Jesus Camp
15 July 2006 by StardustI found this over at J-Walk’s blog where he wrote about the film Jesus Camp and it makes me wonder what this country is going to be like 20 years from now if this kiddie brainwashing sticks.
A growing number of Evangelical Christians believe there is a revival underway whereby young Christians must take up the leadership of the religious right. This film reveals a new phenomenon: an active movement to train young kids to become dedicated Christian soldiers in “God’s army.”
The film follows Levi, Rachael and Tory to the Kids on Fire summer camp in Devils Lake, North Dakota, where kids as young as 6 years-old are drilled in the importance of political activism and radical views. The film is a first-ever look into an intense training ground that recruits born-again Christian children to become an active part of America’s political future
Fundie moms and dads are sending their children off to Kids on Fire Summer Camp where the kids are drilled about Jeebus, preached to about Jeebus, listen to loud rock and roll Jeebus music, and are taught cheer-leader-type dances for Jeebus…JEEBUS JEEBUS JEEBUS! These kids are being told things like if Harry Potter had been in the Old Testament he would have been put to death for being a warlock! Harry Potter is FICTION YOU BITCH! (Sorry…I just wanted to smack the woman in the video!) Battle Cry isn’t the only group brainwashing young folks. Take a look at Kids In Ministry International.
15 July 2006, on 11:14 pm
Oh, Jeeebus, Star. I can’t even watch this right now. *Shudder.*
It’s gonna have to wait till Monday, the day I always get bitch-slapped back into the reality of this shite. I’m a-scared.
15 July 2006, on 11:45 pm
Check out the testimonies from the campers. This is why this religion crap is perpetual. It isn’t because some sky daddy “speaks” to people…it’s because of indoctrination from generation to generation.
15 July 2006, on 11:59 pm
Check thee the most Righteous Mullet on a young man at 1:42. A.P.O.C.O.M.B.-almost passed out choking on my bonghit, yo- APOCOMB.
Seriously, “You Take Him High, You Take Him Low, You take J.C. Wherever You Go!“. Okay, really seriously, it was friggin’ hysterical until the Round Mound of the Godsound stepped up to the mike. Then, I literally backed off from the monitor. Talk about Bile, man. There ain’t no love there at all.
16 July 2006, on 12:12 am
Tory doesn’t believe in “boys and girls”. Will she receive electro-shock should she turn out lesbian? There’s something crazy sexy about that chick in the white top leading the dancing. I secretly wished she was saying to herself “Big Daddy Kane is in the house!” in her head while she was “kickin’ it for christ” and shit. Don’t be offended if I nod off to your Rachmaninoff.
16 July 2006, on 12:12 am
Okay, really seriously, it was friggin’ hysterical until the Round Mound of the Godsound stepped up to the mike.
RDZ - Didn’t you just want to slap the shit out of her? She is scaring the Bejeebus INTO them!
I was reading the testimonies…holy cripes! This camp is turning these kids into schizoids! Dancing in parking lots! Speaking in tongues in bathtubs, singing along with gawd and hearing his voice! This is some damn scary shit! If religion wasn’t involved, people would have their kids taken away from them for mental abuse!
16 July 2006, on 12:13 am
Yay-uh! We kickin’ it fo Christ, ya’ll! Oh, fuck. That was just emharrassing.
And: “In the Old Testament, Harry Potter would have been put to death!” That made me giggle. Um, can you point me to where this isn’t true in the actual Harry Potter novels? That poor boy is nearly killed in every, single book!
16 July 2006, on 12:13 am
Will she receive electro-shock should she turn out lesbian?
RDZ _ Tory only gets “electrified” by gawd just before she sees gold on her hands and starts speaking in tongues.
16 July 2006, on 12:28 am
Worst part about this camp is that the younger you start the brainwashing the harder it is to deprogram.
Six year old kids should not have to worry about politics.
You think the only reason these idiots are so politically active is because it takes their mind off of their repressed sex drives? The younger you get them into activism, the less chance their fuck, right?
16 July 2006, on 12:33 am
You don’t make heroes out of Warlocks!
WTF? Does this mean that Large Marge with the Mic thinks that Warlocks are real? That they are to be feared for some reason?
Fuck man, if you believe this Jesus shit, you’ll believe fucking anything.
And was it just me, or did everyone at that camp look like they had down syndrome or something? Ok, except for Tory. She’s the only one who looks and sounds like she’s firing on all cylinders. Too bad she’s all brainwashed. She’ll make a great little lesbian someday though, I’m sure. Too bad her church will kick her out and she’ll end up with years of therapy.
