Brainwashing Children: A response to “Jesus Camp”
Yesterday, over an extended lunch break, I watched the documentary “Jesus Camp,” a long exposé on a Missouri woman’s quest to save the souls of America, starting with the young children. No age seemed off limits as she preached fire and brimstone to the youngest of elementary age children. The cameras follow the preacher, Becky Fischer and several children from the point of recruitment into the summer camp to the end of a week of preaching, speaking in tongues, condemning of abortion, and many more acts that seem typical of the Christian Right. The shocking part of the whole film was the fact that the children were so unbelievably young. The filmmakers provided a contrasting opinion to the mix by following radio talk show host Mike Papantonio, who’s flabbergasted response to the extremism could be viewed as the film’s only sensible commentary, or as the antagonist fighting against Fischer and her goals, depending on your viewpoint. Papantonio was a quite clever device set up by the directors in that role.
Throughout the film I constantly squirmed as such young and impressionable minds were ruined with half truths and even lies about the Bible, humanity, and the world beyond the United States. Again and again the children were told that the world was a hopeless place, lost and unredeemable and the only hope left was the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, who was supposed to be their free ride to heaven. Escapist theology, in a nutshell. Several times Fischer mentions just wanting to get out of this “sick ol’ world,” both to the camera and then telling the children that they should not desire to be in the “sick ol’ world.”
As a child, I went to a summer camp somewhere from age 8 till age 18, and I spent a number of weeks throughout a few summers as a staff member and counselor at various Christian camps. Much like the camp in “Jesus Camp,” theology was boiled down a bit for the children, depending on the age, but never was I scared into any belief. I treasure my times at those camps, regardless of my growth away from the theology and teachings there, because I was loved there above all else. I never had an out loud conversion experience at any of the camps I went to, but I was still loved. The teachers and counselors at those camps loved the children above all else, but in “Jesus Camp” the sole point was conversion of children into “warriors for Christ.” Quoting Becky during one of her many sermons to the children, “This means war! This means war! This means war…” And so on and so forth. The children were nothing more than spiritual cannon fodder in a war against Satan. Those poor children never had a chance to believe in the hope and love that God has for humanity, and that is the saddest thing I can imagine.
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