![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Jesus Camp
Apr. 22nd, 2007 08:41 pmOK, as promised, here is my review of Jesus Camp.
OK, it's actually a review, some reactions, and various rants, about the first half-hour of Jesus Camp which is as far as I've gotten so far...
God, damn!
Heh, literally, I suppose.
I finally got around to watching Jesus Camp. I thought it might be funny. I thought it might be familiar – reminders of happy childhood memories from Camp Koinonia, that I went to pretty much every summer throughout my childhood.
I enjoyed Camp Koinonia. We had games, and outdoor activities, and seminars about the evils of rock and roll music and evolution. And my friends Matt and Clark and I could hide up in the rafters of the cabins while the counselors were trying to get us to go to the classes, then we'd walk up to the dam, or go swimming in the Santiam river. Good times.
I figured Jesus Camp would be like that. Basically, I think, it's about the same as a normal summer camp, except they emphasize how the world's about to end, how to tell your friends about Jesus, why book burning is good for the soul, and, of course, all about EVILution.
“Because if we all evolved from monkeys, how come there are still monkeys?”
But, like the evangelical movement itself, Christian camp has evolved in the last few decades. I'm actually having a hard time watching this movie. I'm simultaneously terrified and pissed off. Some of you reading this have heard some of my stories of growing up fundamentalist. You have some idea of what I went through, and what kinds of scars it left me.
From what I've seen of these kids so far, it weren't nothing. I confess, I'm only fifteen minutes into this movie. I had to stop and write something because otherwise I'd hurl the laptop across the room. Or maybe just hurl.
OK, let's take it bit by bit. This'll probably let me get through the rest of this movie. Anyone saw the newest remake of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”? Well, the people in this movie are real. And far more scary. I can almost hear them: “'t'ain't nothing wrong with us”.
So what is wrong with them? Apart from the horrid psychological abuse they're putting these poor children through? Let's see.
We open in an auditorium where a bunch of war-painted children are looking intently into the camera doing a martial-themed sorta synchronized dance with sticks. I would guess most of them are fantasizing about the enemy they'll soon be fighting at the Battle of Armageddon. Except for one girl with severely pulled-back hair who is very clearly thinking “Lift and step and thrust and cross and back and lift and step and thrust and uh oh what was next?” I mention this not to make fun of her, but to point out that of all of the poor souls up on the stage, she's probably the one who has the best chance. She realizes already that it's purely theater, She knows the truth and the truth may yet set her free.
“I have no idea how many people are here today,” a woman is telling the 80-odd people gathered there, “but I'm told the auditorium will hold about five hundred, so we're doing pretty good, aren't we?” She hawks her book (which is a three-ring binder “available in the bookstore” she announces, without being interrupted by a madman with a whip overturning the tables of the moneychangers.)
Closeup of an eager-looking child we later learn is Levi, age 12, and she mentions the camp, to scattered brief cheers. Brochures are also in the bookstore. “You need to pick one up and begin praying about whether you can get there this year.” Her words are chosen with the care of an expert salesman and delivered with a cadence that might have been learned from a Neuro-Linguistic Programming workshop.
“Is there anyone in here who believes that God can do anything?” No, this is not a rhetorical question. We don't have those in Evangelical Christianity. Questions are meant to be answered, as a rather mean-looking woman reminds her children, yanking the younger daughter's hand forcefully into the air, then turning to the other kid, who wasn't paying much attention.
Heh, looks like me in church about his age. I like him. Also, he looks scared. Smart kid.
“Becky Fischer is a Pentecostal children's minister” the caption reads, “She runs conferences and an annual summer camp for Evangelical kids”. It doesn't mention she's also a very evil woman who practically salivates at the thought of having so much power over “her” children that they'd act as human bombs if she told them to.