But the first “parent” they cut to at the dancing lesson, at 1:25. That woman… well, that woman just frightens me. It’s probably her husband that gives it up for JC. *shudder*
16 July 2006, on 12:44 am
This was our third annual ministry conference for kids. We called it “Extreme Prophetic Conference for Kids.” Our purpose was to teach kids various ways to hear God’s voice and be led by His Spirit. With the help of an amazing team of ministers the kids learned via use of prophetic art, dance, and percussion. We even had a class for preschoolers to learn all these things on their level.
PRESCHOOLERS! WHERE’S DCFS?????
16 July 2006, on 12:46 am
Who the hell is in my house?! I’m about to shoot his ass.
I had the “fortune” of attending several bible camps in my youth. I am just so happy that it all happened before hip-hop was invented.
16 July 2006, on 1:05 am
“We even had a class for preschoolers to learn all these things on their level.”
It works real well with preschoolers because Santa Claus is real big with that demographic and He keeps track of your naughtiness, too- of course, he only gives you coal for your sin, Jeebus turns you into it, coal, I mean. It’s a lie, however, to imply they need alter their message for young ‘uns. Their message is just about the right age developmentally to stunt the growth of their progeny. I’m not sure people raised in such a way will end up being a threat to us but preemption says you care.
16 July 2006, on 2:22 am
Unbelievable.
‘The devil goes after the young’ - man these people sound like social darwinists.
I saw images of pogroms when that wild woman started preaching. Pitchforks & torches. I’m guessing these kids’ll be doing all sorts of harm within a decade’s time.
Any parent w/ 1/2 a brain shouldn’t be sending their kids to a camp that has extreme in the title. At least not young ‘uns.
16 July 2006, on 7:45 am
Stuff like this makes me so depressed, I almost cried - not bullshitting you.
16 July 2006, on 8:53 am
I find it frustrating that there isn’t some way to rescue these kids from brainwashing. It makes me very sad. And the political part is scary.
16 July 2006, on 9:20 am
I predict that, rather than grow up to be some formidable christofascist army, these kids will go home to wet their beds, torture small animals- particularly in the case of the Boy with the Perfect Mullet, and start fires.
I’ll give them credit for one thing. They’ve got the right attitude towards the music of Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan. Now, if we could just get them all copies of Slayer’s “God Hates Us All.”
One question: When you take Jeebus high and you take him low, must you wear a condom?
Oh, and the Porcine Pastoress’ life partner, Clothilde, called and said Petunia’s off her meds and seeing demons everywhere again.
At least these folks seem a lot lower rent than “Battle Cry”.
16 July 2006, on 9:54 am
I predict that, rather than grow up to be some formidable christofascist army, these kids will go home to wet their beds, torture small animals- particularly in the case of the Boy with the Perfect Mullet, and start fires.
This made me think of some friends of ours who moved to Tuscon about 20 years ago and found Jeebus when their girls were in grade school. They adopted this son and they started going to this CRAZY “charismatic” church and the youngest daughter and the son participated in all these crazy youth programs for Jeebus. She used to write me about all the problems she was having with her kids and the girl refused to participate at her public high school and dropped out and the son killed TWO pets…a cat and a hamster. Your comment has made me wonder if there is a connection to their brainwashing and their anti-social behavior.
16 July 2006, on 11:50 am
I would have been upset, even at Giganto, were I able to stop laughing.
16 July 2006, on 11:51 am
Stardust mused: Your comment has made me wonder if there is a connection to their brainwashing and their anti-social behavior.
No doubt in my mind.
16 July 2006, on 12:01 pm
Actually, more disturbing to me than the testimonies is the freakish banner at the top of the page. It’s an image that reminds me of Children of the Corn and Cannibal Holocaust all rolled into one.
16 July 2006, on 12:13 pm
Six words, Brainwashing starts at a young age…
16 July 2006, on 12:33 pm
This is child abuse. Plain and simple. As said above (paraphrased): “if religion wasn’t involved the parents would be in trouble!”
This is the 21st Century, in supposedly the most advanced country in the World — and this is what we have?!?!?!?
What can we do? How can we change the course? Seriously looking for opinions (effective countermeasures to the insanity in general). Thanks.
16 July 2006, on 12:33 pm
Marcus: That one kid off-center to the left looks like he has just sated himself with human flesh.
16 July 2006, on 12:41 pm
Extreme Xtian Neo-Nazi crap. Hmmm…and at Devil’s Lake?…could it be?…S-A-N-T-A? [er,...I mean SATAN?]…why,..of course not!
