[Trapped]

Summer school of truth varies by U.S. region. Some areas are legalistic. Some areas have a genuine lot of fun. The stuff spoken, though, is always the same - a set of I think 6 Lesson Books that they rotate through that have their source in none other than the never-ending source of the local churches: Witness Lee.

I distinctly remember one young sister standing on stage one year proclaiming literally something like "THANK YOU LORD FOR THE CHURCH ON THE GROUND OF ONENESS!!!" That was during the stages of my exit from the LC and I just shook my head in shame. These kids have no idea why it's logically reasonable to believe in a creator God, and yet "the church on the ground of oneness" is already engraved on their tongues.

On the human side, the kids do look forward to being with each other, but like any similar effort, there will be the "in" kids and the "out" kids, and those who are not part of cliques will have a rougher time of it.

This is what one of the ministry books says about the SSOT lesson books:

GOD’S FULL SALVATION
The general subject of the first series of lessons in the Summer School of Truth is God’s full salvation. The full salvation of God is actually equal to the truth, because the Triune God with His all-inclusive redemption is the structure of the truth. Through Paul’s writings, this truth has become an inoculation against the decline of Christianity. On the one hand, we may speak of the structure of the truth; on the other hand, we may speak of the element of the inoculation. This inoculation is like a dose of medicine containing various elements. The elements in the “dose” ministered by Paul as an inoculation are the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—and His all-inclusive redemption.
In helping the young people to experience God’s full salvation, you have to unveil to them their fallen condition, which involves sin, Satan, and the world, the satanic system. These negative things are related to the actual condition of the saved ones. If we would experience and enjoy God’s full salvation, we should consider our condition and its involvement with sin, Satan, the world, and many other negative things.

I'm an adult with a brain and I honestly get zero help from those two paragraphs.

They are already indoctrinating the young kids that Christianity is deformed and emphasize all the "negative" things.....i.e. all this does is set the kids up to not feel comfortable anywhere or doing anything. The goal of SSOT is not to help the kids know God, love God, trust God, help others, love others....it's just the goal of every gathering in the LC - to read more of what Lee said. Of course they won't say that.

Having said that, on the flip side I can't deny that it gives some kids a healthier place to be for 1-2 weeks out of the year than maybe where they would otherwise be - alone at home, in an abusive parent atmosphere, with other friends who aren't a good influence, etc.... It's hard to write it off as all bad, but I would say that what they are learning is detrimental, while the being together is good.