The Children's Jesus Camp Story
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I was fortunate (blessed?) enough to score an early copy of "Jesus Camp" from Netflix, even though it was flagged as "Long Wait."
As I watched the movie, as I saw so many young minds being twisted, knotted, ripped, shredded and generally reconstituted into crippled mush, I could feel an emotion rising up inside me. A complex emotion, an amalgam of baser feelings. Part rage, part terror. Part indignation, part resignation. Part confusion, part resolution.
It was an emotion I had only felt once before: on the morning of October 12, 1998, when I learned Matthew Shepard had died. Which, incidentally, was also the last time I cried.
One overarching theme resonates throughout "Jesus Camp": We truly are in a culture war. Complete with soldiers, training academies, casualties — and bloodshed.
Get your hands on a copy of this movie and watch it. Because there is one thing about which we and the theocrats agree wholeheartedly: Too much is at stake.
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Twenty-five years ago, the novelist James Clavell was horrified to learn that his young daughter had been taught to recite, verbatim and perfectly, the Pledge of Allegiance but had no idea at all what the words "pledge" and "allegiance" actually meant. His response to the incident was a dystopic short story, set in an American classroom shortly after the United States had been conquered by some unspecified foreign power. He called it simply "The Children's Story." While you're waiting for your copy of "Jesus Camp" to arrive from Netflix, take the time to read Clavell's prescient warning.
As I watched the movie, as I saw so many young minds being twisted, knotted, ripped, shredded and generally reconstituted into crippled mush, I could feel an emotion rising up inside me. A complex emotion, an amalgam of baser feelings. Part rage, part terror. Part indignation, part resignation. Part confusion, part resolution.
It was an emotion I had only felt once before: on the morning of October 12, 1998, when I learned Matthew Shepard had died. Which, incidentally, was also the last time I cried.
One overarching theme resonates throughout "Jesus Camp": We truly are in a culture war. Complete with soldiers, training academies, casualties — and bloodshed.
Get your hands on a copy of this movie and watch it. Because there is one thing about which we and the theocrats agree wholeheartedly: Too much is at stake.
---
Twenty-five years ago, the novelist James Clavell was horrified to learn that his young daughter had been taught to recite, verbatim and perfectly, the Pledge of Allegiance but had no idea at all what the words "pledge" and "allegiance" actually meant. His response to the incident was a dystopic short story, set in an American classroom shortly after the United States had been conquered by some unspecified foreign power. He called it simply "The Children's Story." While you're waiting for your copy of "Jesus Camp" to arrive from Netflix, take the time to read Clavell's prescient warning.
Related Posts (on one page):
- Homeschooling and Pierce as Sword Rather than Shield
- California Court: No Right to Homeschool
- Teech the Childrun Goodly
- Canadian Bigot Parents Screech over Gay Teacher's Desk Photo
- Homeschooling is a Double-Edged Sword
- Evangelical "Curriculum Redaction" Jumps to Maryland
- More on Evangelical Madrassahs
- The Children's Jesus Camp Story
- Why Bigots Should be Libertarians
Posted by Kip on
13 February 2007
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