“I can go into a playground of kids that don't know anything about Christianity, lead them to the Lord in a matter of just... no time at all, and just moments later they can be seeing visions and hearing the voice of God. Because they are so open. They are so usable – in Christianity” Interesting the emphasis on Christianity. No mention of Christ. But that makes sense. These people don't focus on Christ, but on Christianity. It's a war. Our side is Christianity. The other side is the forces of evil: liberals, scientists, and Muslims. The goal is not to focus on Jesus. Because that comes with all that baggage like loving your neighbor, giving to the poor, and praying quietly in closets so that God, rather than Man, will hear you. Christianity, on the other hand, is free to be whatever it needs to be to bring in the donations, influence politics, and, most importantly of all, win those souls to... Christianity.
“They're taking their kids to camp,” she explains about the Muslims, “and they're putting hand grenades in their hands, and they're teaching them to put on bomb belts,” her voice rises, and the tempo increases, this is exciting to her, “It's no wonder with that kind of discipleship and training that those young people are willing to kill themselves in the cause of Islam.” And that's her model. That's the kind of power she covets.
She also, by the way, believes that the reason Christian's aren't nearly as persecuted now as they were just a few years ago is because George W. Bush has brought some real credibility to “the Christian Faith”, by frequently mentioning his Faith. (Unlike all presidents before him, I guess, who would never have dared to mention God in public.)
It's a moment of prophecy, she tells us, and it's time to Stand Up and Take Back the Land for Christianity! OK, so she did actually mention Christ that time. But even then, it's obvious she means Christianity. She's not interested in winning souls, except as voters who can turn America into the theocracy she drools over having.
Levi explains that he Got Saved at the age of five because he “just... wanted more in life.” Yeah, OK, so he's just parroting the words he's heard others say when they give their testimony, it's still funny. Ten to one this kid gets busted for drugs within ten years. Either that, or he stays with the Church until the age of 40, at which point he goes to jail when it comes out that he's been molesting children as a youth minister for the last 20 years, and that's why he's been quietly moving from church to church. The kid on the right doesn't know it yet, but he's lucky. His skin is too dark for the rest of them to ever fully accept him. Oh, they'll never say anything overt, especially in his presence, and many of them will practice Humility by letting them into their homes (though never unsupervised), but when he's not around it's pretty well understood that Jesus made America for White People. He'll slowly drift away from the church, not really getting the comradery out of it that others might, and probably go on to live a relatively normal life.
43% of Evangelicals become “Born Again” before the age of 13, the captions tell us as part of their explanation about what an Evangelical is. Of those who cite the date of their being Saved as later than that (It's an important date, as much or more than the date they were born the first time), most grew up in Evangelical homes. They may have “backslid” for a while, but most probably have several “saved” dates. I know I did, partly just because I had forgotten the original date. If you'd asked me when I was 18, I probably would have told you I was Saved at 16, even though I'd probably Accepted Jesus at least every other year before then.
There are not only two flags, there are two Pledge of Allegiances. In the 50's, they got “under god” inserted into the secular one. I don't have internet access as I write this or I'd point you to the Christian one, which is recited immediately after the Secular version. I'm sure you can Google it, though.
Hey, is that Kent Hovind on the TV? Or one of the many imitators? “It is said that we came from an explosion, or a gob of goo. Eeew! Is this true? Is it 'scientific', or just based on a belief?” The animated bird-thing asks in the video Levi is watching “Creation Adventure” before his mother claps to summon him into the kitchen where his home-schooling lesson begins. Today's topic is science. Kind of. “Exploring Creation With Physical Science” is the text book used here. This is an actual quote: “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?” Yes, that is an actual quote from an actual textbook used in this poor kid's home-school. Thousands of children across the United States are learning (I use the term loosely) from this very book. And, since it's an Evangelical book, the question is neither rhetorical or open-ended. No discussion on the logical fallacy of using a single data point as supposed proof. No discussion on how global warming is too complex for any final conclusions to be drawn from the temperature trend over “a few years” in a single geographical area. No, the answer is simple, and rote: “It's only gone up 0.6 degrees.” It's the kind of scientific reasoning that makes even creationism seem reasonable.
Remembering my own one year of Christian school, that kind of question – straw man attack on scientific theory – was pretty representative. An actual question from the Christian “education” of my youth: “Explain why the French Revolution failed.” “The French Revolution was a failure because it did not include God like the American Revolution did.”
