The escapist, I need your help.

[RadioactiveTurtle]

Now, I don't post here often. But this is a serious problem and I need an outside opinion on the matter.

Now, a friend of mine up until about a week or so was an atheist who disliked the idea of an omnipotent being watching over her and hated going to church with her family. She then went on a weeks holiday, to a camp in the north. I later discovered this was a christian camp. When she returned she was acting peculiar, different from usual. To me, she seemed closed off and less loving. At first I brushed it off as nothing.

But now she is heavily religious, she loves going to church, claims to feel the joy that God brings to her and that God guides her path and helps makes her decisions. Also, she now proclaims that God is her one and true love, above all. I was concerned with this drastic change on her views and have gathered up a group of people who feel the same way about her. We have all sworn to do what it takes to find out what has happened. Now, that may seem a tad drastic to all of you. But, she has changed massively; we wouldn't do this if it wasn't as bad as it is.

Now, the escapist. What do you think of this situation? Do you have any suggestions on how we should proceed?

I have some quotes, from Msn and Facebook; which represent how 'devoted' she is to this religion now, and before she left.
Before the camping trip:
"i dont get along with my parents, and i dont believe in "god" im also being forced to go camping on the 26th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - :'("
"thn today forced go church!!!!!!!! omg HATE HATE HATE- but now on computer so im happy"

After:
"************* September 5 at 8:37pm
I'm not scared of death at all, and i won't let you take God away form me cos you can't cos he'll always be there for me! And God helps me to make decisions and guides my path, x"
"church is goood, strangly enough."

I'd like to point out, that I'm not against christians or members of any religion. But she was only gone for one week and it is like she has changed completely. So I'm concerned and asking for help.

 

[Lust]

Damn, I don't know what to say. I'd say brainwashing, but, that'd be a tad presumptuous.

Well, just try talking to her and her parents. See what really went down.

 

[RadioactiveTurtle]

Damn, I don't know what to say. I'd say brainwashing, but, that'd be a tad presumptuous.

Well, just try talking to her and her parents. See what really went down.

Her parents went with her, so they either didn't know what happened. Or worse, are okay with it.

 

[C95J]

sounds like there was some creepy brainwashing voodoo going on in that camp...

 

[TheTaco007]

Don't try to look for the logic in religion. It doesn't work. Kinda sucks that you lost a friend though, and if I were you I'd have a word with her parents...

 

[Pariah87]

Get a group of people together for any amount of time and with the right manipulation you can turn anyone to pretty much anything.

I'm not sure how to best answer you without making negative comments about certain aspects of the Christian community but it sounds an awful lot like brainwashing. I'm sure you can find the documentaries online where they visit these camps and I was truely sickened. My personal feelings for Christianity aside, just the methods employed shocked me and I couldn't believe anyone could target children in such a manner.

Ultimately, if she is happy, or she believes she is happy then there is little you can do to change that. If anything, trying to get in the way will simply make her cut ties with you. You or your friends cannot reverse the conditioning which occured during that week. That may sound harsh but incredibly clever conditioning is exactly what it is.

I should point out this doesn't happen will all christians, just certain groups and it sounds like that is the kind of place she went to.

Spoiler: Jesus Camp

If you think you can undo the kind of shit seen above, then good luck to you.

 

[theComposer]

It sounds pretty drastic, and if I were you I'd be just as concerned and wanting to take action. However, I wouldn't rule out the possibility that something connected with her at the camp and changed her view. If anything could change a person as much as you have described, it's religion.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

Hmmmm, I'm with LustFull0ne here, brainwashing. Either that or she had a genuinely life changing experience out there. Unless you're willing to interrogate her about the camp, I'm guessing it's going to be one of those.

Spoiler: Jesus Camp

If you think you can undo the kind of shit seen above, then good luck to you.

Were they giving Goku energy at one point there?

 

[Leopard]

Its the pod people! YOU'RE NEXT!!

 

[Zap Rowsdower]

Grab her by the shoulders and give her a good shake. If this doesn't work, try slapping the sense into her. If this does not work, dunk her head underwater as many times as nessescary for her to come to her senses.

 

[The_Healer]

Well I hate the church and its many incarnations, so I'm not likely to give a very level-headed or trustworthy solution. Now that you have read my disclaimer I cannot be held accountable for when you attack the pope with a chainsaw.

Alternatively, you could sit down with your friend and a number of your other friends in a slightly but not overly intimidating way and gently make her tell you what happened. No one changes vastly for no reason and you should be extremely suspicious. Also, depending on how old you lot are, her parents shouldn't have the right to make her go to church. So fuck them and their brainwashing, that girl should be allowed to believe what she wants to believe.

 

[Irridium]

Well thats messed up. I mean yeah I'm religious but damn, thats just messed up.

I suggest going on a trip like that yourselves, try going on the same one, and see what goes on up there. Seriously, messed up.

 

[RatRace123]

Whoa!

Have you seen your friend exhibit any qualities that are associated with robots or androids? Think she may have gone stepford on you.

Seriously, she may have been deeply repressing feelings of religious beliefs and going to the camp may have opened those feelings up.
Or maybe she was looking for answers and finally found them.

That's all I've got for ideas. Religion is a very complicated and personal thing, people react differently to it.

 

[Infinatex]

Perhaps there is a reverse camp you can send her to? Tell her it's another religious camp and send her along. If it worked once then it should work again.

 

[Booze Zombie]

Uh, people can be brainwashed.
I think that's the purpose of almost all camps dedicated to ideologies, to make you think "positively" of said ideologies.

Brainwashing seems especially effective on people who don't like reality.
There's probably some way to make her "wake up", but I'm not a trained psychologist yet, so... you'll probably have to find a real one.

 

[Mariakitten]

Seems like brainwashing. This scares me.

 

[oxiclean]

holy shit OP, i had the EXACT same thing happen to a friend of mine. he was an atheist and loved bashing christians (he spent a number of hours making fun of me because he thought i was a christian). he went to some camp along with another friend of mine, and now he is a young-earth creationist talking about the "lost souls" and literally acting in a holier-than-thou manner. funny thing is, the guy he went with is still perfectly alright.

He switched to a christian high school because he didn't want to be around so many "lost souls", and during a debate we had on facebook he said in response to me saying, "what the fuck happened to you" (we used to cuss like that all the time together), "something that obviously hasn't happened to you!". he also had the nerve to say that christianity has always existed (what about hinduism or judaism?). it was really strange.

good luck OP.

 

[Prof.Wood]

Wow...
If it makes her happy you shouldn't do anything (unless she is in your face with her religion)

I just want to know how camps can do this (not morally just how can this be done)what point that they made got to her.

 

[RadioactiveTurtle]

Wow...
If it makes her happy you shouldn't do anything (unless she is in your face with her religion)

I just want to know how camps can do this (not morally just how can this be done)what point that they made got to her.

She was happy before.