Documentary: Jesus Camp
I just finished watching Jesus Camp, a documentary about some of the activities of the evangelic church in america. I now only got 10 movies to go before sunday’s Oscar gala!
The documentary shows us how some children in america are schooled in the evangelic faith by their parents and their church. The movie makers film children talking about their faith, the church meetings, some of the home education and the camp many of the children attend. They also film Mike Papantonio when he’s doing his radio show and talking about the evangelic church and his take on all of it.
It’s scary! Scarier than An inconvenient truth! They actually teach their children that the global warming is not a problem. When a mother homeschools her kid, they have the following conversation:
Mother: “One popular thing to do in american politics is to note that the summers in the united states over the past few years have been very warm. As a result, global warming must be real. What’s wrong with this reasoning?”
Child: “It’s only gone up by 0,6 degrees.”
Mother: “Yeah, it’s not really a big problem, is it?”
75% of homeschooled kids in the United States are Evangelic Christians.
The scariest part is right in the beginning of the movie where Becky Fisher, a Pentecostal children’s minister, says:
“I want to see young people who are as dedicated to the cause of jesus christ as the young people are to the cause of islam. I want to see them as radically laying down their lives for the gospel as they are over in pakistan and israel and palestina and all those different places. You know, because, we have… excuse me [exited]! But we have the truth!”
It’s a scary movie. Well worth watching! The thing is that the life these children seem to live doesn’t seem so bad. They get a lot of attention, they get a huge amount of moving experiences. They have a lot of people who care for them and what becomes of them. They have a community that thinks like they do. A lot of their basic needs are met by this lifestyle in the church. That’s why it’s so dangerous. There’s no reason for them to question what they are doing, and what is happening, since it all seems so good.
So, what can we do about it? Not much unfortunately, as far as I can see. They’re not legally doing anything wrong. Maybe they could change the rules about homeschooling, but I bet the right wing lobby would see to that never happening. There are estimates that 25% of the population in america is of the evangelic faith…
Kalle wrote,
Really scary. I for one believe there is very little good in religion. People can be nice without a brainwash.
February 21st 2007 at 15:16 (3:16 pm) — Using
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Mika Perälä wrote,
Heya Kalle
I myself believe that religion can be good, if it’s accompanied with a healthy dose of ‘This is my beliefs, other people can believe whatever they choose to’, and that there is no need to try to push ones own beliefs unto others. Unfortunately that isn’t the case in many of the religions.
A reason why I like buddhism
Buddha allegedly said: “You must not teach dhamma (the teaching) to someone who doesn’t ask for it”.
February 21st 2007 at 15:27 (3:27 pm) — Using
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Fredrik Persson wrote,
Perhaps religion can be good, but I think that, at least when it comes to islam/christianity/judaism, it’s weeeell beyond the point of the benefit of doubt.
And I agree 100%, this is scary stuff!
I have two recommendations on the matter;
1. “The God Delusion”, Dawking (book)
2. “The God Who Wasn’t There”, movie.
I consider myself an atheist, and have done so more or less my whole life. And I feel GREAT!
February 21st 2007 at 15:35 (3:35 pm) — Using
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Traian wrote,
A similar idea appears in episode 10 from the 3rd season of Boston Legal (called The Nutcrackers). Just that in this case, evangelists are replaced by two home-schooled white supremacists. It’s one of those situations when you can’t decide if it’s appropriate to laugh or not.
February 21st 2007 at 16:28 (4:28 pm) — Using
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Mika Perälä wrote,
D’oh! I don’t have an appropriate smiley for that! It should be the right half of this one
Smiling and confounded at the same time.
February 21st 2007 at 18:00 (6:00 pm) — Using
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JenEriC wrote,
“We have the truth!” sums up the problem with religions extremely well… And since God himself has spoken the truth to them, why should they bother with anything else; after all, they Have The Truth…
February 21st 2007 at 20:01 (8:01 pm) — Using
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Martin wrote,
Honestly these yanks scare me as much or maybe even more than the fundamentalist muslims in the middle-east.
Bush: “We shall prevail over these religious fundamentalists…with the help of GOD!”, hypocrisy at its worst. Anyone else got a feel that this Irak/Iran business is going to turn into the crusades 2.0?
