Jesus Camp Revisited
31 August 2006 by Sean
Found a link to this movie through the Atheist Goat site that King Retard posted. Stardust blogged about this camp in July.
Well, it looks like someone has gone and made a feature documentary about it.
What’s with all the war rhetoric, just like Battle Cry? “God’s army”, “enemies”, “this means war!”, etc., etc. How far are these kids from becoming so radicalized by the fanaticism being pumped into them that they become little Xian jihadists? Time for my nephew to start training in guerilla warfare, man. Shit’s gonna hit the fan in this country. Atheists: let’s make sure we secure the missile silos before they do.
I say things like that to be funny, but sometimes I have nightmares that it ain’t no joke. Especially after watching shit like this. There is even a scene where they have the kids pledging allegiance to the “Christian Flag” of the United States, right next to the Stars and Stripes. Does that scare the fuck out of you or what?
31 August 2006, on 11:27 pm
I’ve been following that documentary since I heard about it someplace, and I’m all braced to see it. The indoctrination is disgusting, but people say it doesnt come off as oriented one way or the other. I suppose the fundies see it and just come off thinking “Oh, how nice.”
31 August 2006, on 11:38 pm
Sean,
I know what you mean. Tis the dark humor that I like about your point of view. That and you’re damn fine lefty.
This indoctrination shit is a tragedy, for our country and our society. I feel like I’m living in a nightmare when I see shit like this trailer.
That’s when the old union/political organizer DNA kicks in and says “organize, or die.”
I mean, these people have lost their minds. They’d round us up and stick us in one of these camps (we wouldn’t have it a good as these kids, of course) if they thought they could get away with it.
I got two ideas: either we start picketing these camps and other stupid activities they hold, or we target a small northeastern state to populate with atheists, agnostics and deists so we can have a couple of Senators and congressmen that know what the FUCK the Seperation clause really means. TO US.
I really don’t see any other realistic options.
Like those two are…
1 September 2006, on 2:30 am
Genre? Horror….
Horror flicks don’t usually give me the creeps. Blood splattered zombies? Pfff. Psychopathic cannibal geniuses? Yawn… Even documentary horrors like the Blair Witch Project don’t set me off. I think it is because they are general…
1 September 2006, on 7:38 am
I am shocked.
At the same time I’m releived I don’t live in the US, North America, or even the Northern Hemisphere.
Seriously guys, this isn’t something you can’t let go by. These people are actually crazy and they’re making children crazy. Did you see that young girl crying in that movie? That’s possibly one of the most disturbing images I’ve seen in a while. These pshycos are scaring small children to tears and thoughts of genocide and no one is doing anything about it.
Enough is enough. Free thinkers, be they Atheists, Agnostics, right wing, left wing, moderate christians, jews, muslims or other theists, need to stand up and stop this kind of indoctrination. 25% of the US maybe evangelical christians, but that means 75% are not - show them you’re not willing to allow this bullshit indoctrination ruin your country. Those camps reminded me so much of Nazi rallies, its not funny.
These nut jobs need to be stopped!
1 September 2006, on 8:26 am
The way those kids were earnestly parroting some of the classic fundy phrases is the most disturbing thing i’ve seen in a long time. It’s not like the usual indoctrination tailored for children, which is bad enough… this is erasing childhood altogether. Have any of you seen the movie “Solider”? This was just so reminiscent of the scenes in the beginning of that movie showing how the children are turned from human beings into mere unfeeling weapons. Horrible.
1 September 2006, on 11:54 am
As disturbing as the video is I’m not willing to call them ‘crazy’. IMHO calling them “crazy” gives the impression that they’re largely a fringe group which they’re not. These kids are from white middle class America which is hardly a minority group.
Furthermore, these kids aren’t saying anything that the larger theistic population doesn’t already believe. About the biggest difference between these kids and the rest is that these kids are being trained to quite literally fight for what they believe. That makes them dangerous, not crazy.
1 September 2006, on 2:32 pm
Camps like this are child abuse. There’s is no way around it. The kid with the mullet really got to me. Such an automaton, yes, but also reminiscent of this guy, with whom I attended high school. It scares me because my kids will have to live in a world with these kids as adults. I feel like we (atheists/freethinkers) are always treading water just to keep our heads above water in this country. That one preacher, with the whiny voice, who named off the statistics if featured in Richard Dawkins’ documentary: here.
1 September 2006, on 6:24 pm
If worse comes to worse you guys can always retreat up here to Canada, you’re always welcome up here. But just make sure you retrieve the ICBM launch codes and render the missiles permanently inoperative before you come up here, just in case.
1 September 2006, on 7:28 pm
That little mullet headed fucker summed it all up:
“I got saved at five…because I wanted something more out of life.”
I call bullshit!
I used to be five, a precocious, “profoundly gifted”- that’s what the doctors said anyway- five, I remember “five” very clearly and, at no time, did I ever have the existential angst that this urchin claims. He’s speaking the words of the adults, in the way those adults told him to say them. Eventually, he will grasp their meaning but, by then, it will be too late.
On the whole, these people are desperate. Time, science, and history are all lined up against them- and their archaic belief systems. Even moderate and liberal xians like Jim Wallis at Sojourners and ex-Vanderbilt Theological Seminary head, C. Welton Gaddy, of the Interfaith Alliance are starting to smack these belligerent fucks down using their language.
