Jesus Camp Movie

[BeachOfEden]

Have any Progressive Christians here seen the movie "Jesus Camp"? The only reviews I have heard have come only from atheists..so I would enjoy hearing a PC view on this show.

 

Beach

[MOW]

Hello Beach:

I haven't seen the movie and my guess is that Liberal/progerssive /moderate Christians are not really the target audience for this film. It seems to me that it is directed more toward "End of Faith"secularists. My guess is that the film is trying to show parralels between this particular Fundamentalist camp and the Muslim maddrasses(sp) in Afghanistan in preparing children for holy war.

 

Also I think this movie might be painful, particularly for recovering fundamentalist Christians. It might cunjure up memories ,and flashbacks of things they're trying to put behind them.

 

 

MOW

[BeachOfEden]

I have not seen the movie either but of what I have read in a local newspaper I got the same impression..cause the sneak preview is hosted by the atheist club of my city..so my guess is that the movie would paint all Christians as far right extremists fools and try and make claim that secular Humanism is THEE ONLY sane answer

[des]

It might be that the movie is being supported by atheists,

but I don't think it was really intended to be atheistic. I think the view

that it is atheistic might be proposed by some conservative Evangelicals:

http://tedhaggard.com/jesuscamp.jsp

 

 

This is an interesting blurb that seems to fit other things that I have read

http://www.tribecafilmfestival.org/tixSYS/...ventNumber=4083

 

 

I wouldn't recommend it (i haven't seen it) to recovering Fundamentalists. I would

gather, just from the stills, that this is a really scary flick!!

 

 

--des

[des]

Too late to edit, so...

I just saw this little YouTube (hey this is a first for me, I am outside the demographics

I think), but this is great clip:

 

It is from Bill Maher's program and features Bill Maher, atheist; a conservative

Christian, an actor who appears to be perhaps a progressive Catholic; and

a Progressive (yes he is) Moslem, Reza Aslan. They talk about the movie

and broader points of religious extremism and moderation. I found Reza

Aslan easily the most interesting. He has also written a book on Islam

"No God but God", which argues a reform view of Islam.

 

YouTube has links to other clips, like an ABC report.

 

 

--des

[flowperson]

Hi Beach, MOW and des:

 

I'll join the club of haven't seen it either but the reviews and clips that I've accessed tells me that it's just another documentary presentaion of the current spate of propaganda wars. The one side just loves to keep beating the other side of this over the head with baseball bats on a regular and periodic basis. I wish that someday they would each just lay down their bats , kiss and make up, and perhaps go to sleep for fifty years or so. Then maybe the rest of us could get something real done to untangle and begin solving this mess they've both gotten us all into.

 

flow....

[BeachOfEden]

Hey, if any of you run across a good Progressive Christian's reply to both extreme points of views and thus offers a great moderate laternative view..please post it here so we can all read it. Thanks!

[des]

The saw most of the more professionally done clips on YouTube last night on Jesus Camp.

One was by the directors. After viewign them,

I do NOT believe that Jesus Camp would represent the majority

view even among most fundamentalists. I think it represents one view by a Charasmatic

fundamentalist agenda, which includes some of the more theocratic element. I do think

this elements DOES exist. But as I said minority. I think it is much like the sects

that handle snakes, though perhaps larger. ABC seemed to link it with

various other examples of evangelical youth groups, which seem ultimately

conservative. However, I have read that even evangelical youth are less conservative

than their elders, and it is a little early to proclaim that these kids represent some

radical shift of christianity to take place in the future. You never know what kids will

decide in the future. Even the kids from Jesus camp may grow up reading this forum.

You never know. OTOH, some of our children may end up as fundamentalists. It is the

kind of thing you can't really control.

 

The aspect of Jesus camp that DOES represent a rather dangerous minority opinion,

you wanted a progressive voice (I still haven't seen the movie, just these clips), is that

it was militarized. (Children open discussed how the Islam kids die for Islam without fear.

There are plays where the kids play with swords in dances with banners of Jesus

in the background, dressed in camoflauge, complete with face paint.)

 

We see even now elements of fundamentalism that are militarized.

The war in Iraq is perhaps really more about oil than anything, but part of the support

was the Christian right giving it their nod in almost Crusadish zeal. I don't know how

many fundamentalists are supportive a what is basically holy war. OTOH, we

know that the some percentage is sick of the war in Iraq, so it isn't all of it for sure.

 

As to the behavior towards children in this movie, I think it is basically child abuse.

It violates the whole idea of the innocence of children, which is profoundly Christian.

 

I don't feel it was written to present all Christianity however or even a major

segment. It is a window into somethign like a train wreck. Awful but hard

to turn away from at the same time.

 

One inadvertant bit of dark humor--- one boy claimed to have become born again at age

5, because he "wanted something more". As Bill Maher said, "what would a 5 year

old want more of?"

 

 

 

--des

[sterrettc]

I have not seen the movie, but two of my fellow seminary students went to see it and thought that it was very worthwhile. Not everyone in this seminary is progressive, but we trend that way, and of these two the one that I know well should be considered progressive. I expect that I will see it and that I will decide I have to acquire the DVD, and that, like "Saved" and "Dogma," I will feel that it should be seen by most Christians

[des]

I just read that Jesus Camp will close. See here:

http://www.torontodailynews.com/index.php/...110814Kids-Camp

Apparently Ted Haggert was involved.

 

(of course, I'm sure something similar will come up.)

 

--des