fidgeting.net

After watching Jesus Camp today, I was left thoroughly disturbed. This is a movie that chronicles the indoctrination of young Evangelical Christians with the teachings of the Evangelical church. It is a movie that features children speaking in tongues, crying, and even having seizures, all in the name of God. They even worship a cardboard cut-out of George W. Bush. The children go to a camp dedicated to teaching them the word of God, but instead, it seems more like a brainwashing.

Many of the scenes in this documentary revolve around what happens during sermons, with the children screaming aloud and writhing on the floor. It is sickening. But, it does not end there—the children are also brainwashed at home. Because their parents believe public schools to be unfit for their children (primarily due to the fact that schools do not teach creationism), many are homeschooled. At home, the teachings of church are reinforced, illustrated in the revised Pledge of Allegiance they say before school:

I pledge allegiance to the Christian Flag, to his savior, to his kingdom it stands, one brotherhood uniting all Christians, in unity and in love.

I pledge allegiance to the Bible, God’s holy word. I will make it a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. I will hide its word in my heart that I might not sin against God.

While the U.S. is so concerned with Muslim fundamentalists in the Middle East, perhaps we should also be watching out for fundamentalists within our own borders; these are people who are determined to get more and more political power to further their goals. A preacher, near the end of the film, even states how excited he is at the power of evangelical voters in elections—he believes that, were all the evangelical Christians to vote, they could win any election: a scary thought indeed.