Speaking of Nazis…”Oh Reilly?”…would it be possible to put something in their water supply which would sterilize them…like,…stop them from reproducing? ["I'm KIDDING!...aren't I?...that sounds like something an 'Atheist Terrorist' would do!...Hmmm!]
“Oh, and little hip-hop dancing girl,…It’s: “COULDN’T care less!; not could care less”…i.e. you’re saying you still DO care for Britney? etc.
“Aargh!”…Sadly, it’s more Fundie insanity heaped upon an already humongous shit pile!…and unfortunately, it’s those poor kids’ minds that get messed up, possibly for the rest of their lives.
Pardon me, but that Fat Bitch with the mike, and the rest of the asinine adult fucks, should be arrested for SERIOUS child abuse!
Actually, Star, I really didn’t need this info; considering all the other ‘War’ insanity in the Mideast news. Yeah, I know,…I stopped for a visit…mea culpa?
“Gee, thanks!…you’re helping mess up my day!” …and on top of all this shtick…my local Chicagoland weather report is: “expect around 100 degrees!”…Now,..not me, ….but “Some LIKE it Hot!”
16 July 2006, on 12:48 pm
What can we do? How can we change the course? Seriously looking for opinions (effective countermeasures to the insanity in general). Thanks.
My husband and I were just discussing this…what we can do. We have already started through bringing awareness of this crap via our blogs and websites. We can become more open and vocal in our local, state and even national atheist organizations and support those organizations. We always hear about one lonely atheist fighting the system (or a very small group). The more open and vocal atheists become, the known percentages of atheists will rise and encourage more to come out because they won’t feel as outnumbered. Also, wimpy liberal christians who support separation of church and state need to start speaking up as well instead of being so concerned with only having their own little social clubs on Sunday.
16 July 2006, on 12:56 pm
“Oh, and little hip-hop dancing girl,…It’s: “COULDN’T care less!; not could care less”…i.e. you’re saying you still DO care for Britney? etc.
She knew the names quite well. AND THEY EMULATE pop culture in their music and their dance. They all dress the same, hip hop around the same, shake their bootie for Jeebus the same as they do for boys.
Did you all check out the website photos of the kids laying on the floor “shaking and crying” when gawd “enters their bodies”? That is fucked up. The falling down on the floor in spasms stuff looks more “demonic” than “holy” to me. Actually, it is pure hysteria.
Hysteria:1 : a psychoneurosis marked by emotional excitability and disturbances of the psychic, sensory, vasomotor, and visceral functions
2 : behavior exhibiting overwhelming or unmanageable fear or emotional excess
16 July 2006, on 1:17 pm
All of your comments are just solidifying the fact that, if I am going to enjoy the rest of my weekend, I had better wait till Monday for this one. Sometimes you just have to put the damn life filters on. A round table of people from our side of reality, seated with those on their side of non-reality, would have a damned hard time finding common ground on anything. What they are doing is explicitly wrong to us — yet to them, it’s just the right thing to do. Could we ever find common ground to discuss this??
16 July 2006, on 1:24 pm
Check this out:
Pentecostal Bedlam-”drunk in the spirit”
THESE are the LUNATICS who are brainwashing those kids!!!!
And we think our xian fundies are “safer” than muslim fundies????
16 July 2006, on 1:26 pm
Really, I can’t wait to see this documentary- it’ll probably be as fascinating (maybe as frightening!) as Soldiers in the Army of God.
That has got to be my favorite horror movie of all time- can’t watch it without nightmares.
16 July 2006, on 2:02 pm
Star: I have had similar experiences to those. Except it was a smaller group and we were all on ecstasy.
16 July 2006, on 2:06 pm
The church camp is like a pestilence in our midst. Wow! I never saw anything more retarded.
Drunk in spirit. Wooo ‘Woooooo! Too bad they didn’t break out into some fornicatin for JAAAAASSSUUUHHHHSSSS
16 July 2006, on 2:18 pm
I have had similar experiences to those. Except it was a smaller group and we were all on ecstasy.
Why are they so against booze and drugs when their behavior is exactly the same as those who get high on drugs or loaded with Jack Daniels? I mean, if it is creating obnoxious behavior, wtf is the difference? I would rather have a true booze stupor.
Also, they refer to the apostles being drunk in the spirit in the NT…well maybe the translation is wrong and they were drunk WITH the spirits (meaning wine)?
16 July 2006, on 2:33 pm
The news just keeps getting better and better (sarcasm)
Megachurches build a Republican base
16 July 2006, on 3:39 pm
Stardust:
Also, they refer to the apostles being drunk in the spirit in the NT…well maybe the translation is wrong and they were drunk WITH the spirits (meaning wine)?
