Get Bach, Satan!

If you stop a hundred reasonably educated people on the street and asked them to say the first name that comes to mind when you say "devotional music," 99 of them will say Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach's masses and church contatas have been performed by a wide variety of Christian church choirs and organists for hundreds of years, and are considered by many to be the standard for Christian devotional music.

Not so the gay-people-who-teach-other-people-not-to-be-gay at the Refuge camps run by Love in Action. According to Harper's, one of the rules goes like this:

No television viewing, going to movies, or reading/watching/listening to secular media of any kind, anywhere within the client's and the parent's/guardian's control. This includes listening to classical or instrumental music that is not expressively Christian (Beethoven, Bach, etc. are not considered Christian.)

That probably comes as a surprise to those who love the music of Beethoven, too. When he wrote the "Missa Solemnis," Beethoven said "My chief aim was to awaken and permanently instill religious feelings not only into the singers but also into the listeners." Likewise, Beethoven's "Mass in D Minor" is generally considered a masterpiece of Christian liturgical music.

Not listening to classical music may not be a hardship to most of the prisoners--I mean, campers--but some of the other rules may be a bit tough to follow. Like this one: "Clients may not wear Abecrombie & Fitch or Calvin Klein brand clothing, undergarments, or accessories."

And you thought nothing could come between you and your Calvins.