17 September 2010

Jesus Camp




I know I'm late to the party, but I finally saw the 2006 documentary "Jesus Camp", and DEAR LORD, that was possibly the scariest film I have ever watched. The documentary was infamous enough to have the camp featured in it shut down, and with good reason. Many of the children, in my opinion, appear to be brainwashed into believing far-right Christian ideology, and will even die for God. Hmmm...a religious camp filled with revolution-minded zealots that indoctrinate children to fight and die for God...where have I heard that before?

In short, the documentary is quite disturbing, but don't think that this covers fundamentalist Christianity as a whole; it's just the radical fringe movement that's giving their religion a bad name, similar to al-Qaida being one of the main causes for Islamophobia. You can watch "Jesus Camp" here. (The film is divided up into nine parts. The link takes you to the first part.)

Extremism, whether religious or otherwise, is never a good thing; Aristotle was said to apply "moderation in all things", and even the Bible stresses moderation in 1 Corinthians 9:25:
"And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they [do it] to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible."


Whether you're a Christian, Muslim, Jew, atheist, or otherwise, I think we all can agree on praying for the all of the children who went through the Kids on Fire Summer Camp and other camps like it. They'll need it.

siggy 2010

"Jesus Camp" © Rachel Grady & Heidi Ewing. Distributed by Magnolia Pictures.