It all depends on whether you’re reading the Aramaic version as opposed to the Greek.
16 July 2006, on 4:07 pm
And to compliment the camp atmosphere. There is Wholesomewear swimmwear. GO TO
http://www.wholesomewear.com/page-3.html
Drowning wear is more like it.
16 July 2006, on 4:26 pm
jimmer - Those swimsuits look like from 1910!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Is this for real or a joke? I have to go back and look again. (If it’s real, I bet my baptist niece and her husband would love to stock up on these clothes for their two daughters. They already dress them like little Amish kids with dresses almost down to their ankles!
16 July 2006, on 4:27 pm
I mean, if it is creating obnoxious behavior, wtf is the difference? I would rather have a true booze stupor.
Actually, in our case, we were indoors, with some nice music on, the lights dimmed, and bothering no one.
16 July 2006, on 4:31 pm
Actually, in our case, we were indoors, with some nice music on, the lights dimmed, and bothering no one.
Good, point Sean. Another point is that I have seen far less unruliness in bars, lounges and other “havens of sin”.
16 July 2006, on 4:34 pm
How about these Kid Forgiven anti-social t-shirts???
16 July 2006, on 5:16 pm
And a short bit about how GOD hates America. By you know who. Westboro
http://tinyurl.com/jbybr
Funny as can be.
Stardust
And speaking of Amish I think those swim suits are real.This next link is about Floyd Landis, Tour de France competitor(currently 1.27 off the lead) and his religious upbringing. It is really quite well written. He is escaping.
http://tinyurl.com/gcoky
16 July 2006, on 5:28 pm
[...] After mentioning Soldiers in the Army of God in the Jesus Camp article, I decided to see what crazy fundie Neal Horsely has been up to lately on his website (you might remember him from the previous infuriating act of creating the Nuremburg list). [...]
16 July 2006, on 5:32 pm
“Battle Cry San Francisco”
This is the next “phase” in their training by putting their brainwashing into public annoyance/action.
16 July 2006, on 10:41 pm
I thought the ‘Pagan’ quotes at the end of that Hagin & Copeland - “Pentecostal Bedlam” [or "Divine Madness(?)"] video were somewhat appropriate!:
“Most men are within a finger’s breadth of being mad.”–Diogenes
“Whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad.”–Euripedes.
Greek tragic dramatist [484 BC - 406 BC]
[That reminds me:,...BC, SHOULD be: BCE...Before the Christian Era]
I also caught a CNN ‘gal’ announcer earlier today, regarding today’s bombing news in Israel, referring ‘matter-of-factly’ to the town of Nazareth as the original home of Jesus’ parents!
Yeah, reminds me of the History channel treating the Bible as historical fact!
[Should I roll my eyes, here?]
OK,…I’m Just noticing how much insane BS is going on simultaneously!
17 July 2006, on 12:29 am
ChuckA: BCE stands for Before the Common Era. It’s meant to be religiously neutral.
17 July 2006, on 1:21 pm
Yeah, Sean. Actually I knew that;…I had a temporary meme blackout? “Blinded by Xtianity?”
18 July 2006, on 1:59 am
I finally watched this.
I feel sorry for the kids, really. But I have a question:
Why are all of them so ugly? I mean every adult and child in this vid is fugly as hell. They look like the result of five or six generations of inbreeding. Pasty-skinned… wall-eyed… misshapen heads. WTF?
18 July 2006, on 11:48 am
This is truely pathetic.
And I’m Christian and say that… But this is just, ridiculous.
18 July 2006, on 11:55 am
Oh ChuckA, not trying to smack you in the face here at all or anything but Jesus is actually widely accepted to have existed, by atheists too for that matter. Whether or not he was divine I will leave for you to decide. I’m just saying it’s widely known that a person named Jesus DID in fact exist in that time period and caused som ecommotion, so that’s probably why the CNN reporter was saying that so matter-of-factly.
18 July 2006, on 3:12 pm
DF Says:
Oh ChuckA, not trying to smack you in the face here at all or anything but Jesus is actually widely accepted to have existed, by atheists too for that matter. Whether or not he was divine I will leave for you to decide. I’m just saying it’s widely known that a person named Jesus DID in fact exist in that time period and caused som ecommotion, so that’s probably why the CNN reporter was saying that so matter-of-factly.
DF: This just ain’t so. The matter is still under much debate, and there are no extant contemporaneous documents that make mention of Jesus. Take a look.
No one can even agree on his name. There has also been much scholarship on the pagan origins of the Christ myth.
