In Jesus' Name
One of Richard Dawkin's more controversial point in his book, The God Delusion
Then I watched Jesus Camp.
After being thoroughly disturbed by the movie, it made me reconsider my initial reaction to Richard Dawkin's assertion. I will come back to that, but first some more thoughts on the movie itself.
The stars of the movie are the children. Oh, the children. It was difficult to watch at times, particularly when it begins to get really over the top. I didn't take notes, but here are some highlights:
- Home school scene where the mom says, "Did you see the section where it says that science doesn't prove anything".
Yes, technically that is true, science does not prove anything. All science does is observe, hypothesize, test, and create theories to explain the world around us. For proofs, look to mathematics with it's rules and axioms and assumptions. But no, science doesn't prove anything.
That being said, science has proven to be immensely useful in everyone's daily lives. You drive a car, you use a computer, you give your kids antibiotics. You are using science, even though it hasn't "proved" anything.
In addition, would they assert that the bible "proves" anything? Don't be ridiculous. The bible is a collection of stories written by men, and nothing more. It doesn't "prove" anything.
- Scene where young Levi (who was at most 12 years old) talks about being saved at 5, because he wanted more from life.
This young boy was shown preaching in the movie. It was disturbing for me to hear him say that at 5 years old, he wanted more from life and became saved. He's 5 years old. He's just a kid, what could it possible mean for a 5 year old to want more from life? I'm not really sure
- Interview with the children's pastor Becky Fischer where she tells of her ability to walk up to a random group of children who don't know anything about Jesus and in minutes can have them hearing God's voice and speaking in tongues.
Because they're KIDS! You take young impressionable minds and you can make them believe that they were touched inappropriately by their parents if you try hard enough. Give me a break, there's nothing special about that "ability".
There are so many more scenes that disturbed me as a parent with young children. It was painfully obvious to me that these children (like all children) were doing these things just to gain the approval of the adults around them. There is a part of the movie where the children are all shouting (and crying and wailing and ...) "RIGHTEOUS JUDGES, RIGHTEOUS JUDGES" in regards to the supreme court overthrowing abortion. My impression is that these children don't really understand what they're saying. They're just mimicking the adults to gain their approval.
Take young Levi for instance. When he preaches, he's essentially repeating what he's heard the other adults say and thinking of other things that they adults want to hear. That's all he was doing. It was obvious to me as an outsider looking in, but I'm sure for the parents and the pastor, he has a gift.
In a case like this I would have to agree with Richard Dawkins. This type of indoctrination is a type of mental child abuse. It's brainwashing. There's no other way to put it. However, that raises more questions. Parents have a right to raise their children how they see fit, but the state places limits on those rights, i.e. you cannot abuse your child mentally, physically, etc. So then how do you determine what type of religious indoctrination is child abuse vs. which is not? Besides the fairly obvious ones (physical of sexual abuse) where does one draw the line? It makes for an uncomfortable intrusion from the government.
In either case, I recommend that atheists and theists alike watch the movie. It makes for a good substitute for a horror flick.
7 comments:
Wrt to the convincing of children that they can speak in tongues etc an atheist (and former evangelical Christian) Derren Brown managed to get some non-religious people to be "slain in the spirit" by suggestion and psychological tricks.
See http://archaeoastronomy.wordpress.com/2007/01/10/tricks-of-the-mind/
and
http://www.angasm.org/2005/03/derren-brown-messiah.html
Yeah, I have to say that this sort of thing really tests my faith (heh) in libertarian principles.
A couple years ago, I got to see glossolalia (speaking in tongues) up close for the very first time. It was truly bizarre and—considering the fact that family was involved—more than a little disturbing.
I watched Jesus Camp before reading Dawkins' book, so I completely agreed with Dawkins. Jesus Camp was very disturbing on a number of levels, and I remember being especially haunted by the look in Ted Haggard's gleaming eyes when he looked at the camera and taunted, "I know what you do at night."
Now I guess we know what Ted was up to as well.
I thought it was quite telling of Haggard, when he was talking with Levi after his Preachin' Spectacular, that he told young the preacher-in-training to "use the cute kid thing until you're thirty, by then you'll have content."
He knows it's all shit and he uses it. Fucker.
I don't think I need to see this movie. You know I'm not an atheist, but it does disturb how parents mentally abuse their kids in the name of God. One of my friends grew up Pentacostalist and absolutely paranoid that God was watching her at all times. To the point where she confessed to me that she did the completely irrational and would turn around in an empty room where she KNEW she was alone, just to make sure no one was there. She felt eyes on her all the time.
She was a bit of a nervous wreck for a while. If that's not paranoia, I don't really know what is.
I grew up in a moderately religious household, but I have to say that the sex education I got scarred me for my whole young life. It started young, and it was all very centered on how you'd burn in hell if you did anything other than sex within marriage with the essential intention of procreation to increase the population of the Catholic church--it wasn't enough to just want kids, you had to want God's children. After a disastrous marriage to a man who was brought up the same way (imagine the fun of two virgins not getting it on for 4 years, despite their best efforts to leave their upbringing behind), I was able to move on, but I still find bits of brainwashing cropping up in the most unexpected situations.
I think there's a place for religious education of children, but there's a lot of bad, even in moderate churches and households. I consider myself a libertarian, but man, I wish I had ten minutes with myself as a child.
As a Christian, it makes me sad to read these things and hear about movies such as "Jesus Camp".
Before I get started, please understand that I'm not here to "convert" anyone or argue about whether or not the Bible is true.
What's sad is that I've seen so many people who have been burned by "The Rules" portion of modern American Christianity. You know, "you can't have sex or you'll burn in hell", or "if you're gay, you go to hell".
Things like "Jesus Camp" just make the problem worse. These people are creating a generation of Pharisees (judgmental religious leaders of Jesus' day).
Matthew 22:37-40 listed two commandments as being the most important. They were designated as such by the person who is the basis for our faith.
*sigh* I wish these people would use a designation for themselves other than "Christian". It's embarrassing.
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