February 21st 2007 at 20:02 (8:02 pm) — Using
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Mari wrote,
I’m a pagan and I’m alright, I sleep all day and I dance all night! :pom:
February 21st 2007 at 20:13 (8:13 pm) — Using
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Mika Perälä wrote,
Jens: Aye, agree! And since they know they are right, they just have to convince everyone else. Or as the mother in the documentary said “I firmly believe there are only two kinds of people in this world. Those who believe in Jesus, and those who don’t.”
Martin: Well, when I saw the documentary I got really worried about a future where the whole country is goverened by evangelians. Then it surely could go into Crusades 2.0! Right now? Naah, don’t think so. Bush is soon out, and the replacement will probably be Hillary Clinton.
February 21st 2007 at 20:20 (8:20 pm) — Using
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Mika Perälä wrote,
Mari:
February 21st 2007 at 20:22 (8:22 pm) — Using
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Modin wrote,
That was scary.
This is fun.
February 23rd 2007 at 00:48 (12:48 am) — Using
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Mika Perälä wrote,
Superb!!!
February 23rd 2007 at 01:04 (1:04 am) — Using
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JenEriC wrote,
So how did it go? Did you manage to catch all the candidates? And the most important question of them all, did the right one win?
February 26th 2007 at 00:53 (12:53 am) — Using
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Mika Perälä wrote,
It went well! And no, the right picture didn’t win! I will be blogging about it later
February 27th 2007 at 00:14 (12:14 am) — Using
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Hannes wrote,
For anyone interested, this documentary will be aired tonight (March 3rd) at 21:30 on SVT2.
March 3rd 2007 at 11:17 (11:17 am) — Using
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Mika Perälä wrote,
Oh, cool! Did any of you see it?
March 4th 2007 at 23:55 (11:55 pm) — Using
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Caroline wrote,
We did, though we missed the first part of it for some reason. Scary indeed!
March 5th 2007 at 19:17 (7:17 pm) — Using
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Modin wrote,
I’m sorry to say it pissed me off so much I quit watching…
But you can always make fun of Ted Haggard (who was apparently in the movie). Key phrase: “…in Denver”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1tW3p-zeq4
March 5th 2007 at 20:02 (8:02 pm) — Using
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Mika Perälä wrote,
Caroline: You missed the first part? Where did you start watching?
Modin: Oh, where did you stop watching?
Hahahaha! Poor Ted Haggard! Yep, he was in the movie. The clip of him talking to an audience, which is featured in the clip you refer to in you r comment is from the movie.
March 6th 2007 at 01:41 (1:41 am) — Using
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Modin wrote,
I stopped watching after that homeschooling mom explained science to her child.
But hey, you know Haggard isn’t gay. Because you know, he didn’t swallow.
March 6th 2007 at 17:04 (5:04 pm) — Using
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Caroline wrote,
And I started watching just before they started praying for the microphones and stuff…
March 6th 2007 at 19:47 (7:47 pm) — Using
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Hannes wrote,
Yeah, I sure hope God has a good spam filter so that. Isn’t there a slight risk that God might miss some important prayers like “please stop the war” or “let XXX get healthy” when he is bombed with prayers directed at microphones and Powerpoint presentations.
March 7th 2007 at 00:35 (12:35 am) — Using
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Edward Aschan wrote,
Um, isn’t that why he lets Bruce Almighty handle the mail for a short while? Use inept humans as spam filters. Sure, a lot of important stuff gets lost in the filter but your mailbox stays nice and empty.
March 7th 2007 at 23:07 (11:07 pm) — Using
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Mika Perälä wrote,
March 8th 2007 at 12:41 (12:41 pm) — Using
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Caroline wrote,
So that’s what you were doing! Yragti to you too.
March 8th 2007 at 13:53 (1:53 pm) — Using
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Modin wrote,
No, he never said that… that was just my Clinton reference (he smoked pot but didn’t inhale)
Actually, I can think of several more Clinton references. Wonder if Ted wore a blue dress?
I love it that you weren’t *really* sure that he said it… :pom:
March 9th 2007 at 01:24 (1:24 am) — Using
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Mika Perälä wrote,
Ooooh! You naughty man!
eeg: Made a fool of me! 
Oh, well, not the first, or last, time I guess! 
A very good Clinton reference I might add! 
March 10th 2007 at 03:25 (3:25 am) — Using
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