I just watched the documentary Jesus Camp, and I am more than a little disturbed. For those of you who have not see it, it's about an evangelical youth program. The kids in the film are followed to different places, including their homes, the above mentioned camp, and the White House.
Some things that will stick in my mind until I can drink them out:
Interview in her home: A little girl who likes dancing (and isn't too bad at it) explaining that she has to keep God in mind while dancing, or she might find herself dancing for the flesh, which would be wrong.
At camp: A rally where the children are exhorted to pray for President Bush (the documentary was released in 2006) because he is the hope for making America Christian again.
Also at camp: Harry Potter is evil. If Harry Potter had been in Biblical times, he would have been put to death.
At camp again: An anti-abortion rally.
Now, you may not find anything wrong with the above, but shouldn't a camp about Jesus include some actual Bible-learning sessions? (If you think they might have been cut out, the complaints about the movie from evangelical Christians were not about that. The lack of Bible study was never addressed, in the documentary or out of it.)
At the end: Some of the children in the movie are out in the community. A little girl asks three African-American men where they think they would go after death. They're pretty sure they're going to Heaven. Later, when talking about how unreceptive they were, a little girl says she thinks they're Muslims.
Like I said, I'm disturbed. Well, maybe more weirded out.
My mom's a Christian, and I think this would make her froth at the mouth in indignation. (Whenever subject of right-wing Christians comes up, she has to explain - at high volume - that they're not really Christians.)
I'm not a Christian, and if I was in the market for religion, this would scare me the hell away from it.
I really need some dessert items.
I wonder if they have any clue that every time they mix their religion with their secular beliefs, they're breaking the Second Commandment? It's a pretty hefty Commandment. Moses broke the first set of commandments written by God after seeing the Children of Israel breaking that particular spiritual law. Now modern religions break it casually.
ReplyDeletePeople who wield Jesus's name like it was a Trademark to be stamped on their secular crusades are like skid marks on the soft white undies that make up the body of the Christian Faith.
"skid marks on the soft white undies that make up the body of the Christian Faith"
ReplyDeleteI am saving that quote, for purposes of repeating it later.