Crying Kids Pray Over George Bush At Jesus Camp - Film Documents Childrens' Summer At 'Jesus Camp'

WFSB.com, Hartford ^ | September 26, 2006 | Unattributed

[amutr22]

At the same time, I am concerned that kook fringe groups like this will define Evangelical Christianity. The last thing Christians need is for Jesus Camp to be the image the world takes away from evangelical youth ministry. As someone who has worked in Christian camps through college, I can emphasize that the hatred and intolerance spewed on the trailer is not what we taught there.

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I agree with this. I saw this segment on GMA and it was truly frightening. I am a Christian and a practicing Catholic and would never send my kids to anything close to a camp like this.

[NYC Republican]

Except the Christian kids aren't going to KILL for their religion.

That's actually one of the few differences between the two... I just saw the movie, and it made the Evangelicals look absolutely nutty... didn't reflect well on Bush either...

[dfwgator]

The timing of this movie is suspicious.

[AppyPappy]

Well, if you saw Bowling for Columbine, you would have thought badly of guns too

[micho]

Well, then, you've attended a very LOW key Pentecostal church. All the ones in my area are full scale wailing, speaking in tongues and being "slain in the spirit".

Your church sounds pretty boring for a Pentecostal one.

LOL!

[Sue Perkick]

Well, they're looking for their "purpose" right now so I'm no longer there. It was fairly reserved.They have an orchestra. You haven't lived until you've heard a Chris Tomlin song done on a tuba. LOL.

[Aquinasfan]

In the film, the children cheered when asked if they'd be willing to give up their lives for Jesus, prayed over a cardboard cutout of President George W. Bush and cried as they pleaded for an end to abortion, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Nothing wrong with that.

The paper said that one of the children is home-schooled by a mother who teaches that "science doesn't prove anything

Maybe in the sense that science presupposes philosophical principles. And if she means it as a Creationist, that's her and her family's business.

Anyway, this sounds like a leftist hatchet job, and this is coming from a Catholic.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

"It's no wonder with that kind of intense training in discipling (sic) that those young people are ready to kill themselves for the cause of Islam," Fischer said.

Another lefty leap. They can't make a movie about Christians without comparing them to terrorists.

[DesScorp]

"So when are these two brave filmmakers going to take their cameras into the madrassas of Waziristan, where children are praying for the beheading of George W. Bush and the destruction of the USA?"

To Hollywood, that's a good thing.

[buck61]

That's your opinion and, opinions are like a**holes, we all have one.

[hoyaloya]

Deeper psychological pathologies?

Funny, I think that is liberalism's general view of christianity.

Child Abuse?

Well, I guess only certain kinds of learning should be allowed in your perfect worlds. Public schools, pc dogma, slippery slope socialism. Popular culture is the opiate of the people and will, left unchecked, lead us to become that moral and economic utopia known as Europe.

LIConFem, you suggest people didn't read your comments accurately. Actually, in reading this thread, your insinuation is clear. What is wrong with Christians being serious christians (in the manner they think is appropriate). NO ONE suggests killing anyone in any shape or form. NO ONE suggests harming anyone. (I have't seen the movie - but based on the clip you innacurately described as evidence of hatred.)

I WILL NOT DENOUNCE KIDS GOING TO A CAMP AND CRYING OVER THE WORLD'S PROBLEMS. THEY THINK SALVATION AND JESUS IS THE ANSWER. I THINK THAT'S GREAT. They might be right. Do you know?

On the other hand, maybe they should just be "good little boys and girls" and eat the images of sex, global warming (you tried watching a kids movie lately without that latent message in it?), instant gratification, and moral relativity they get bombarded with. A generation of spoiled, unmotivated, empty souls crying out for their government to save them from the evils of capitalism, the United States, and the white man.

That some people have the cojones to step up and say "no more" or "I want to change this" isn't a pathology. People with passion and convictions not established by ABC News, a 1950s philosopher, the Rolling Stones, Jon Stewart, or TV sitcoms shouldn't be judged and condemned. Christian-lite may make some of you feel more at ease with your country club or coffee house friends. As for me, I'm glad to know some people, including children, take matters of such importance seriously and with actual conviction.

