underground church
a youth-group “game” designed to teach loyalty through fear. not play. it was training.
in a lot of churches and camps there was a night activity called underground church. leaders acted like police. some wore masks. kids hid in dark fields and behind buildings. if you were caught, you got taken to a “jail” area. the storyline: christians are hunted, you must keep the church alive.
here’s one message i received:
“i remember playing this… the ‘police’ were actually scary. you couldn’t tell who they were. we hid belly-down behind bushes, totally still, hearts pounding, while they swept the area. they moved kids in a dark vehicle. i don’t remember the whole backstory, just the fear.”
why this is a problem
- it wires fear and adrenaline to faith. your body learns that obedience = safety.
- it installs a persecution script as normal life.
- it turns real violence faced by real people into entertainment.
- it collapses consent. a kid can’t “opt out” when the authority setting the rules is also teaching what god wants.
my issue isn’t “the dark is scary.” the harm is the message load and the power imbalance. once you name it “faith training,” a child cannot treat it like pretend.
if this was you
- you get to say it was indoctrination, not a harmless game.
- you don’t have to keep the storyline. you can keep yourself instead.
- if you want to add your experience (anonymized), use /ask.
