I May Have to Vomit

OK. I know I shouldn't read the youth group stuff from the church where I used to be youth director. I know it makes me tense and angry and more than a little bit stupid. Nevertheless, I can't help it. I'm human, and I want to see what kind of things they are doing that I never in a million years would have been allowed to do when I was there (and yes, the administration - meaning the pastor and pastoral director - are the same.).

Well, they are doing girls nights and guys nights now. And while I think that is appropriate for some things, I don't think it works for just fun stuff. These kids spend all week segregated by gender (almost all of them go to single sex schools), and they need to spend some time with the opposite sex so that they will be able to function in college and beyond.

Anyway, the name of their "Girls Night" program in September was "Pretty, Pretty, Princesses of the King." That is why I may need to vomit. First of all, these girls are incredibly privledged. Their parents are all well-off, and they get pretty much anything they want. Playing into that more by calling them princesses is just a bad thing.

Second the "pretty" part makes me mad on another level. To have value girls have to be pretty? I know that's what the world at large says, but should the church be saying the same thing? I'm not pretty (honestly, I'm not - and I'm OK with that), but I know I have value as a human being and in the eyes of God despite that. What message is that sending?

OK. I'm going stop. There were other things in the newsletter that bothered me, too, but at least some of them are theological in nature (as opposed to the above, which is sociological), and it wouldn't be fair for me to discuss them (though, honestly, even the Catholic-ness of the theology is a little bit questionable). Suffice it say, it doesn't make me happy.

Oh, and they are going to Disney World for Mardi Gras. That's just ridiculous. Those kids have been there more times than I can count. The trip costs $450 - not including meals. My dad would have died laughing if I had asked him for that. Heck, he almost wouldn't (or more likely couldn't) give me the $15 it cost to go on a day trip DC when I was in high school.

Sigh. OK. I'm really done now.