Anyway, Levi and his mother/teacher then have a short discussion of how Global Warming is a hu-u-u-u-ge political issue. And, of course, it is. Global warming wasn't an issue amongst the evangelicals of my day the way it is now. (Neither was gay rights, but that's another story). But they spend a lot of time denigrating it now. Churches are natural allies of big business. The oil industry stands to lose a lot of money, and might not be currently breaking all records in amount of profits if we were to, say, have initiatives to cut back carbon emissions. Like, for instance, giving tax breaks to solar or wind power generators as large as those currently given to the oil industry. But, how to get large numbers of people to ignore overwhelming existing science and vote directly against their own best interests? Enter religion, and decades of experience fighting against evolution, and centuries of experience before that fighting against heliocentrism. These people know what they're doing. And if you can convince them that global warming is also a threat to their religion, by pointing out that the people warning against it are claiming that mankind can have an effect on the entire planet, and that they're saying the world can end in some other way than Jesus returning, well, there you go.
It's a horribly cynical use of religion to advance a political agenda. But it's even worse than that. It isn't just P.T. Barnum enriching himself at the expense of a bunch of suckers. It's holding back the progress of all mankind. It's fighting against science, refusing to fix problems potentially hurting millions, if not billions, of people, because someone has convinced them that acknowledging them would cast doubt on their religion.
“If you look at Creationism, you realize it's the only possible answer to all the questions.”
“That's exactly what Dad said.”
“Yep, it's the only possible answer to all the questions.”
And I'm sure it is exactly what Dad said. Probably word-for-word exactly what many people have said, parroting whatever clever Evangelical leader said it first. Though, I bet none of them, not even Dad, could tell you what those questions are, or how evolution answers them, or how creationism's answers are any better. Again, it's the dumbing down of answers. Science by sound bite. It's the Only Possible Answer To All the Questions. You simply don't need to know more than that.
OK, quick break before the part where Science Doesn't Prove Anything. They got a copy of Lord of the Rings on the table! Lord of the Rings! The Book! I wonder if Levi's reading it? I wonder if his parents have any idea what's in it? Don't they know their church has condemned JRR Tolkien as a devil worshiping Pagan, along with his friend and colleague C.S. Lewis? Or has that changed since the movies of each came out?
“Jesus, I pray to you to help me make this a good one,” Rachel prays in the bowling alley, as she throws the ball. “Ball! I command you in the name of Jesus!” she adds, pulling every trick she knows to get a strike. The balls goes into the gutter. I guess Jesus doesn't love Rachel.
Jokes aside, it's insidious. You can see the look of hurt and confusion on her face after the ball fails to go where she told Jesus to put it. Rather than learning about striving, gradual improvement, practicing, and developing skill, what is Rachel learning from the game?
Not to mention the whole fundamental problem with praying for victory in a game, anyway. We're all familiar with The War Prayer, right? By Mark Twain? If not, Google it now. It's short – he's a much better writer than I am. Good, so the problem with praying at the bowling alley is the same. In this case, you're asking God that to make someone else lose. These kids are also learning to not distinguish between the importance of different things. After all, to an infinite god, all of these mere human conflicts, like a bowling game, or a war in Iraq, have got to seem pretty much the same, so why should his worshipers care more for one than a the other. They pray for victory in either case.
And, of course, there's the problem revealed by Rachel's prayer. And that is how their religion infests every aspect of their life. And they (“they” obviously doesn't include their leaders, like our Mr. Haggard here) must be continuously conscious of how their actions, and the results of their actions, reflect on the religion. Oh, no! If Rachel's ball didn't go in, even after she asked Jesus that it do so, will somebody watching think that that means Jesus doesn't really have any power? That they might as well worship Satan or Allah or Ozzy? That means somebody here watching might end up going to Hell because Rachel didn't keep her arm straight when she threw the ball.
You might think I'm joking, or being unnecessarily cruel to poor Rachel, but this is, exactly, what's the poor girl is going to be thinking, as much as she thinks about it at all. The guilt will be overwhelming. Especially once she gets older and a bit more independent. When her Sunday school class involves
detailed horrific descriptions of Hell, and reminders that it's her job to keep people from there, and that if she lusts after a boy and her friends find out, they'll think Christians aren't any better than unsaved people, and end up in Hell and it's her fault. Child abuse indeed.