[jude24]

I WILL NOT DENOUNCE KIDS GOING TO A CAMP AND CRYING OVER THE WORLD'S PROBLEMS. THEY THINK SALVATION AND JESUS IS THE ANSWER. I THINK THAT'S GREAT.

As long as we're talking only about "crying over the world's problems," I agree 100%. We live in a screwed up world, and young people who understand that can only be an asset. A look at the trailer, however, shows a far more disturbing brand of Christianity - one with a militaristic bent. The militaristic bent is indicative of deeper pyschological pathologies.

Do try to understand - I am not saying that Christianity is a psychological pathology. I am unquestionably Christian. What I am saying is that the people runnng this camp appear to be psychologically disturbed, and their manipulation of the children appears to be blatant child abuse.

On the other hand, maybe they should just be "good little boys and girls" and eat the images of sex, [] instant gratification, and moral relativity they get bombarded with.

Just who has suggested this? Certainly not I, nor anyone else I have seen on the thread.

images of sex, global warming ..., instant gratification, and moral relativity

One of these things is not like the others.

Christian-lite may make some of you feel more at ease with your country club or coffee house friends.

You really don't know jack-squat about me, do you?

[montag813]

Filmmaker Heidi Ewing said she was raised Catholic and her co-director, Rachel Grady, is Jewish, enabling them to present what they hope is a neutral view of Pastor Becky Fischer's "Kids on Fire" program.

So a lapsed Catholic and a Socialist prsent a balanced view? (and yes, I am a Jew, and I am quite sure Ms Grady is not)

[montag813]

"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 in Israel and Palestine and all those different places. Because we have, excuse me, but we have the truth."

She is my hero! Bravo!!!

[hoyaloya]

No, I don't know jack squat about you. There's room for both of us in the conservative movement, but you seem embarrassed and wanting to exclude folks that get up off the pew and do some hand raising. That's not for me personally but I don't have any problems with it.

Nor do I think waving a Christian flag, singing "Onward Christian Soldiers," wearing fatigues, or doing a drill team routine is a pathology.

That anyone suggest it is child abuse is silly - and reflective of, yes, what used to be known as a "country club republicanism." I've heard Hillary has a good plan about villages raising kids. Maybe you'd like to check up on me and see how I treat my kids or my cat?

We talk about taxes sometimes. And I teach them there is a right and wrong. Sometimes we even run a lemonade stand (yes - the city is upset about that). We even pray for our soldiers. Oh, travesty of travesties.

[jude24]

but you seem embarrassed and wanting to exclude folks that get up off the pew and do some hand raising.

Pardon me while I laugh. I'm definately not averse to "hand-waving." I am opposed, however, to Christian madrassas.

[LIConFem]

"I have't seen the movie - but based on the clip you innacurately described as evidence of hatred."

I never described anything as evidence of hatred. You read what you wanted to read. You went looking for Christian bashing and found it... even though it didn't exist.

"I WILL NOT DENOUNCE KIDS GOING TO A CAMP AND CRYING OVER THE WORLD'S PROBLEMS. THEY THINK SALVATION AND JESUS IS THE ANSWER. I THINK THAT'S GREAT. They might be right. Do you know? "

No, I don't. And neither do you. I never denounced anything or anyone, nor do I have any problem with Christian children being true to their faith and pondering the world's problems, whether it's at home, in church, in a Christian camp or even on a street corner, for that matter. But unless you know this group, you have no idea what their motivation and purpose is.

There are crazy people in this world, and unfortunately, a few call themselves Christians. The quote that I cited could be intrepeted in several different ways. In my post, I expressed a hope that it wasn't evidence of anything sinister. But again, you read what you wanted to read.

[eleni121]

Sick of these f'ing cowards with their cheap shot hatchet jobs.

So when are these two brave filmmakers going to take their cameras into the madrassas of Waziristan, where children are praying for the beheading of George W. Bush and the destruction of the USA?

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say it again Brother! Amen! I concur wholeheartedly.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

The underlying theme of Christ was to bring peace to earth

Matthew 10: 34-35 "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, . . ."

[Balding_Eagle]

THAT's the underlying theme?