RE: Ask an ex-Catholic
May 19, 2015 at 1:56 pm
(This post was last modified: May 19, 2015 at 1:58 pm by cocunningham.)
Well I'm not sure if is still used, but 15 years ago when I was in high school it all of the Catholic schools I knew of in TN participated. It's supposed to be purely voluntary but I declined participation so my parents signed me up. One of my brothers was starting to be rebellious. When he came back he became a devout Catholic again and is still to this day. I was much worse than him so they hoped it would help.
Basically they took us to an elementary school for a weekend and chained the doors (not sure how they bypassed fire code). Then for the next 48 hours we were only allowed an hour to sleep (but they gave us Monday off from school to recover lol). Then we have search leaders who were close to our age talk about their struggles and how they found faith. One talked about being molested by a guy dressed as Santa Claus. Another talked about how he was a bully and one day waiting in line in the lunch room Jesus appeared to him and said "I forgive you". I asked him if it was sloppy Joe day because that's the only time Jesus visited our cafeteria. He didn't think it was as funny as I did. All the while we listened to Creed. I never liked them but now I have a clockwork orange reaction lol where I become violently ill.
They also brought in group therapists and we had mass what felt like every couple of hours (not sure because we weren't allowed to have any time keeping devices).
They kept the windows blacked out and the only time we could see natural light was 1 hour each day in the yard (fenced in playground) as I called it.
Obviously it didn't stick lol I was more rebellious than ever, but I did have some friends that were changed because of it and they stopped associating with me shortly thereafter. We also weren't ssupposed to talk about what search was. I assume to create the impression of a secret club. I actually got threatened by some search veterans because I was telling everyone all about it.
I was just curious how widespread this practice was.
Basically they took us to an elementary school for a weekend and chained the doors (not sure how they bypassed fire code). Then for the next 48 hours we were only allowed an hour to sleep (but they gave us Monday off from school to recover lol). Then we have search leaders who were close to our age talk about their struggles and how they found faith. One talked about being molested by a guy dressed as Santa Claus. Another talked about how he was a bully and one day waiting in line in the lunch room Jesus appeared to him and said "I forgive you". I asked him if it was sloppy Joe day because that's the only time Jesus visited our cafeteria. He didn't think it was as funny as I did. All the while we listened to Creed. I never liked them but now I have a clockwork orange reaction lol where I become violently ill.
They also brought in group therapists and we had mass what felt like every couple of hours (not sure because we weren't allowed to have any time keeping devices).
They kept the windows blacked out and the only time we could see natural light was 1 hour each day in the yard (fenced in playground) as I called it.
Obviously it didn't stick lol I was more rebellious than ever, but I did have some friends that were changed because of it and they stopped associating with me shortly thereafter. We also weren't ssupposed to talk about what search was. I assume to create the impression of a secret club. I actually got threatened by some search veterans because I was telling everyone all about it.
I was just curious how widespread this practice was.