The overwhelming need to Witness at all times. So here, they're out bowling and she sees some woman waiting for her turn. Conquering her fears, she runs over and quickly Witnesses, stumbling through her speech to the uncomfortable-looking woman. Hands her the pamphlet at the end – actually, I don't think she meant to. The woman just kind of assumed she was trying to hand it to her, and took it, but Rachel wasn't about to argue the point. After all, she can always get another one, and who knows, the woman might read it and Get Saved. After all, Jack Chick, the author of the tract she was reading, claims it happens all the time.
“Alright, Rachel. Way to be Obedient,” the youth pastor? Father? Whoever he is, tells her when she's done. He doesn't mean that he told her to go witness, he didn't mean being obedient to him, he means Obedient to God. Obedience, of course, is one of the prime virtues of these people. Children should be obedient to their parents, a wife obedient to her husband, a man obedient to his boss, and to the leaders of the land. It's a doctrine that gained prominence in feudal Europe, but, unlike most of these people's beliefs, is actually supported by the bible. One of the common children's songs goes:
Trust and obey
Trust and obey
For there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus
Than to trust and obey
Simple and to the point. Trust and obey Jesus. Trust and obey your parents. Trust and obey the police. Trust and obey President Bush. Good Christians are good Americans. And good Americans don't question their leaders. Of course, this is exactly the opposite of the entire point of the Constitution and all of its checks and balances. The whole “trust and obey” thing is not only medieval, it's downright anti-American. But still, a very useful attitude for any slick con-man who wishes to prey on Christians. And it's not just oil executives and politicians who have found easy sheering amongst the sheep. The FBI has an entire department devoted to “affinity fraud”, and almost all of that is amongst Evangelical Christians. Claim to be a Christian, come up with a exciting Testimony, and Evangelicals will believe anything you say.
OK, let me diverge a minute here to expand upon the earlier point there. I mention that the whole Obedience thing is supported by the Bible, unlike most of their beliefs. So, briefly, some of the important beliefs that are not:
Gay rights. The Bible can easily be seen to condemn homosexuality. So, a Christian who interprets it that way should not be gay (Mr. Haggard), but it also condemns being a busy-body. In the New Testament, Jesus never mentions homosexuality, but he does frequently condemn people focusing on others' shortcomings instead of their own, from “He who is without sin cast the first stone” to exhortations not to concentrate on the mote in your brother's eye while ignoring the log in your own.
Abortion. Christians feel it is their important duty to overturn Roe v. Wade, as the Bible tells us that life begins at conception. Of course, it doesn't. The New testament never touches on the subject at all, though the Old Testament does in a couple of places and is quite clear that human life begins when a person takes their first breath. Causing a miscarriage, either on purpose or by accident (for example, if you beat a pregnant wife too hard) is a sin, but one of the lesser ones. Definitely of a different category than murder. Similar to masturbation, in that it prevents a potential life.
Back to the movie. Victoria, I'm not too worried about. This girl's gonna be OK. She's a dancer. She mentions that when she dances, she has to remember that she's dancing for the Lord, and not to dance for the flesh. She admits to doing that sometimes. Yeah, it's bad that she feels guilty when she loses herself in enjoyment of the dance, but at least she does some time. My prediction for her future: when she gets a little older, she'll still love to dance for Jesus. She'll learn about, and move away from, the more intolerant assholes in her religion when she's clear she's dancing for the Lord but they condemn her for inciting lustful thoughts in them anyway. She might move into a more sane branch of the church, or leave it altogether. Either way, she'll be fine.
Speaking of the Pledge to the Christian flag, they say one here, but I think it's different than the one I learned. They also follow it with a pledge to the Bible, with everyone putting their hands on it. Man, if only they'd read the damn thing instead of just worshiping it!
OK, half an hour into the movie, and the kids that we were introduced to earlier begin arriving at the Camp.
