One summer when he was about 8 years old, Doug Weiss found himself surrounded by friendly people, caring counselors, and mounds of mouth–watering mashed potatoes.
“It was the first place I ever ate where they served an ‘all–you–can eat’ family–style meal with other people. It was great!” Doug says.
It wasn’t just the food but the love of God young Doug found at the Salvation Army’s Camp Ladore in Northeast Pennsylvania. The camp offered great solace to a child who was suffering and feeling rejected.
Doug was the child of two sex addicts and an emotionally unstable, alcoholic stepfather. His real father abandoned both his mother and him before he was born. Later, Doug was shuffled from foster home to foster home.
Shortly before first grade, Doug was reunited with his mother and two siblings along with his mother’s latest boyfriend. Chaos reigned in their small apartment in Allentown, Pa., where the kids often saw pornography and heard inappropriate sexual humor.
Camp Ladore altar
Summer camp looked like an inexpensive option for child care, so Doug’s mother sent him to Ladore. The days at camp were filled with crafts, physical activities, and lots of interaction with other campers. In the evening, the children went to camp
meetings.
“I don’t remember who spoke or even what they spoke about,” Doug says. “I do remember a real clear altar call. [The speaker] talked about Jesus wanting to forgive us and love us. Well, that sounded good to me so I
went down to the altar.”
Doug says he later discovered, “This was a life–changing event of cataclysmic proportions.”
When Doug returned home, not much changed. However, his mother, using another great child–care option, did begin to drop the kids off at the Salvation Army church (corps) in Bethlehem, Pa., on Sundays. Yet, the double–mindedness of the home environment eventually took its toll, and the children, including Doug, refused to continue in church.
Insecure and confused, Doug began to use alcohol, drugs, and sex to numb the pain. His mother gave him a college text book on sex before he was even a teenager. He began to medicate himself with sexual images and behaviors that became addictive by the end of junior high school. By the time he was in high school, Doug was also addicted to alcohol and other drugs.
Suicide or God?
Emotionally and spiritually underdeveloped, Doug projected a different public image. Well–dressed, confident, and physically fit, he says he hid behind a mask with no idea of how to be genuine. Behind that mask were feelings of unworthiness and shame. They taunted him with the thought that if anyone really knew him, they could never love him.
At 19, Doug was plagued with thoughts of suicide. Instead, he turned to the Lord.
“I told the Lord I wanted to die, but I would give my life to Him for 30 days, and I would do whatever He asked, and if my life wasn’t better in 30 days, I would die then,” Doug says.
He stopped using alcohol and other drugs immediately. As Doug grew spiritually, the brokenness of abuse, abandonment, shame, and sexual addiction slowly peeled away.
Doug found purpose in his pain. He has used what the Lord taught him during those days to help thousands of others get free from sexual addictions. He has written several books on the subject and has appeared on “Oprah,” “Good Morning, America,” and other national TV shows. A recent Lifetime movie featured a doctor specializing in sexual addiction; the character was based on Dr. Weiss.
‘Why me’ questions
“I think the major life lesson I learned from my experience at The Salvation Army was that of faithfulness. Every Sunday, the same group of people was there. As a Christian now for well over 25 years, I have consistently been faithful to a local church and I think I learned that value at the Salvation Army church in Bethlehem, Pa.”
Today “Dr. Weiss,” based in Colorado Springs, is a sought–after, internationally known speaker on marriage, recovery, and men’s issues. (www.drdougweiss.com)
“I remember talking to God one day in college. I asked him why all this junk had to happen to me. For years it haunted me,” Doug says. Today, he poses a different question: “Out of all the people who were born into this kind of mess, why did you pick me, God, to get better?”
“This incredible journey started at an altar call at the Salvation Army’s Camp Ladore,” Doug says. “I am forever grateful for the Army being there for this fatherless boy, to introduce me to the most incredible heavenly Father. Without the Army’s first step toward me, I would not have become who God has made me today.”
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