Jesus Camp
So Tuesday night I was channel surfing, and I came across this documentary. It was just rolling the opening credits as I surfed to it, so I figured I’d watch it. I’d read about it on cnn.com when it came out, and I was interested in seeing it because I was raised sort of fundamentalist Christian. Now, I wasn’t really hardcore, snake-wrangling, speaking in tongues fundamentalist. More like major guilt-trippage fundamentalist. It’s complicated to explain.
Anyway, the first scene in the film was at a children’s service at a church with a female minister. I don’t know if she was the pastor of the church or the children’s minister or what. She was preaching to the kids, encouraging them to be soldiers and fight against the “evil” world outside. A later scene focused on one of the kids at that service–a boy about 10 years old who was sporting a rockin’ mullet. Anyway, I guess Mullet Boy was either being homeschooled by his mom or she was helping him with his homework (it wasn’t clear). His mom was telling him about how creationism was a fact that the outside world refused to believe. At one point she even said “science tells us nothing.”
Anyway, I can’t tell you anything about the rest of the movie because this was the point at which I heaved the remote control at the TV and left the room.
It also didn’t help that I’d had two glasses of wine by this point. Josh can tell you that after I chucked the remote at the TV, I went to him in our office and promptly burst into tears. Because it wasn’t fair that kids are being manipulated by adults like that. It wasn’t fair that kids are being brainwashed and told what to believe. It wasn’t fair that the fat pastor lady was essentially taking advantage of those kids. It wasn’t fair that those kids weren’t given a good opportunity to decide for themselves what they believed. It just wasn’t fair.
And it reminded me of how I was raised, although maybe the situation in the movie was a bit more extreme than my experiences. It did remind me of our summer youth group trips, though. I remember one trip in particular, sometime during my high school years. Man, on these trips, we’d just get swept up in something. Looking back, I wonder how much was God and how much was peer pressure or mob mentality or whatever. On this particular trip, I remember how they convinced us that we needed to get everything bad out of our system, no matter what it was. Our music pastor was there that night–he was a guy I didn’t care for at all because of various reasons. But since we were supposed to get everything bad out of us that night, I went up to him and apologized for hating him. Of course, he’d had no idea. Looking back I realize how goofy that was, but at the time, it just seemed like what i was supposed to do then. Everyone else was.
Anyway, maybe that’s not the best example of the whole “mob mentality” that goes on at some of these functions. But I will say kids are so open to suggestion and so easily swayed, that it just sort of made me sick to watch that movie. What further bothers me is that the really right wing Christians who freak out about Muslims indoctrinating their kids with radical religious beliefs are doing the same thing to their kids.
So there you go. I try to stay away from religion and politics on this blog, but I couldn’t NOT talk about it after seeing the first 10 minutes of that film. I apologize if anyone takes offense at it. And as an aside, I’d like to also apologize for my crappy writing skills in this post. That’s what happens when you try to write something coherent over the span of two days. Mrs. Mason, I hope you’re not reading this.
[...] Slog wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptI try to stay away from religion and politics on this blog, but I couldn’t NOT talk about it after seeing the first 10 minutes of that film…. [...]
Any “fundamentalist” anything is always wrong and strange. It doesn’t matter if you are a fundamentalist Muslim blowing up infidels or fundamentalist Christian blowing up abortion clinics.
Hopefully these kids will grow up and move away, for college, job, or other reasons and they can have their eyes opened. It’s so sad.
Yea, fundamentalist anything typically = bad.
I think your parents once thought I was Fundamentalist Black or something, rofl. I never really got the vibe you were crazy Christian chick though. I COULD see you trying to stay away from and/or break the mold however…especially during those couple of Scholar’s Bowl trips we took to Vanderbilt back in the day. It was one of the first time I saw you “let your hair down” so to speak.
BTW, did you break the remote? You like Harry Potter, so I’ll use that to explain. Much like a wand bound itself to a certain person, a remote control does the same with a man. If you busted the remote…well, a little piece of Josh died too. :-p
I saw that movie and had similar memories about my childhood. I think the good news is that we somehow worked out how to think for ourselves. It’s good you didn’t keep watching the movie because the mullet kid is this super sweet and sincere little guy. I also think he seems really smart and, man, if he doesn’t become a total nutter, that’s evidence for the existence of miracles.
It’s interesting that you talk about brainwashing Christians. I’m not arguing with you that what the mother said was wrong. What she said was wrong, but I feel I need to express my own opinions here (even though I came across this site by googling my own name). I am a university student doing a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and I am a Christian. A creationist at that. Despite the many allegations that science has to dispel a 6-day creation, I have found no backup proof to claims. I believe science has an important impact on our lives, but I think that to say everything you hear about science and in science is correct, is a form of brainwashing in itself. To argue effectively against creationism you need to understand why you believe what you believe, with evidence to back it up, or essentually you’re just defending someone else’s theories. And it’s a sad truth that much of science has become like that. People are so caught up on trying to reliquish the fact that there is someone who has more control over their lives than themselves that they are willing to “free” themselves by becoming slaves to lies.
If you have questions about my beliefs, or just want to have a go at me, then please email me @ aliasrayd@gmail.com. I believe that people deserve to know the truth, which is understandably near impossible to get published, based on the presupposed evolution stigma surrounding universities today.
Cheers,
Rayd
Are you claiming you know the absolute truth surrounding the debates held (idiotically) between religion and science?
Because that’s what it SOUNDS like you said. And if that IS what you said, then I doubt you’ll ever get taken seriously unless you are God himself.
And if you are God, it’s pretty sweet that you call yourself rayd. I mean, the four of us that created the site all have God complexes, but that would take it to a new level ;)
Pardon my husband, he’s an internet jerk. :)
Ha, no, I’m not God.
No I don’t know everything and I have been wrong about plenty before, however I do have a strong opinion on Intelligent Design and too often see people mistake the science of creation for Christian philosophy when comparing with the science of evolution.