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Jesus Camp
By bk | June 30, 2007 9:27
We finally got to watching Jesus Camp [Amazon
Jesus Camp follows the indoctrination of children in some of their most vulnerable years. It made me so thoroughly depressed to see a mother home schooling a child, disparaging evolution and holding creationism as logical, provable and scientific. This child, maybe 9 years old, is being misled, not taught to question and explore, but to merely accept like a sheep, and to defend this inherited belief vehemently.
Another scene found a young girl, 7 or 8 approaching a young woman (19 or 20?) in a bowling alley with a Christian tract saying ‘God told me to come to talk to you’ and then being praised by her parents for being brave and doing God’s work. The young woman graciously said thank you with a quizzical look mixed with just a touch of disdain. G pointed out how articulate this young child was in expressing her ‘faith’ (how can one have a real conception of faith at that age?) and desire to ‘bring others to God.’ My take is that this child has heard little else in her short life, and really has nothing else to talk about.
During the actual Jesus Camp scenes we see a common theme of war, at war with the forces of evil, the devil, and everyone who is different. At one point, one of the adults actually expressed respect for and desire to see Christians willing to kill and die for their faith (although I doubt she would share the same respect for a Muslim suicide bomber). At one point the children, boys dressed in fatigues with camo face paint and girls dressed as who knows what sang a song about being at war, waving sticks like swords. Tell me this isn’t child abuse. The war theme was so incredibly strong I’m almost surprised the MPAA didn’t give it a PG-13 rating for violent content.
A very important note, Mike Papantonio, the commentator, and professed Christian, was a voice of reason. Consistently railing against Becky Fischer’s extremism and the indoctrination of children to a Christianity of violence and intolerance. His words were the only ones that did not make me cringe.
My very favorite part though, was when Ted Haggard, toying with the camera crew said something along the lines of “I’ll give $1,000 not to tell my wife” which I took as rather prescient.
When it comes down to it, I think this is an important film for believers and non-believers to watch. Moderate believers may be able to see the intense indoctrination and violent themes and work toward moderation within their faith communities. Non-believers can get a glimpse of what goes on in all too many homes in the US, and a picture of the challenges we will face as these children come of age with these ideas deeply ingrained in their minds, having never been taught to think for themselves.
Trailer:
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Is it not crazy? I love it when they are praying over the PowerPoint. And I think that they are serious.
“I think he’s Muslim.”
I’ll see you at the BLOGSWARM!! (I’m really looking forward to it!)
HJ
Posted by: Bing McGhandi on June 30th, 2007 at 18:52