Welcome to Religious AF Camp
Religious as Fuck is a camp of Christian clergy, lay people and friends who found a home in the dust. On Playa, we experience renewed freedom and we revel in the beauty of Burners and Black Rock City. Together, we hope to create a place of spiritual healing and safety, for others and ourselves.
Our mission is to offer affirmation, blessing, and spiritual support to Burner folx through Christian sacraments, ritual, prayer and conversation. Join us at camp for Morning Prayer, find us at the Temple for Ash Wednesday, or come by to dump your Religious Baggage.
We’re here for it.
Dusty Christians
Religious AF is an explicitly Christian camp. Our rituals, scripture, and prayer arise from Christian traditions and experience. But we are not at Burning Man to sell Christianity, Jesus, the Church, or our camp. We are here to humbly offer blessing, prayer, ritual and hospitality to anyone who wants to receive.
We are fully aware of the ways that churches and their people have caused harm. Most of our campers have experienced judgement, exclusion or trauma from people and communities who call themselves Christian.
But we know there is more to the Story than hypocrisy and egotistical pettiness. We know the endurance of faith, hope and love.
We come to Burning Man because we experience God here. We see Christ on Playa every night and every day. The generosity, openness, mutual support, creativity and playfulness reveal God’s dream for all of humanity.
How Did This Happen?
Once upon a time, an Episcopalian priest went to Burning Man with his daughter. He expected a kaleidoscope of creativity and revelry, and he was not disappointed. But he also found a living vision of God’s dream for humanity (and a whole lot of dust). He enjoyed the generosity of the city and wondered what he could offer. He began to ask, “May I bless you?”
The priest came home changed and set out to find other Christians who witnessed the same authenticity and openness at Burning Man. The 2015 “Episcopalians at Burning Man” Facebook group led to a well-supported Communion service on the Temple grounds in 2016. The idea of a camp was born, as well as the camp name—Religious as Fuck.
Our inaugural theme camp was built in 2018 with nine dusty Christians offering Communion at the Temple and morning prayer. Gratefully, our neighbors approached us with curiosity and a willingness to give us a chance. We shared ritual and sacrament with people hungry for something sacred. And we supported each other in opening our hearts and minds to what God may be speaking to the body of Christ through the Burning Man experiment.
Each year brings a new mix of veterans and virgins! New people bring new camp offerings and ingenuity to survive the week. Every year is a great Burn (even when it’s not)! God is doing a new thing. Who would have expected that the dust would help us perceive it?