I'll talk about that in part 2, to be posted at a later date.
OK, it's actually a review, some reactions, and various rants, about the first half-hour of Jesus Camp which is as far as I've gotten so far...
God, damn!
Heh, literally, I suppose.
I finally got around to watching Jesus Camp. I thought it might be funny. I thought it might be familiar – reminders of happy childhood memories from Camp Koinonia, that I went to pretty much every summer throughout my childhood.
I enjoyed Camp Koinonia. We had games, and outdoor activities, and seminars about the evils of rock and roll music and evolution. And my friends Matt and Clark and I could hide up in the rafters of the cabins while the counselors were trying to get us to go to the classes, then we'd walk up to the dam, or go swimming in the Santiam river. Good times.
I figured Jesus Camp would be like that. Basically, I think, it's about the same as a normal summer camp, except they emphasize how the world's about to end, how to tell your friends about Jesus, why book burning is good for the soul, and, of course, all about EVILution.
“Because if we all evolved from monkeys, how come there are still monkeys?”
But, like the evangelical movement itself, Christian camp has evolved in the last few decades. I'm actually having a hard time watching this movie. I'm simultaneously terrified and pissed off. Some of you reading this have heard some of my stories of growing up fundamentalist. You have some idea of what I went through, and what kinds of scars it left me.
From what I've seen of these kids so far, it weren't nothing. I confess, I'm only fifteen minutes into this movie. I had to stop and write something because otherwise I'd hurl the laptop across the room. Or maybe just hurl.
OK, let's take it bit by bit. This'll probably let me get through the rest of this movie. Anyone saw the newest remake of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre”? Well, the people in this movie are real. And far more scary. I can almost hear them: “'t'ain't nothing wrong with us”.
So what is wrong with them? Apart from the horrid psychological abuse they're putting these poor children through? Let's see.
We open in an auditorium where a bunch of war-painted children are looking intently into the camera doing a martial-themed sorta synchronized dance with sticks. I would guess most of them are fantasizing about the enemy they'll soon be fighting at the Battle of Armageddon. Except for one girl with severely pulled-back hair who is very clearly thinking “Lift and step and thrust and cross and back and lift and step and thrust and uh oh what was next?” I mention this not to make fun of her, but to point out that of all of the poor souls up on the stage, she's probably the one who has the best chance. She realizes already that it's purely theater, She knows the truth and the truth may yet set her free.
“I have no idea how many people are here today,” a woman is telling the 80-odd people gathered there, “but I'm told the auditorium will hold about five hundred, so we're doing pretty good, aren't we?” She hawks her book (which is a three-ring binder “available in the bookstore” she announces, without being interrupted by a madman with a whip overturning the tables of the moneychangers.)
Closeup of an eager-looking child we later learn is Levi, age 12, and she mentions the camp, to scattered brief cheers. Brochures are also in the bookstore. “You need to pick one up and begin praying about whether you can get there this year.” Her words are chosen with the care of an expert salesman and delivered with a cadence that might have been learned from a Neuro-Linguistic Programming workshop.
“Is there anyone in here who believes that God can do anything?” No, this is not a rhetorical question. We don't have those in Evangelical Christianity. Questions are meant to be answered, as a rather mean-looking woman reminds her children, yanking the younger daughter's hand forcefully into the air, then turning to the other kid, who wasn't paying much attention.
Heh, looks like me in church about his age. I like him. Also, he looks scared. Smart kid.
“Becky Fischer is a Pentecostal children's minister” the caption reads, “She runs conferences and an annual summer camp for Evangelical kids”. It doesn't mention she's also a very evil woman who practically salivates at the thought of having so much power over “her” children that they'd act as human bombs if she told them to.
“I can go into a playground of kids that don't know anything about Christianity, lead them to the Lord in a matter of just... no time at all, and just moments later they can be seeing visions and hearing the voice of God. Because they are so open. They are so usable – in Christianity” Interesting the emphasis on Christianity. No mention of Christ. But that makes sense. These people don't focus on Christ, but on Christianity. It's a war. Our side is Christianity. The other side is the forces of evil: liberals, scientists, and Muslims. The goal is not to focus on Jesus. Because that comes with all that baggage like loving your neighbor, giving to the poor, and praying quietly in closets so that God, rather than Man, will hear you. Christianity, on the other hand, is free to be whatever it needs to be to bring in the donations, influence politics, and, most importantly of all, win those souls to... Christianity.
