Jesus Camp

Alright, I’ve just finished watching the documentary “Jesus Camp”.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486358/

It’s on youtube too

I gotta say, this was one of the most fascinating/disturbing documentary I’ve ever seen. Basically, it’s about a summer camp in the States where parents send their child so that they can get though about christianity. (just think of a mix between going to church and Crystal Lake *chuckles*) They would learn about abortion, homosexuality, Islam, politician, preaching, and a whole bunch of other subjects that are covered in the bible. The point of view of the film was mainly directed toward how we need to save the nation. There were also a few shots where a radio host would try to protest against the camp.

I believe this movie can be appreciate by both Christians (to see how the nation is doing an effort to bring the word of god into the younger generation) and Atheist (to see how the church has gotten out of hand in the west).

I will do my best to keep a neutral point of view while reviewing this film. I think that I’ve managed to see some good and some bad in it.

Personally, I’ve been raised in a community that was quite strong with it’s Catholic believes. I could somewhat relate to those children when they were doing their religious homework and their parents directing them into the way of god. I could also see that some of those kids were relatively bright. (some just looked like retards but we’ll come back to that one) There was a young girl who preferred Christian Heavy Metal bands to Britney Spears due to them having an actual message.
Side note: Personally, as long as my children rock… they have my full support.

Now I want to state this. I believe that the Christian religion do have some good values. They teach love, they teach forgiveness, they teach how to be good to others, they teach about peace and the list goes on. I believe that those things needs to be strengthened. I believe that they are key values to have in our society so that it can succeed, evolve and flourish into something that is enjoyable to live in.

What disappointed me about this film is that sure… they teach the kids to go toward god (and whatever fits in that basket) and god will usually teach those values through the bible. But, those people didn’t seem to teach peace, they didn’t seem to teach love, they didn’t seem to teach forgiveness. They seemed like they were teaching the kids to be soldiers. They were teaching them how to behave in a way that was similar to our ancestors who would put a bayonet on the throats of indigenous people telling them to believe in god otherwise they wouldn’t even make history. The women in charge would get the childrens to scream “this is war!”. Now, I still haven’t read the bible back to back, but I don’t believe that god intended to propagate peace through war. It makes as much sense as fucking for virginity.

I mean, what ever happened about teaching people how to love their neighbors. Helping a homeless person on the street. Letting your seat to an old lady on the bus. Planting a tree. Showing the good example of how we can make this world a better place. The bible tells us what to do right (usually) but it doesn’t show us how. Also, people are sheeps. They need to see other people do the right thing and might just go “hey, I believe that i can do this better!” or “that guy is cool, I wanna be cool too so I’m gonna do just like him”. Sure you can say that “hey let’s do like Jesus cuz Jesus is cool”. But the bloke has been dead for 2000 years! He wore a dress! He looked like a hippie! He talked about stuff that simply doesn’t make any sense nowaday. That kind of shit just doesn’t work…

I was also very offended by the fact that the mother was teaching the kid that global warming is not that big of an issue since the temperature has only increased by “0.6 degrees” last year. Now sure… pick on evolution… what do I care. Natural selection will eventually do it’s job. But global warming is a current issue! We’re not exactly fighting against a belief here… we’re fighting for people getting evicted out of their home because their island is “sinking”. Go live in Queensland Australia for a year and let me know what you think about the water restrictions. Or just spend 10 years there (if you can handle it) and take some picture of the same spot on the great barrier reef and compare them. That country is dying very quickly!.

They also made a comparison with Islam and how they put machine guns and grenades into 5 years old kids to teach them how they should “give up their life for god”. (because all islamic people are terrorists...) Anyway, it is not by trying to “out fanatise” those people that we will win. This is just an absurd notion! People!!! Religion is not supposed to be a car race! It’s supposed to be a spiritual way of life that you have with yourself and use it to influence the way you behave to improve your ways of life.

Also one of the kid was asked when did he started to believe in god. His answer simply had to be arranged. He said that he was “saved” at the age of 5 years old.
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Saved? Saved from what? You’re 5 years old! I mean… you had nightmares? You still hadn’t learned toilet training? You cannot possibly comprehend what you’re getting into when you’re 5 years old. I think this is very wrong for parents to teach this kind of stuff to a kid. Teach them to share, teach them to be nice, teach them the values. When they’re old enough to comprehend what it is to believe in god, they can pick the one that suites whatever makes sense to them.

I think I’m getting a bit out of hand here… I wanted to make this a neutral review…

Dammit!

Ok I’ll finish by the 2-3 things that made me laugh during that movie

(ok this one is sad).
The movie was sponsored by McDonald and Pepsi. (the devil’s work right there...)

The camp was located at Devil’s Lake (now that’s pure basic irony but I like it!)

and here comes the kicker…

apparently Harry Potter is the enemy of god!!
if we were in the old testament, he would have been put to death!
(quoted)

another good quote is: “Liberalism is dead!”