Religious AF campers delight in the congruence of Jesus’ teachings and the 10 Principles that guide the Burning Man experiment.
Explore the alignments below for a view through our spiritual goggles. Descriptions of the 10 Principles were taken without any permission from the Burning Man website.

Gifting. Gifting is not bartering; it does not contemplate an exchange for something of equal value.

• John 21:15-17   Jesus commands Peter to feed his sheep out of love for him

Radical Self-Reliance. Discover, exercise and rely on your inner resources.

• Mark 7:24-30  The Syrophoenician woman challenges Jesus with her courage and wisdom

Radical Inclusion. Welcome and respect the stranger, outside and inside of you.

• Luke 7:36-50  Jesus honors an unwelcome woman who crashes the party

Civic Responsibility. Those who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.

• Mark 3:1-6  Jesus exposes religious hypocrisy with a loving vision of community

Leave No Trace. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and try to leave places in a better state than when we found them.

• Matthew 10:5-14  Jesus teaches his disciples that if a place does not accept them, simply leave the dust behind

Communal Effort. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.

• Mark 6:30-44  Jesus’ disciples must work together to provide for the hungry crowd

Participation. We believe that transformative individual or societal change can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.

• John 11:38-44   Jesus commands the mourners to participate in raising Lazarus by saying, “You unbind him!”

Immediacy. Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. No idea can substitute for this experience.

• John 13:1-17  When the disciples show up for a meal, Jesus shocks them by immediately washing their feet

Radical Self-Expression. Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.

• Matthew 8:5-13 A Centurion appeals to Jesus out of uncommon love for his servant

Decommodification. In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.

• Mark 11:15-17  Jesus condemns those who were selling things in a sacred place