“They're taking their kids to camp,” she explains about the Muslims, “and they're putting hand grenades in their hands, and they're teaching them to put on bomb belts,” her voice rises, and the tempo increases, this is exciting to her, “It's no wonder with that kind of discipleship and training that those young people are willing to kill themselves in the cause of Islam.” And that's her model. That's the kind of power she covets.
She also, by the way, believes that the reason Christian's aren't nearly as persecuted now as they were just a few years ago is because George W. Bush has brought some real credibility to “the Christian Faith”, by frequently mentioning his Faith. (Unlike all presidents before him, I guess, who would never have dared to mention God in public.)
It's a moment of prophecy, she tells us, and it's time to Stand Up and Take Back the Land for Christianity! OK, so she did actually mention Christ that time. But even then, it's obvious she means Christianity. She's not interested in winning souls, except as voters who can turn America into the theocracy she drools over having.
Levi explains that he Got Saved at the age of five because he “just... wanted more in life.” Yeah, OK, so he's just parroting the words he's heard others say when they give their testimony, it's still funny. Ten to one this kid gets busted for drugs within ten years. Either that, or he stays with the Church until the age of 40, at which point he goes to jail when it comes out that he's been molesting children as a youth minister for the last 20 years, and that's why he's been quietly moving from church to church. The kid on the right doesn't know it yet, but he's lucky. His skin is too dark for the rest of them to ever fully accept him. Oh, they'll never say anything overt, especially in his presence, and many of them will practice Humility by letting them into their homes (though never unsupervised), but when he's not around it's pretty well understood that Jesus made America for White People. He'll slowly drift away from the church, not really getting the comradery out of it that others might, and probably go on to live a relatively normal life.
43% of Evangelicals become “Born Again” before the age of 13, the captions tell us as part of their explanation about what an Evangelical is. Of those who cite the date of their being Saved as later than that (It's an important date, as much or more than the date they were born the first time), most grew up in Evangelical homes. They may have “backslid” for a while, but most probably have several “saved” dates. I know I did, partly just because I had forgotten the original date. If you'd asked me when I was 18, I probably would have told you I was Saved at 16, even though I'd probably Accepted Jesus at least every other year before then.
There are not only two flags, there are two Pledge of Allegiances. In the 50's, they got “under god” inserted into the secular one. I don't have internet access as I write this or I'd point you to the Christian one, which is recited immediately after the Secular version. I'm sure you can Google it, though.
Hey, is that Kent Hovind on the TV? Or one of the many imitators? “It is said that we came from an explosion, or a gob of goo. Eeew! Is this true? Is it 'scientific', or just based on a belief?” The animated bird-thing asks in the video Levi is watching “Creation Adventure” before his mother claps to summon him into the kitchen where his home-schooling lesson begins. Today's topic is science. Kind of. “Exploring Creation With Physical Science” is the text book used here. This is an actual quote: “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?” Yes, that is an actual quote from an actual textbook used in this poor kid's home-school. Thousands of children across the United States are learning (I use the term loosely) from this very book. And, since it's an Evangelical book, the question is neither rhetorical or open-ended. No discussion on the logical fallacy of using a single data point as supposed proof. No discussion on how global warming is too complex for any final conclusions to be drawn from the temperature trend over “a few years” in a single geographical area. No, the answer is simple, and rote: “It's only gone up 0.6 degrees.” It's the kind of scientific reasoning that makes even creationism seem reasonable.
Remembering my own one year of Christian school, that kind of question – straw man attack on scientific theory – was pretty representative. An actual question from the Christian “education” of my youth: “Explain why the French Revolution failed.” “The French Revolution was a failure because it did not include God like the American Revolution did.”
