NOTE: The following blog post is an opinionated rant in response to the documentary Jesus Camp. Please take this post for what it is - a response to a documentary.
“My favorite thing to preach about is faith.” says the boy on the television screen. He is middle school aged probably 9 or 10 years old, at a camp off by himself preparing to preach to his peers. He paces, holding his Bible up, shaking it as if the words it contains might spray out to be absorbed by the invisible audience.
“ One-third of your friends could be here if it were not for abortions” this comes from a man in a red shirt with the word “life” on it.
A child, a little girl, not more then 9 years old, tears streaming down her face, wailing about abortion in america. “NO MORE!“ she wails. The children around her are swaying and have red tape across their mouths with the word “Life” on it. A parent quietly observes while video taping this scene.
A mother sits in the front row listening to speaker, one child in her lap, another beside her both no more then 5 years old. The speaker asks the children of the audience a question, the mother grabs her children’s arms making them raise them.
“My dancing must be of the Lord and not of the flesh.” this from a girl of about 8 years old. She talks about how her favorite music is christian rock and christian hard rock. The camera takes a step back as she dances.
A boy of about 10 on a stage in camouflage pants, a black shirt and green, black and brown paint on his face, looking like he is ready for battle. Using two rods as props he moves some what militaristically to the music playing over the sound system. The lyrics of the song speak of war, battle and fighting.
A day at the bowling alley. A young girl of 8 or 9 years walks up to a stranger telling her that she felt lead to speak to her.
An audience full of children, speaking “in tongues” while one is on the floor convulsing.
The “preacher” boy first mentioned tells the camera that he does not write the sermons that he preaches but God does. And sometimes his hand moves and writes things on it’s own.
Wait what?
There is something wrong with every picture here. Some are more obvious then others but none the less each of them are disconcerting in some way.
These are the children of indoctrination. Preaching sermons before they are a teenager, speaking in tongues, wailing
I watched this film knowing full well what I was getting myself into. I had heard of the film from several friends and despite their reactions I wanted to see it for myself.
In short I find what that woman does to be appalling, misguided, and ignorant.
Any one who knows anything about basic psychology knows how delicate and absorbent the young mind is. The way Christianity is taught to these children takes advantage of this and not in a good way. Children depend on their parents to take care of them
I do not deny the fact that the bible commands parents to “train up” their children. But being a christian does not mean that you have to be illogical, narrow-minded or deny empirical facts. I feel as though some christian parents tend to tell their children only what they want them to hear even when the child asks questions. When a child asks a question there is nothing wrong with giving them an honest answer. When you dodge a question or do not answer honestly the child figures it out; it might not be right away but they do figure it out. This can cause a mistrust.
I found this film to be incredibly frustrating and angering. These children are not being allowed to be what they are - children. In teaching these children these things in this manner it is forcing them to grow up too soon. It also encourages them to deny the empirical facts of the world around us. God can and does use science. Science is not evil, it has value. The same goes for philosophy and any thing else. How can we as Christians defend what we believe in if we do not acknowledge the things around us? Like it or not we live in a physical world and while we have an immaterial God he is still proven by the material.
Teaching children about God in this way does not make God seem real. It makes him seem like something to be afraid of, something to be nervous about. Teaching children something out of fear is not effective. Fear is not a legitimate or lasting reason for anything.
When children are given one option and only one option of course they will do what they are told. Parents need to be careful to not take advantage of this fact. I’m not saying that children should be presented with every view point. But when you shelter a child so all they know is one thing, and you shut down their questions, it will cause problems later in their life. They will not know how to accurately or logically defend their position on Christianity because it is all they know.
I think the main point of the train up a child is that children are not to be raised as property. Another element of this is that we are his children just as we have children. How does God teach us as his children? Does God force us to do anything? No. He gives us the free will to make and learn from our own mistakes. God watches out for us as his children but he does not shelter or indoctrinate us.
My final two thoughts:
Children need to be allowed to be children. They cannot do this if they are evangelizing before they are 12 years old.
Until a person has experienced God for them self Christianity is nothing more then something they learned from a textbook
