Sorry, if I were over 18 I would have hitch hiked home if that is what it took to bail out of that little slice of hell. I can remember going on a Youth For Christ long weekend up in Toronto while I was hanging out with a couple friends who were still in HS [they were both 16, and were 3 years behind me, I was already over 18 and out of school. Theoretically I should not have been allowed to attend.] I had a Canadian friend of the family come to the hotel to have dinner with me and holy hell broke loose - you would have thought he was the anti-christ or something. I got lectured for about 15 minutes until I told the idiots to back off because I was an adult there of my own free will and I would leave and make a complaint to their headquarters if they abused me any longer. Only reason I considered going with my friends was I knew Billy Graham more or less got his start with them and I thought that they were not as manic-evangelical as they ended up being. I will not tolerate anybody telling me NOT to have someone as a friend simply because they were not members of the same group that I was with.
I had just turned 18 and probably should have done that. I did think about telling them I was leaving and if they kept me against my will it would be kidnapping and there would be hell to pay. But I was mostly a ‘good kid’ and since my mom wanted me to I complied. I wanted to tell them all to fuck off, but didn’t want to hurt my Mom or potentially the family because you know there would’ve been repercussions to them if I had.