Anyway, Levi and his mother/teacher then have a short discussion of how Global Warming is a hu-u-u-u-ge political issue. And, of course, it is. Global warming wasn't an issue amongst the evangelicals of my day the way it is now. (Neither was gay rights, but that's another story). But they spend a lot of time denigrating it now. Churches are natural allies of big business. The oil industry stands to lose a lot of money, and might not be currently breaking all records in amount of profits if we were to, say, have initiatives to cut back carbon emissions. Like, for instance, giving tax breaks to solar or wind power generators as large as those currently given to the oil industry. But, how to get large numbers of people to ignore overwhelming existing science and vote directly against their own best interests? Enter religion, and decades of experience fighting against evolution, and centuries of experience before that fighting against heliocentrism. These people know what they're doing. And if you can convince them that global warming is also a threat to their religion, by pointing out that the people warning against it are claiming that mankind can have an effect on the entire planet, and that they're saying the world can end in some other way than Jesus returning, well, there you go.
It's a horribly cynical use of religion to advance a political agenda. But it's even worse than that. It isn't just P.T. Barnum enriching himself at the expense of a bunch of suckers. It's holding back the progress of all mankind. It's fighting against science, refusing to fix problems potentially hurting millions, if not billions, of people, because someone has convinced them that acknowledging them would cast doubt on their religion.
“If you look at Creationism, you realize it's the only possible answer to all the questions.”
“That's exactly what Dad said.”
“Yep, it's the only possible answer to all the questions.”
And I'm sure it is exactly what Dad said. Probably word-for-word exactly what many people have said, parroting whatever clever Evangelical leader said it first. Though, I bet none of them, not even Dad, could tell you what those questions are, or how evolution answers them, or how creationism's answers are any better. Again, it's the dumbing down of answers. Science by sound bite. It's the Only Possible Answer To All the Questions. You simply don't need to know more than that.
OK, quick break before the part where Science Doesn't Prove Anything. They got a copy of Lord of the Rings on the table! Lord of the Rings! The Book! I wonder if Levi's reading it? I wonder if his parents have any idea what's in it? Don't they know their church has condemned JRR Tolkien as a devil worshiping Pagan, along with his friend and colleague C.S. Lewis? Or has that changed since the movies of each came out?
“Jesus, I pray to you to help me make this a good one,” Rachel prays in the bowling alley, as she throws the ball. “Ball! I command you in the name of Jesus!” she adds, pulling every trick she knows to get a strike. The balls goes into the gutter. I guess Jesus doesn't love Rachel.
Jokes aside, it's insidious. You can see the look of hurt and confusion on her face after the ball fails to go where she told Jesus to put it. Rather than learning about striving, gradual improvement, practicing, and developing skill, what is Rachel learning from the game?
Not to mention the whole fundamental problem with praying for victory in a game, anyway. We're all familiar with The War Prayer, right? By Mark Twain? If not, Google it now. It's short – he's a much better writer than I am. Good, so the problem with praying at the bowling alley is the same. In this case, you're asking God that to make someone else lose. These kids are also learning to not distinguish between the importance of different things. After all, to an infinite god, all of these mere human conflicts, like a bowling game, or a war in Iraq, have got to seem pretty much the same, so why should his worshipers care more for one than a the other. They pray for victory in either case.
And, of course, there's the problem revealed by Rachel's prayer. And that is how their religion infests every aspect of their life. And they (“they” obviously doesn't include their leaders, like our Mr. Haggard here) must be continuously conscious of how their actions, and the results of their actions, reflect on the religion. Oh, no! If Rachel's ball didn't go in, even after she asked Jesus that it do so, will somebody watching think that that means Jesus doesn't really have any power? That they might as well worship Satan or Allah or Ozzy? That means somebody here watching might end up going to Hell because Rachel didn't keep her arm straight when she threw the ball.
You might think I'm joking, or being unnecessarily cruel to poor Rachel, but this is, exactly, what's the poor girl is going to be thinking, as much as she thinks about it at all. The guilt will be overwhelming. Especially once she gets older and a bit more independent. When her Sunday school class involves
detailed horrific descriptions of Hell, and reminders that it's her job to keep people from there, and that if she lusts after a boy and her friends find out, they'll think Christians aren't any better than unsaved people, and end up in Hell and it's her fault. Child abuse indeed.
