Several Young Life employees from North Carolina either were fired or resigned late last year, apparent casualties of a theological and stylistic crackdown within the organization.

The 10 workers, who worked in the Durham-Chapel Hill region of the state, apparently were forced out after they took issue with a key point in Young Life’s Nov. 8 statement called “Non-Negotiables of Young Life’s Gospel Proclamation.”

While Young Life characterized the proclamation as “our best attempt to help our staff and volunteers present the person and love of Jesus Christ …” critics worry that the organization — one of Christianity’s largest and most successful — is stepping toward a new form of corporate-driven fundamentalism.

“I just think there’s some kind of fear going on in Young Life,” said Christian Smith, professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame who studies youth ministry. “American evangelicalism has thrived in part by agreeing to disagree on a lot of difficult matters. I believe that this is pulling back from that.”

Young Life has long been a model of big-tent Christian outreach, touching hundreds of thousands of teens and college-age students through clubs, camps, and other efforts. The organization, based in Colorado Springs, employs 3,000 staff members (and works with another 27,000 volunteers) who work in every state and more than 50 countries.

It’s also been a longtime proponent of spreading the Gospel through one-on-one relationships and organic evangelism, which is why some observers were taken aback by Young Life’s Non-Negotiable Proclamation.

“It’s completely bizarre to me,” said Smith, longtime Young Life supporter and friend of Durham’s fired Young Life leader, Jeff McSwain. “It’s beyond me.”

The Young Life proclamation emphasized, in essence, a step-by-step process in which staff were to teach their young charges about Christianity: Young Lifers first need to convince youth of “the reality and consequences of sin,” and only then tell them about Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection.

That approach, common operating practice within Young Life well before the proclamation, irked McSwain, who wrote a paper last August called “Jesus is the Gospel.” In it, McSwain argued that Young Life’s traditional approach was both harsh and, perhaps, theologically unsound. Not only did it require kids to wallow in their own sin for a bit, but the technique also suggested (according to McSwain) that salvation wasn’t a pure act of grace: The string attached was the necessity to repent first. Some people, he said, repent after they learn they’re saved — not before.

“The current wisdom says that we have to love kids enough to tell them the awful truth about their separation from God before they can appreciate the cross,” McSwain wrote in his paper. “Is this love? Is this truth? Does it set us up to give kids an accurate picture of God and the cross?”

Some believe Young Life’s non-negotiable proclamation was written, in part, as a response to McSwain’s paper. The document itself acknowledged that “challenges have arisen” regarding the ministry’s traditional operations, and “welcomed the opportunity to revisit our core values.”

“The intent of the paper is not to squelch the creativity of our staff, but to provide a foundation on which their creativity can be expressed,” the document reads. “However, these are not suggestions.”

According to a letter written by Elizabeth Thompson, former Young Life staffer in Durham, McSwain was fired Nov. 28 because of his disagreements with the proclamation. Thompson, who worked in Young Life’s special-ed Capernaum ministry, was fired Nov. 30 after she told Young Life officials that she, too, disagreed with the proclamation.

“I said, ‘If the question today is do I agree to implement all the contents of the non-negotiables of proclamation document, then the answer is no, because I won’t tell kids they are separated from God,'” Thompson wrote.

Young Life officials say no one’s been forced to officially sign the proclamation, and the organization declines to talk about “employment details regarding staff and former staff.”

“I think what has happened in one area has led to misunderstanding about the purpose and use of this document,” said ministry spokesman Terry Swenson. “As I said, there has been healthy discussion and debate about the proclamation paper across the mission and, in contrast, there has been limited opposition.”

Smith believes the proclamation’s tenants are being “implemented unevenly.”

“For some staff it’s a hard-line commitment, for others it’s not an issue,” he said.

Theology isn’t the only issue at play. According to Smith, the document suggests Young Life may be embracing a more corporate, consumer-driven business model. “Leadership is turning into business management,” he said. “A lot of people I talk to question whether a ministry like this should be run this way.”

Swenson, though, is a bit baffled by the hubbub. Most staffers have accepted the proclamation, and they’re still doing the same great work they always have.

“A caricature of Young Life has emerged that is almost bizarre,” Swenson said. “Young life hasn’t changed. Young Life is still out there with all kinds of kids, walking with them in love, sharing the Gospel in the context of relationships, acceptance and grace.”

To see a copy of Young Life’s “Non-Negotiables,” click here.

What do you think of the Non-Negotiables and the controversy they have caused with some people?