Some scholars have speculated that the quotations (and they are good ones) attributed to Jesus may be a collection of popular sayings from the period. There were a lot of wise rabbinical types laying down their version of things back then, and Jesus’ character could very well be an amalgamation of a number of people.
18 July 2006, on 3:29 pm
“Some scholars have speculated that the quotations (and they are good ones) attributed to Jesus may be a collection of popular sayings from the period.”
Even more so since nothing he said was really all that difficult to shake out for one’s self. Come on xian folks, one smart, political guy out of a population of tens of thousands of dirt farmers? If he were real, it would be nothing to make him a god. Imagine how easy, given how dumb the common masses are, it would be to make within 2,000 years of history someone like JFK appear to have been divinely powerful.
18 July 2006, on 3:43 pm
DF: This just ain’t so. The matter is still under much debate, and there are no extant contemporaneous documents that make mention of Jesus. Take a look.
No one can even agree on his name. There has also been much scholarship on the pagan origins of the Christ myth.
Some scholars have speculated that the quotations (and they are good ones) attributed to Jesus may be a collection of popular sayings from the period. There were a lot of wise rabbinical types laying down their version of things back then, and Jesus’ character could very well be an amalgamation of a number of people.
That may be, but I still believe in Buddy Jesus!!!
18 July 2006, on 7:43 pm
Wow, thank Isis the xian camp of my youth was nothing like these madhouses; my parents would have yanked me out for sure once they heard of these goings-on, “xian” or not!
18 July 2006, on 8:31 pm
Sean: I finally watched this./I feel sorry for the kids, really. But I have a question:/Why are all of them so ugly? I mean every adult and child in this vid is fugly as hell. They look like the result of five or six generations of inbreeding. Pasty-skinned… wall-eyed… misshapen heads. WTF?
Well, what do you expect, Sean, when the only people allowed to marry and mate are white fundamentalist True Xians (TM)?
And after all, these are god’s people, so who are we to judge their looks? Maybe this is what he really wants his True Followers (TM) to look like…
24 July 2006, on 12:23 am
this video is insane its a toned down version of wathing live stolkholm syndrome these kids get there parents beleifs pounded into there heads till theres no more choice and they fall for it just like there parents and there parents, parents. these need to learn that when you push something on a child the first time they see the light of day there going to run away from what there parents want. give them choice let see that going to church is up to them and they might stay
24 July 2006, on 10:55 am
Steven,
I think the Asch Conformity Experiment would be closer to the mark.
31 August 2006, on 10:46 pm
[...] Found a link to this trailer through the Atheist Goat site. Stardust blogged about this camp in July. [...]
9 November 2006, on 10:15 pm
[...] More Good News! By Eve I noticed on Pharyngula that the now-infamous Jesus Camp also blogged about by Sean and Stardust has been shut down! [...]
27 January 2007, on 10:53 am
Hello,
I’ve posted about this camp at http://haggaiministries.blogspot.com
your comments are appreciated.
God Bless,
Butch
27 January 2007, on 11:50 am
Butch, glad you agree that camps like this are absolutely wrong.
However, we here think that any religious indoctrination is wrong. Before leaving xianity behind after 30 years of being a xian myself, our youngest daughter made a real eye-opening comment. During the recitation of the confessional prayer, she was not saying the words. When my husband asked her why she wasn’t saying it she said “because it says I am bad, and I am not bad.”
We were already having doubts about our faith, and there were other factors including education, study of world religions and mythologies that brought us to this realization that religion is a made-up via the imaginations of humans as a coping device in order to deal with the knowledge of our own mortality and other problems in life that we cannot conrol. Religion is also a tool to control the masses and to maintain order…but religion has backfired all too often and has brought about terrible things like the Crusades, Inquisition…and even warring in these modern times.
Religions that involve afterlife and focus that the world is such a bad place that we have to hope for something better is delusional avoidance of reality. Making people feel guilt for merely existing is wrong. Life is here and now and not in some fantasy land over the rainbow. Nothing happens without human intervention. No god was going to come down and clean up after Hurricane Katrina and if people did nothing, nothing would happen. Humans could not stop Katrina…there are forces of nature that we have no control over, and obviously there is no god to stop horrible disaster, either. And no gods to come clean up the mess and magically restore people’s lives either.
It’s all up to humans.
Life is both wonderful and difficult. Humans need to give themselves credit for the good and not feel like they are undeserving to feel good about themselves. And they need to know that it is their own strength that causes them to endure…and their own weakness or weariness when they choose to give up.
So…please don’t say “God Bless” on an atheist site…there are no gods.