The overwhelming need to Witness at all times. So here, they're out bowling and she sees some woman waiting for her turn. Conquering her fears, she runs over and quickly Witnesses, stumbling through her speech to the uncomfortable-looking woman. Hands her the pamphlet at the end – actually, I don't think she meant to. The woman just kind of assumed she was trying to hand it to her, and took it, but Rachel wasn't about to argue the point. After all, she can always get another one, and who knows, the woman might read it and Get Saved. After all, Jack Chick, the author of the tract she was reading, claims it happens all the time.
“Alright, Rachel. Way to be Obedient,” the youth pastor? Father? Whoever he is, tells her when she's done. He doesn't mean that he told her to go witness, he didn't mean being obedient to him, he means Obedient to God. Obedience, of course, is one of the prime virtues of these people. Children should be obedient to their parents, a wife obedient to her husband, a man obedient to his boss, and to the leaders of the land. It's a doctrine that gained prominence in feudal Europe, but, unlike most of these people's beliefs, is actually supported by the bible. One of the common children's songs goes:
Trust and obey
Trust and obey
For there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus
Than to trust and obey
Simple and to the point. Trust and obey Jesus. Trust and obey your parents. Trust and obey the police. Trust and obey President Bush. Good Christians are good Americans. And good Americans don't question their leaders. Of course, this is exactly the opposite of the entire point of the Constitution and all of its checks and balances. The whole “trust and obey” thing is not only medieval, it's downright anti-American. But still, a very useful attitude for any slick con-man who wishes to prey on Christians. And it's not just oil executives and politicians who have found easy sheering amongst the sheep. The FBI has an entire department devoted to “affinity fraud”, and almost all of that is amongst Evangelical Christians. Claim to be a Christian, come up with a exciting Testimony, and Evangelicals will believe anything you say.
OK, let me diverge a minute here to expand upon the earlier point there. I mention that the whole Obedience thing is supported by the Bible, unlike most of their beliefs. So, briefly, some of the important beliefs that are not:
Gay rights. The Bible can easily be seen to condemn homosexuality. So, a Christian who interprets it that way should not be gay (Mr. Haggard), but it also condemns being a busy-body. In the New Testament, Jesus never mentions homosexuality, but he does frequently condemn people focusing on others' shortcomings instead of their own, from “He who is without sin cast the first stone” to exhortations not to concentrate on the mote in your brother's eye while ignoring the log in your own.
Abortion. Christians feel it is their important duty to overturn Roe v. Wade, as the Bible tells us that life begins at conception. Of course, it doesn't. The New testament never touches on the subject at all, though the Old Testament does in a couple of places and is quite clear that human life begins when a person takes their first breath. Causing a miscarriage, either on purpose or by accident (for example, if you beat a pregnant wife too hard) is a sin, but one of the lesser ones. Definitely of a different category than murder. Similar to masturbation, in that it prevents a potential life.
Back to the movie. Victoria, I'm not too worried about. This girl's gonna be OK. She's a dancer. She mentions that when she dances, she has to remember that she's dancing for the Lord, and not to dance for the flesh. She admits to doing that sometimes. Yeah, it's bad that she feels guilty when she loses herself in enjoyment of the dance, but at least she does some time. My prediction for her future: when she gets a little older, she'll still love to dance for Jesus. She'll learn about, and move away from, the more intolerant assholes in her religion when she's clear she's dancing for the Lord but they condemn her for inciting lustful thoughts in them anyway. She might move into a more sane branch of the church, or leave it altogether. Either way, she'll be fine.
Speaking of the Pledge to the Christian flag, they say one here, but I think it's different than the one I learned. They also follow it with a pledge to the Bible, with everyone putting their hands on it. Man, if only they'd read the damn thing instead of just worshiping it!
OK, half an hour into the movie, and the kids that we were introduced to earlier begin arriving at the Camp.
I'll talk about that in part 2, to be posted at a later date.