The bubble they live in will collapse. It’s just a question of how much bigger the bubble gets and, more importantly, how much damage it’ll cause when it bursts.
However, it seems that it may take even more extremity than what we’ve got right now to prod the moderates into action- though a modest revolt this November, may, in fact, take place. Can you imagine how these folks will react when first the Congress and, then, the Presidency are taken away from them?
If things go according to polls and plans, I look for a good bubble bursting somewhere on or around the presidential election of 2008. In a weird way, I’m looking forward to it- you know, like watching Nascar and hoping for a good wreck.
1 September 2006, on 8:49 pm
RDZ,
This is brilliant:
The bubble they live in will collapse. It’s just a question of how much bigger the bubble gets and, more importantly, how much damage it’ll cause when it bursts.
It’ll happen, and my gut says this is the year. However, there is a chance that enough people won’t be able to vote because they’re changing the requirements to be able to vote; state level voter ID laws.
These laws targets senior citizen african Americans. They disproportionately vote Democrat and they disproportionately do not have state issued picture ID’s.
It’s happening in my state…of Misery(MO).
1 September 2006, on 9:34 pm
DRB, We’ve got our GOP goobernatorial candidate- and current Secretary of State, J. Kenneth Blackwell, suspected of doing something similar with IDs in Ohio. Their sheer audacity really frosts me. Fortunately, Blackwell trails Ted Strickland by close to 20 points last I checked and I don’t think even he can cheat up 20 extra percentage points. The closer races, like Dem. Sherrod Brown’s Senate race against incumbent, Mike DeWhine, and Dr. Victoria Wulsin’s attempt to unseat the previously mentioned shrew, Jean Schmidt. Ohio Repiglickins are in disarray, what with the disastrous Taft governorship, the Ney resignation/Abramoff connection, and “Coingate”(money missing from the Workman’s Comp. Fund). We’re hoping for the best.
2 September 2006, on 5:03 pm
These pshycos are scaring small children to tears and thoughts of genocide and no one is doing anything about it.
When I was seventeen, I went to a Weselyn youth group. The pastor heard that I’d experimented with Wicca at one point, and one night delivered a sermon about the evils of witchcraft and Satanism all the while staring directly at me. I broke down crying, and was gathered up in the “loving” arms of my pastor and the pastor’s daughter. I was led to the alter, persuaded to kneel and to sobbingly ask God for forgiveness.
I’d never felt so vile, so dirty and wrong in all my life. Never before then had I felt the slightest guilt or regret for having practiced Wicca. But there I was, nearly hysterical with the need to be forgiven. Once I’d calmed down, and reason came flooding back in the wake of the whole disturbing encounter, I was furious at how easily I’d been manipulated.
Religion = brainwashing.
5 September 2006, on 1:49 pm
Ouch, Julie, what a horrible experience. Wicca never “stuck” with me (I was too lazy to properly prepare or devote the time to a full ritual), but I loved the alternate viewpoint it gave me on spirituality (being more nature and women-centered and all). It was a definite step on my path away from theism and so despite its “woo-wooness,” I have a soft spot for it. I’m so sorry those jerks manipulated you into feeling guilty about having an open mind!
7 September 2006, on 12:57 am
[...] Just like there are two types of people in the world: those who love Jesus, and those who do not. [...]
8 September 2006, on 5:19 pm
I saw this trailer for the first time a few days ago and was really shocked that these camps exist in this country. It reminds me of a terrorist training camp. A blurb from a review that is highlighted in the Jesus Camp Trailer says the film is balanced, and I hope it really is. I found out more about the film here: http://www.jesuscampthemovie.com/
15 September 2006, on 10:46 pm
Scares the shit out of me! Next thing we know, they’ll be tattling on their parents for crimes against god.
16 September 2006, on 10:31 pm
“This is WAR?!” WTF?! These crazy bastards are gonna fuck things over for us in the next few decades. I’ve read this entire blog, and everyone seems to agree that these “Bible Camps” seem more like terrorist training camps. Something needs to be done, or this country is royally assfucked.
18 September 2006, on 3:46 am
# MacNeill Says:
September 16th, 2006 at 10:31 pm EST
“This is WAR?!” WTF?! These crazy bastards are gonna fuck things over for us in the next few decades. I’ve read this entire blog, and everyone seems to agree that these “Bible Camps” seem more like terrorist training camps. Something needs to be done, or this country is royally assfucked.
No kidding, MacNeill. I have this disturbing view of a civil war if these fundies don’t back down. I am not the fighting type, but when pushed, I will push back. I’m serious. There is at least a novel in this. Do you think we would lose? I don’t actually think so. They are dumb. We are “smart and mean.” I think we would get overseas support from Europe like the French in the Rev. War and just fucking wipe them out.
Oh. It’s a nice fantasy. I don’t wanna kill anyone, but when they start screaming “This is war!” to children, it’s time to stand up. I will not watch my country turn into Germany of the ’30s without a fight.
9 November 2006, on 10:14 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! [...]
23 March 2007, on 7:52 pm
[...] While looking through YouTube for a video on evolution and religion, I came upon this video that is even more disturbing than Jeebus Camp! Here is idiot Ken Ham in the process of brainwashing of children to dismiss science and accept unquestioningly the nonsense about evolution and dinosaurs, etc. that spews out of his mouth, and in turn pumping out more and more “big suckers” into the world. [...]