The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Impressionable children are portrayed as either brain-washed or blessed depending on your point view in Jesus Camp. This Academy Award nominated film for best documentary takes the cameras to a middle-America bible camp and portrays what comes across to me as a training ground for soldiers of God. I do not say this in a good way. Their blind faith leaves a disturbing impression on the viewer, although the many featured in Jesus Camp were reportedly very pleased with the final cut. Beauty is in the eye of beholder, indeed.

To celebrate God's will and the fight Christians have to take to non-believers, children less than 10 years old are dressed in camouflage and warpaint, dancing to Christian music while welding sticks that are struck together like weapons. They cry as their minister, Becky Fischer, talks about the evils of sin and Satan. All this is done without a flinch from the parents and the adults in attendance. They look on with approval as all others are wrong and, as Minister Fischer explains, it's because "We hold the truth".

A 12 year old boy named Levi explains he was "saved" at age 5; he found God and has been a better person since as he was wasting his life up until then. Children are taught that global warming is not a real issue, only the afterlife matters. Minister Fischer talks about how America's kids are fat & lazy because they are not like the 5 year old Islamic children who fast for a month during Ramadan. I have never seen so many kids outpour with so much emotion before, either because they feel they are weak and God has rejected them, or they feel that they are in a state of euphoria & bliss as they talk in tongues with tears rolling down their cheeks.

It's scary stuff, enough that those who are already lukewarm to religion will reject it entirely. But at the same time I also think that fundamentalist Christians may feel motivated by the film. The Evangelical church's mission, as portrayed in this picture, is essentially world domination. They go to Congress with red tape placed on their mouths with the word "LIFE" written in marker as they pray the pro-life Judge gets chosen to sit on the Supreme Court. World domination starts with controlling the people of their country, and no better place than to start with those who administer justice.

I don't expect many to watch Jesus Camp, but be aware of it. Jesus Camp is an alarm bell about the lengths the ultra-conservative religious right will go to get what they want, or maybe for you it is must-see viewing for children who have chosen the wrong path. For me, a non-atheist, it has to be the former.