Jesus Camp
Jesus Camp
“It is no wonder, with that kind of intense training and discipline, that those young people are ready to kill themselves for the cause of Islam. I want to see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people are to the cause of Islam. I want to see them as radically laying down their lives for the gospel as they are over in Pakistan and Israel and Palestine and all those different places, you know, because we have… excuse me, but we have the truth!” says Becky Fisher, a camp director, at the annual youth on fire camp for Evangelical children. Jesus Camp was a wonderful film, but at the same time, a little disturbing. The film explores the lives of a group of children, who at very young ages, are brainwashed and deprived of the simple freedoms and choices. These are the simple choices that they should be able to make to guide their lives in the path they would like it to go on. Their parents, along with leaders, are a part of the Evangelical Christian group who are using these children to build up a so-called “Republican Army.” Their ultimate idea is to create a government that they are comfortable with, and one that shares the same moral values to achieve their political goals.
Childhood is a pivotal time in ones life. It is a time where one can use the freedoms he or she has been given to lay foundation and gather information needed to figure out who they are and where they fit in with society. The methods the parents and leaders use in this film to teach their kids, literally tells the kids to “lay down their life for Jesus”. This method of teaching is wrong and can be detrimental to a child’s life in many ways. I would like to discuss some of the ways I believe that these teaching methods can have a harmful effect on these children and why I found it frustrating.
1.The first problem I saw in the film was that the parents think that they are teaching their children good, but they are only teaching their
“It is no wonder, with that kind of intense training and discipline, that those young people are ready to kill themselves for the cause of Islam. I want to see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people are to the cause of Islam. I want to see them as radically laying down their lives for the gospel as they are over in Pakistan and Israel and Palestine and all those different places, you know, because we have… excuse me, but we have the truth!” says Becky Fisher, a camp director, at the annual youth on fire camp for Evangelical children. Jesus Camp was a wonderful film, but at the same time, a little disturbing. The film explores the lives of a group of children, who at very young ages, are brainwashed and deprived of the simple freedoms and choices. These are the simple choices that they should be able to make to guide their lives in the path they would like it to go on. Their parents, along with leaders, are a part of the Evangelical Christian group who are using these children to build up a so-called “Republican Army.” Their ultimate idea is to create a government that they are comfortable with, and one that shares the same moral values to achieve their political goals.
Childhood is a pivotal time in ones life. It is a time where one can use the freedoms he or she has been given to lay foundation and gather information needed to figure out who they are and where they fit in with society. The methods the parents and leaders use in this film to teach their kids, literally tells the kids to “lay down their life for Jesus”. This method of teaching is wrong and can be detrimental to a child’s life in many ways. I would like to discuss some of the ways I believe that these teaching methods can have a harmful effect on these children and why I found it frustrating.
1.The first problem I saw in the film was that the parents think that they are teaching their children good, but they are only teaching their