This means war

Sep 30, 2006 by Daniel Ross-Jones

As planned, I saw the movie Jesus Camp last night with Chris and Bryan. The best summation I can provide is from Chris himself:

That is the scariest movie I have seen in a long time.

The reviews simply don’t do this movie justice. One knows it’s a good, unbiased documentary when the reviews are a mixed bag: those involved with the actions call it a good film, in this case, claiming the film will change the hearts and minds of Americans to radically follow Christ, and those avoiding the actions say the same, claiming the film will finally bring to light what the evangelical, charismatic, pentecostal movement is doing.

What is most repulsive to me, however, is how indoctrinated these kids are being to the radically anti-family, anti-values, anti-liberty platform of the Republican Party. At one point in the movie, a cardboard cutout of President Bush is brought in, and the kids kneel at his feet to call upon him to continue the “good work” he is doing. (One can only assume they’re not talking about election fraud, misclaims about WMD in Iraq, or the inability to read children’s books right-side-up.)

Ted Haggard, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, is preaching in his home congregation in Colorado Springs at the end of the movie. He takes a couple of moments to be candid with the filming crew following the service, and expresses his joy at the statistics. And the statistics are staggering: every two days, a new megachurch is planted in the United States. The evangelical movement claims 25 percent of the U.S. population. What the evangelicals want, the evangelicals get, because they have the critical mass necessary to steer this entire country.

But possibly even more upsetting is what comes next; the praying and speaking in tongues calling for abortion to be overturned. These kids are as young as five, far too young to have an understanding of what the birds and bees are, let alone what abortion consists of. For a group of people to be having them dress up, standing at the foot of federal buildings in Washington is simply inappropriate. How is this showing family values? How is this letting kids be kids? At five, I was playing with rocks and sticks. Strike that — I’m not sure if I even graduated to rocks quite yet. I wasn’t protesting. I didn’t have any idea of what the government was. I knew there was a guy named President Bush (the other one) and there was a place called Iraq (the first time) and I knew my aunt was going there and I was excited because then we got to babysit her cat. I didn’t have a clue.

Oh, yes, Iraq. Didn’t come up once in the movie as being a mistake, as being contrary to God’s word of peace and justice. It was George Bush is wonderful, the Congress is now wonderful, America is turning from its demonic ways, and the separation of church and state has lost its time because it allows for a diversity of opinion and has destroyed itself because the evangelicals have the truth.

But truthfully, my favorite part of the movie, was when this ten-year-old girl was approaching African American strangers in the park and asking them if they were sure they would go to heaven when they died. They assured her they did, but she wasn’t satisfied with their answers. Finally, she walks away, announcing to the kids who were with her, “I think they were Muslim.”

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