Last Friday was Friday the 13th. Friday, October 13th. You might expect the release of the latest incarnation of Freddy Krueger on this sort of date. I saw Jesus Camp, and I emerged filled with trepidation. I feared for the future of this world. And I’m not being hyperbolic. It’s the same sort of fear I felt after watching An Inconvenient Truth.
Most of you already know what Jesus Camp is about, so I’ll cut to the chase.
The unchurched and those of you who think that worship is something you do sitting and in silence until you’re asked to sing would be uncomfortable with the level of engagement in charismatic practice portrayed in the movie. In some ways it’s a remarkably egalitarian movement, with women and children preaching in your face “REPENT SINNER!” sermons, clapping hands chaotically on each others’ heads and shoulders and praying loudly in rapid rolling gibberish. Sitting comfortably in an empty theater, I felt the visceral power of this style of worship.
I was tempted to use the word “irrational” to describe this approach to spirituality, but this belies my biases–their world view is every bit as ordered and rule-driven as yours or mine, if not more so. There’s a scene where Becky Fischer, the leader of the Kids on Fire camp, prays over the electrical system and the computers and projectors, she says, “We know what you like to do and YOU WILL NOT prevent this message from going out!” If a computer goes down in the middle of a spirit-packed presentation, it is not a random occurrence or even Microsoft’s fault–it is a sign that the Adversary is striving to stop the Word from spreading.
This is a world view that is decidedly anti-science. There is a homeschooling scene in which the mother teaches, straight from her textbook, a lesson refuting the science behind global warming. Later in the same segment, the talented 12-year old Levi says, “Science doesn’t prove anything,” and “I think personally that Galileo made the right choice in choosing Christ over science.”
This leads to the question that everyone seems to ask about Jesus Camp: aren’t those parents and church leaders just brainwashing their kids? Fischer acknowledges this, but argues that all churches and religions do the same. In fact, she points with admiration to the success of extremist Muslims who instill in their children a willingness to die for God. She wants “raise up children to the Lord” and “retake the land” and “claim America for Christ.” When radio talk-show host asks her, “Why kids?” Becky responds, “Whatever they learn by seven to eight is pretty well set for life.” The leaders show tremendous respect for the spirituality and world-impacting potential of their charges, but there is no encouragement of their natural curiosity, and any exploration or wandering is gently but firmly discouraged.
Every conscientious parent struggles with this. We asked our children a few weeks ago what they thought about children’s classes at the Mormon Church compared to that of the liberal Quaker meeting. Our daughter thought for a moment and said, “In Primary [LDS Sunday School], they ask us questions and expect specific answers. At the Quaker meeting, they ask us questions and want to hear our own opinions. It’s more of a conversation.”
There is no room for this kind of religious exploration in the world of Jesus Camp. There is war going on, and Kids on Fire is a boot camp for Jesus. Becky Fischer is the drill sergeant. They may not be representative of the bulk of American Christianity, but they are a sizable minority and a growing segment of our society, and their power and influence is mightier than their numbers. Their causes–the creation of a Christian state, the injection of Christianity back into public schools, a ban on abortion, the primacy of Biblical literalism over science in determining public policy–are embraced by many, many more throughout Evangelical America and in our halls of power.
My original plan was to write about Jesus Camp in much the same way that its creators filmed it–to let the experience speak for itself. But this has me riled up. Becky Fischer is right; we are at war. Fundamentalist Christians, Biblical literalists, creationists, and American Christianists are absolutely right to fear the scientific world view and the religious and political values of the Enlightenment. And it is our duty for those of us who hold these values (and who hold our world dear) to fight against their onslaught.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Johnny // Oct 21, 2006 at 4:50 pm
I have not seen this movie yet(I am planning on it this weekend) so I realize I have not experienced it. However, I disagree with framing the discourse in terms of a “war”.
There are two reasons. 1. I see the enlightenment as a historical phenomena that is unlikely to be reversed. I realize that many totalitarian states have in the 20th century. However, it would be very difficult for fundamentalist christians to turn the tide of western culture. 2. Since I do not really see fundamentalism as a serious political threat, my main concern is with the children who are raised that way. I think framing the debate in terms of “us vs. them” only fuels their fundamentalist rhetoric. Emphasizing the enlightenment values of pluralism and tolerance will go further then rhetorical attacks. I think diffusing their rhetoric is the best strategy. Although, I also do not think religious fundamentalism will disappear any time soon.
