The Tweedles

Adam and I watched Jesus Camp last night. I’m not sure why I like to torture myself with documentaries that I KNOW will send me into a tizzy. And yet, I do, it’s like I’m some sort of sadist/ masochist freak (because I also made Adam watch it.) Throughout the movie we’d look at each other wide eyed and shocked that people think like the people on the show did.
So to recap, the movie followed a couple of kids and their families who are Evangelical Christians as they prepared to go to a summer bible camp. The camp claims to prepare the children to be “dedicated Christian soldiers in God’s army”, and to teach them how to take America back for Christ.
I know WTF! Soldiers? Soldiers! These were children, pre teen children at the oldest, talking politics, bashing other (christian) religions and praising George W. Bush. The pastor, Becky Fischer explained that there are Muslim camps that teach children how to use guns and hand grenades, to justify brainwashing the children in her church and ultimately the camp. I’m not sure if there are Muslim camps that teach children this, in addition to being prepared to lay down their lives like Becky says, but to use that as a basis for her camps is wrong, in my opinion. Granted she doesn’t have the kids using guns and other weapons, but to try to model a camp after something so grotesque is scary, even if it is just in name.
During one scene, one of the leaders at the camp brings out a life sized cutout of Bushy-Busherkins and they have the children pray to him, begging him to choose a good superior judge. They prayed for him to continue to lead the country as well as he already has. I sighed out loud at this scene. (I only sighed because I was getting numb and it wasn’t the worst of them all.) Children shouldn’t get involved in politics, they should be worried about child things. It was a scene that really evidenced how these children were having their childhoods robbed from them. It was sad.
There was another scene where a particularly brainwashed child was commenting how there are dead churches. The ones where the worshippers sit quietly and pray quietly. She mimicked them making her voice drone and robotic chanting something like ‘We worship you God…’. I was disturbed by this scene because she’s 9, and yet she has this hatred for other Christian sects, hatred for other people. When I was 9, I had no idea that there were other religions, nor did I care, because I thought everyone was the same, and I was happy with that thought.
That same girl would preach to other random strangers, and there was a scene where she gave a book to a random girl in a bowling ally, telling the stranger that God told her to do it. Her parents were proud, the stranger was befuddled. I worry that someday that little girl will approach someone and the stranger won’t politely thank her, that stranger may get offended, perhaps hurting her. And yet her parents encourage her to do this. I wondered to myself what I would have done. After my initial shock, I think I would just tell her I wasn’t interested and to have a nice day. Then I would stare daggers at her parents for allowing their daughter to be so brash.
There was another girl in the movie. She was 10 and liked to dance. She commented that she will only dance to Christian Rock, and that she sometimes danced for the flesh, but it was wrong and she shouldn’t. She should only dance to proclaim her faith. She’s 10. 10! So wrong. During the movie there were several close ups of this little girl crying during a lively prayer. She seemed to really get involved and always ended up crying. I wonder, if God loved her so much, and her him, why does she cry so much? Why is she encouraged to cry? There was one scene where she spilled 3-4 big tears and she looked right into the camera, then quickly away. Aware that she was being filmed, like she was making sure that her tears weren’t wasted. Again, a freaky loss of innocence.
The last boy I need to mention was about 9 or 10; he had a bad haircut, but that isn’t the issue, although it did bare mentioning, it was that bad. He liked to preach and was often given the opportunity. He told Ted Haggard that he particularly liked to preach about faith. Ted asked him if people liked to listen to him and the kid said yes. To which Ted asked if it was because he was a cute kid, or because he has good content? Then Ted told him to keep it up and rely on his cuteness and that by the time he was 30 his content will come. The kid was a little taken aback, and Ted was smug. This exchange solidified my dislike for Ted, I thought it was mean spirited. I don’t think a child should preach, but who was Ted to tell him he wasn’t good. Anyhow this is neither here nor there. This child was almost militant in his beliefs. A conversation was filmed of him and his mom during one of their home school lessons regarding evolution. The boy said it was stupid, and doesn’t understand how people could believe it and not creationism. (The whole movie seemed to really lack in the whole science department, clearly no engineers are being turned into soldiers.) The mother also asked him about global warming and he explained (I’m sure he was just regurgitating) that it’s not true, that the mean global temperature has only gone up 0.6 degrees in 10 years, and that isn’t anything to worry about. (To which I commented that 0.6 degrees in 10 years, when it’s been stable for millions is a lot, anyhow I digress.) I was saddened by the whole scene. Science is important, and yet, he is missing out. The movie said that 70 or 75% of the home schooled kids in America are Evangelical Christians. That’s a lot of science not being taught.
Finally there was a lot of anti abortion talk. What I found interesting is that the leader was showing the kids what a 7 week embryo looks like, it was about 5X too big. Clearly someone missed a science lesson, or 400. Anyhow the kids were all given plastic embryos, there was much crying and loud praying. I rolled my eyes. I have strong convictions about abortion, and they seem to be the exact opposite of what these kids are being taught. I had to look away. Children should not be involved in politics. But this abortion talk is for another entry, on another day.
Anyhow the movie was interesting. If you’re as liberal as I am, it’s scary. Becky even commented that really liberal liberals should be scared. I’m not so much scared by her, I’m disgusted, and I pity these children. Ted commented that the Evangelicals make up so much of the population that they can sway a vote, that scares me a little.
Little liberal me, with a blog and a argumentative nature.