This is a documentery movie review by David Byrne of Talking Heads fame. Taking into account that documentaries generally have some sort of slant or agenda so may not present all sides, this is still a rather frightening subject. But given how out of touch with reality many fundamentalists have become, not unexpected. Jesus would have been appalled at what’s being done in his name. Don’t try to tell it to these kids once they’ve grown up indoctrinated, though. They might kill you with God’s love.
Saw a screening of a documentary called Jesus Camp. It focuses on a woman preacher (Becky Fischer) who indoctrinates children in a summer camp in North Dakota. Right wing political agendas and slogans are mixed with born again rituals that end with most of the kids in tears. Jesus CampTears of release and joy, they would claim — the children are not physically abused. The kids are around 9 or 10 years old, recruited from various churches, and are pliant willing receptacles. They are instructed that evolution is being forced upon us by evil Godless secular humanists, that abortion must be stopped at all costs, that we must form an “army” to defeat the Godless influences, that we must band together to insure that the right judges and politicians get into the courts and office and that global warming is a lie.
There were some perfect sound bites — at one point Pastor Fischer instructs the little ones that they should be willing to die for Christ, and the little ones obediently agree. She may even use the word martyr, which has a shocking echo in the Middle East. I can see future suicide bombers for Jesus — the next step will be learning to fly planes into buildings. Of course, the grownups would say, “Oh no, we’re not like them” — but they admit that the principal difference is simply that “We’re right.”
In another scene a cardboard cutout of George W. Bush, with his trademark smirking smile, is brought out and the children are urged to identify — many of the little ones come forward and reverently touch his cardboard hands.
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They want to turn the U.S. into the “Christian” version of Iran or Saudi Arabia. A theocracy.
Kevin: First you go on a tyrade about how saying that ”religion kills” is hateful, and then you say that the movie is
“a transparently gratuitous slam against Christianity by equating it with the murderous commands of Islam.”
How is that not a hateful slam on islam. Saying ”religion kills” is not a meme, it is an observation, just like your observation about murderous commands in islam may be. Saying that christianity is somehow morally above islam – now that’s an expression of a common meme. and it is a hateful one, and it doesn’t support your self proclaimed status of a free thinker.
I also do not believe that the concept of mercy was invented by our modern monotheistic religions. Most indigenous cultures around the world, as well as the cultures that were more common before the monotheistic dogma spread, have deep spiritual beliefs that include a concept of mercy that is not for the sake of being directly rewarded in an afterlife.
Nirendra, I really liked and agreed with all of you comments, but I’m not sure you read Kevin’s comments closely enough.
I was raised like the kids in the movie, the pledges to the bible and the Christian flag I hadn’t said or heard in over 10 years but I knew them all by heart, I am a Christian, and don’t get me wrong, but being raised like that made me fell like my faith wasn’t my own but something drilled into me, I know the people in the movie all meant well, but the kids don’t know what there are doing, they are just praying and speaking in tongues because all the other adults and kids in the room are doing it, I’m not saying the kids don’t believe in God, I am just saying there faith isn’t there own choice at this young age.