Academy and demanded they apologize to me or that they would in fact be banned from renting the location. They went a step furthher, they told them that even if they do apologize, they were considering not allowing them to rent the location again due to what occurred.
The pastors came to me then. They did not immediately apologize. Instead they were angry with me and asked how dare I do so. They said that it would harm their business, and that what I did was unacceptable.
I only smiled and gleefully explained to them that they were being hypocritical. They were not acting in love or compassion. They were still, even when held to account under the very method of accountability they preached, refusing to admit their sin and arrogance and instead were fighting with me, a child, instead of being servant leaders and apologizing to me as I requested.
They still argued and denied they were in the wrong. As expected.
I continued and told them: "Now I would like to hear you apologize. I warned you not to go down this path. Now you will apologize. Or you will be banned from ever renting this camp location again."
They apologized through gritted teeth, looking at me hatefully. I only smiled.
I believe in being loving and caring. Hypocrites will be held to account.
Now, as an adult, with further wisdom, I will grant you that what I did was meticulous, planned, and vengeful. So, despite my belief that I was doing what we were taught to do, I'll conceed that I was not as loving as I perhaps should have been. But I was attempting to follow what they were teaching.
It just so happens that they got what they were asking for from me. I did what they taught me.
All in all it was very entertaining. I congratulate them for making a fun bible camp experience for me. I doubt they think of it with the happy memory that I do, but that's their loss.