Vacation Evolution School? This Unitarian Universalist Camp May Shock You

“I am the universe. You were inside me from the very beginning, but not in human form. Like you, I started as a speck about 13 billion years ago. I was smaller than a piece of dust under your bed. I was bursting with wild and dazzling dreams of galaxies, stars and planets in radiant colors—bright yellow, molten red and piercing blue.”

While children across the country are engaging in vacation Bible schools this summer, that is the message being heard by pupils of “Evolution Camp” at First Unitarian Universalist Church of Springfield, Missouri.

Because the UUC denies core tenets of Christianity, it is unsurprising that students in the program are not engaged with Scripture. Instead, according to Springfield’s News-Leader, the evolutionist teachings are also accompanied with new age practices including meditation and recitation in the “mudra” position.

The camp is part of a curriculum created by Jennifer Lara, a religious educator with the UUC, according to the report.

Lara told the news source she is “not trying to change anyone’s beliefs”—all the while claiming that a belief in creationism “can be used to bully other kids.”

That claim, says Answers in Genesis founder Ken Ham, is absurd.

“Frankly, what nonsense! Evolution is basically taught as fact in most of the public education system—and it’s Christians and the teaching of creation that are discriminated against,” Ham responded in a blog post. 

In spite of the overtly anti-biblical teaching, the camp has attracted a number of attendees from both Christian and non-Christian backgrounds.

“We love science,” said volunteer Angela McCoy, who reportedly attends a local Assemblies of God church.

Ham responded by noting that the real duty of Christian parents, rather than seeking to expose their children to all viewpoints, is to “train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

“We must give our children a strong biblical foundation of truth and equip them with answers. Yes, we can show them the other views out there in the world, but we also must show them why they are false and why God’s Word is true. We need to teach them clearly the difference between truth and error—between good and evil. We are not doing our duty as Christians if we are not striving to train them up in the fear of the Lord (Psalm 34:11).”