Recently I watched a documentary called “Jesus Camp.” My own religious history has become a rather complicated story, and there is much that I used to believe, or tried to believe, that I have set aside in recent years. Jesus Camp was like a trip back to a part of my life that is so long ago and far away it’s almost like it happened to somebody else.
The first thing I want to say about this film is that it really did seem pretty even-handed. They don’t seem to have gone out of their way to make anybody look bad. I’ve known many people just like the ones in the film — and some of them I really good people. Most dedicated Evangelicals would pretty much agree with the things said in the movie.
The film focuses on the ministry of Becky Fisher. She is clearly very dedicated to ministry with kids. She’s likable, and puts tremendous thought and care into her work. I think a lot of her views are misguided and silly, but she has every right to them. Some people who watch the movie get the impression that she is trying to teach children to be Christian terrorists, but I don’t think that’s what she has in mind. I’m sure Ms. Fisher (it’s not clear if she is ordained) doesn’t expect her young audience to physically take up assault rifles and hand grenades to destroy the ungodly.
She’s right that youngsters in other countries and faiths are being taught to do exactly that, and I suspect she thinks the day will come when becoming literal soldiers for Christ might be necessary. The belief that “this generation will be the one that ushers in the return of Jesus to earth” includes the expectation that there will be some time of worldwide upheaval and civil disorder. But mostly, the war these children are being called to is a spiritual one — and being a soldier means having the courage to not swear or watch Harry Potter, and to tell your friends about Jesus even if they think you are weird.
This version of Christianity holds up a very demanding standard of focus on God, commitment to religious thought and activity, and abstention from things in the world around. You need a powerful sense of puprose to stay with all that.
Are these kids being brainwashed? Well, yes sort of. But we all teach our kids what we believe. And if you have some very strongly held beliefs, you will naturally teach your children those things with more vigor. But they do grow up, and even the most sheltered kids must eventually be exposed to other people and ways of thinking. It’s easy enough to wash things, but very hard to keep them clean. Brains included.
This doesn’t mean there was nothing that bothered me in this film. A lot is asked of these kids. To hear a nine or ten year old girl talking about a dance routine she does, saying that she has to be careful she is dancing for Jesus and not just for the flesh — well, that’s a pretty abstract concept. There is an awful lot of talk of sin and death and hell and punishment for imaginative young minds. And it bothered me most that the kids learned a lot about how abortion is wrong, and evolution is wrong, but apparently not very much about the more mundane duties of faith — being honest and helpful and considerate and humble. Of course, that stuff isn’t nearly as exciting as being a warrior for God.
The thing that bothered me the most, though, was Ted Haggard. I wish I had seen this movie before the scandal, because I can’t be sure how much of my revulsion had to do with the knowledge of his hypocrisy. But I was shocked, actually, at a section where Rev. Haggard was introduced to Levi, a 12 year old who hopes to become a minister, and has already begun to preach (not half badly, either.) Rev. Haggard is very insulting and patronizing to the young man, who is clearly deflated by the minister’s comments.
Haggard is just creepy and gross. And to be clear, I don’t say this because he is apparently a homosexual (although he still denies this.) I don’t think homosexuality is creepy or gross at all. But this is a person so plainly arrogant and disingenuous — a person who has crassly taken advantage of the deep spiritual truths of repentance and redemption to maneuver himself out of an awkward and expensive bind — he’s just, well, creepy. And gross. I hope I don’t have to see him on my TV again.
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June 28, 2008 at 5:36 am
Tom Twaiten
Hi Julie: A very interesting post. By coincidence, I’ve been reading a book about religion with a very different approach. It’s “The Year of Living Biblically,” in which the author relates his experience in trying to follow all the rules in the Bible as literally as possible for a whole year. While the book is very entertaining and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, it is not an attempt to belittle religion or make fun of it. The author, A. J. Jacobs, is a staff writer for Esquire, and his motive in writing the book is literary and monetary rather than religious. He’s just looking for a good topic for a book. While he isn’t trying to make any points, some appear anyway. One is that religions evolve over time. Another is that the Bible is complicated enough to require interpretation. Jacobs has a list of experts he consults at times. One is a retired Protestant minister, referred to at times as the pastor out to pasture, and another is an Orthodox Jew from Minnesota, who is referred to once as a Jewtheran (combining Jewish guilt and Lutheran repression). The author describes himself as an agnostic Jew, but he makes a real attempt to get inside his subject, and not just analyze it from the outside. I’ve gone on at such length because the book makes an interesting (to me, anyway) counterpoint to the experience you describe in your post.
June 29, 2008 at 7:00 pm
celera
I heard that writer in some interviews, Tom, and the book does sound interesting. One point that evolves is that of course nobody follows the Bible literally, and to do so isn’t really possible. Even the most fundamentalist Christians skip certain things, saying they pertain to different cultures or different “dispensations.”
Jacobs talked in one interview about his experience stoning an adulterer. It is one of the Levitical requirements, although I recall the stoning was of the mildest sort imaginable. It sounds like the book is funny and thought-provoking, which is a great combination.
July 14, 2008 at 8:47 am
Rachel
Exactly.