"Kickin' it for Christ"

For many months, I’ve been waiting to see the documentary film “Jesus Camp.” I finally watched it tonight. And I’m simultaneously speechless, and swamped with words… I knew what the content would be, but I still was not expecting to see what I saw with the children. The emotion, the intensity, the sobbing, the speaking in tongues.

One boy, he couldn’t have been older than 10, took the microphone and talked about how he has such a hard time being a Good Christian; how he has such a hard time believing in G-d, when G-d can’t be seen; how he has such a hard time believing the Bible… that he crumpled down, into himself, and sat on the floor crying and shaking while the congregation around him looked stunned and ashamed that he had admitted those things.

One mother discussed why she home schools her children. She said that all science is wrong, is teaching her son how to argue the myths of global warming and evolution. Her 12-year old son said, “I think Galileo made the right decision in giving up science for Christ.” (He was holding this textbook.)

The evangelical children’s pastor, on the youth she works with:

There’s some extreme Liberals, they have to look at this [committed, Christian, pro-life kids] and start shaking in their boots. The intensity you see in these kids, there’s no doubt: they have to be watching this and going “Oh my goodness, I didn’t know this was possible. What are these kids going to be like when they grow up?” You want to see intense, you want to see kids passionate about Christ, this is it. And I have to believe, with all of my heart, that this is just the tip of the iceberg. I believe those kids made an impact in heaven [by rallying prayers against abortion]. G-d hears the voice of children. *phew* It makes me want to cry.

… In the next scene, she’s saying, on the radio, that she has no political message, that she’s not feeding children to the republican party.

So here’s the thing: I’ve often considered Chabad/Lubavitch to parallel Evangelical Christianity… Both do outreach, try to “convert” or “save” to varying degrees. But I’ve never heard of Jewish children being indoctrinated in the way that these Christian children were. And their pastors know that they’re indoctrinating them – it’s a conscious decision to do so!

See this movie. Discuss the movie. And let’s figure out a way to start teaching children about “liberal” issues like human/civil rights and the choice to learn more than one perspective. … Because if we don’t, this 25% of the American population will take over, and quickly. The message in the movie is that they are the “key generation” – they’re referring to the second coming, but they could just as easily be talking about changing the US, and Canada, in ways that I cannot will not imagine.

Filed under: america, politics, religion, wtf?