Jesus camp is a movie about Faith. If you have Faith you will smile and be uplifted and reassured by its portrait of the evangelical movement. If you don’t have Faith it will Frighten you. Frightened of what? Of the army of fundamentalists being raised, and indoctrinated in our own backyard to bring a perfect kingdom for God in America at any cost.
Jesus Camp is a documentary following a few Evangelical children to Jesus Camp. This is an important movie because they claim 25% of Americans are Evangelical. Obviously, this is a significant number of people who now have considerable influence on American politics. The movie starts at home with the children where the terrifying statistic is shown that 75% of home schooled children in the US are Evangelical.
The movie observes a lesson where the mother is teaching her child out right lies about evolution and global warming. There are also clips of movies and presentations presented while they are shown to children making ridiculously inaccurate statements about Abortion, Global Warming, and Evolution. Their fundamental argument seems to be, the people who disagree with them just have wrong, “Beliefs”. They fail to acknowledge or address that their own ideals are nothing more then Faith/Beliefs which are not verifiable in anyway.
Worse, their logic behind denying global warming and a lot of other problems in the world is just that the Earth is temporary and so it doesn’t really matter. What a horrible legacy to leave to your children. Well we thought the world was going to end, so we really didn’t think destroying the climate and starting World War Three would really matter in the long term. It’s as if preachers are starting to behave like corporate executives only concerned with this present quarter’s earnings as opposed to working for the betterment of all humanity.
Their tactics for indoctrinating these children are cruel and manipulative. Fear and Guilt are blended to terrify these children to create a fundamental emotional response to these issues. Their speaker on abortion shows them blatantly inaccurate models of the fetus at 7 weeks, and tells them 1/3 of their friends are dead because of abortion. They go on to impress upon these children that it is their responsibility to stop it, and hint they could do it now if they wanted too. No child is in anyway responsible for abortion, nor should they have to worry about it. For a ‘Culture’ so concerned about sheltering their children from sex they are very pre-occupied by it.
It’s not just abortion either. They are telling these kids they are the chosen ones, that they are responsible for the future of the US. Which is an extremely effective tactic for three reasons, first the children now feel the responsibility to do it and the guilt for how bad things are and cynically you could say it lets the parents and God off the hook for the previous generation’s failings. Second Fear, children want approval in the eyes of their parents and peers, so they will go to great lengths to be accepted. These children are also taught to fear Hell for not doing as they are told, and to fear for this country should it not become what they wish. Lastly, this generation Y is also considered the most narcissistic ever, and their message plays right to these kids making it so seductive, that they are the chosen ones, they can bring Christ back, the power is theirs and they are the most important things.
They don’t stop at just opinion making and self-esteem building though; they are aiming to create an army of Martyr’s. These kids talk openly of their joy in dying for Christ. I don’t remember Jesus asking children to die for him, especially in battle. The language used by the ministers is one of War and metaphoric violence. These children will be the next generation of militia members, and home school teachers. How can you ask a child to die for something when they don’t even fully comprehend death? How can you ask someone to comprehend death with only one opinion of the afterlife?
Ultimately, the problem is they are pounding ‘gut’ instincts into these kids so they will be overwhelmed by emotion when these issues are brought up which will handicap them mentally as adults when they are asked to make reason based decisions on these real world decisions. These biases are being established ling before these children have an opportunity for them to learn other perspectives, or that there are even other perspectives out there and that they are not the work of the devil. 25% of American’s will answer the call, “Do you love your Guns, God, and Government!?!?!?!”