2 John // Oct 22, 2006 at 10:46 pm
I guess it is difficult for me not to see fundamentalism in the U.S. as a serious political threat. Perhaps we have different definitions of ‘fundamentalism.’ Let me take just the fundamentalist ideal of scriptural literalism:
For these reasons and others, I see fundamentalist Christians and their political allies as a serious political threat, and would like to redraw the us v. them lines.
One more note: secularization theorists, like Peter Berger, are all back-pedaling on their predictions that religion would grow increasingly irrelevant in the public life of the modern world. I’m not saying that secularization is going away, but traditional religious forces have adapted, and may overwhelm the secular world through sheer numbers if nothing else.
3 Jonathan // Oct 23, 2006 at 9:51 pm
I’m definitely going to have to see this movie. From all I’ve heard, I guess it just doesn’t make sense to me.
In my experience in the last 18 years, wild Pentecostals are like the Amish - they don’t give a crap about politics or the local schools, and end up sending their children to Christian schools or they home-school them. They are a bunch of crazy people that would never hurt a fly, but love to worship for hours on end and run and dance around the church sanctuary. They would be speaking (or shouting) in tongues, roll on the ground in holy laughter, or whatever other emotional experience they can concoct. Most of this behavior the apostle Paul warns about NOT doing because non-Christians would think they were crazy. When I was younger, these folks were the brunt of a ton of jokes among more rational Christians. They are definitely the type of people who sum up the phrase “They are so heavenly minded they are no earthly good…”
So the thought of these more wild variety Pentecostals taking over the country makes me laugh… it’s like the Amish running for the local elections — when hell freezes over :).
But more seriously, this worries me. I like to keep the separation of Church and state pretty clean, and anything that impinges on freedom of religion or lack thereof is a bad direction to be heading. Politics and religion is a terrible combination. Actually they are pretty bad just by themselves, but brought together, it’s like a match made in hell.
But returning to my initial thoughts, I am now curious about the filmmakers of Jesus Camp. The reason I am now curious is because I have never met a politically motivated Pentecostal in my life, and I have met hundreds, probably into the thousands of them. I swear! I’ve grown up with them all my life. I know it sounds weird, but I wonder if they (the filmmakers) are trying to drive a wedge between Christianity and the modern secularist, which annoys me because I really want to work together to keep our freedoms, not start hating each other more. I should look further into this before I go too far down that road.
This makes me think in a more productive direction - you know what would be an interesting exercise? To see if we could develop a common system of social morality with which we could use to determine good or bad laws (this one is extremist Christian / this one is extremist Atheist, etc.) I dunno… just a thought
4 John // Oct 24, 2006 at 6:26 am
Thanks for complicating the view of Pentecostals, Jonathan. If you notice, I studiously avoided using the term Pentecostal in my review. Between your descriptions on this blog and the little I’ve studied about Pentecostalism and charismatic worship, I know there’s quite a range. (But the ones I’m most intimate fit the Jesus Camp mold with their political engagement and biblical literalism.)
I think that part of the confusion is that the elements of charismatic worship that define Pentecostal worship can be found in many mainstream denominations–Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, etc. What you’re saying above confirms my general impression that Evangelicals looks askance at Pentecostals for their “irrational” behavior and emphasis on direct personal experience over even the Bible. Pentecostals seem to frown on Evangelicals for their often “dead,” unquickened worship and their overdependence on the Bible (I hope I’m getting this right). In this sense, Jesus Camp shows some of the complexity of Christianity, and the ability of even disparate movements to reconcile and form new secondary groups.
And yes! Common social morality is so the way to go! It’s impossible and often artificial to reconcile belief, but values are another thing altogether. Quakers are an example of a community united by values, rather than belief.
5 Jonathan // Oct 24, 2006 at 12:07 pm
Yea, you’re right! Christianity has become a whole lot more gray to me over the years. Just the other day I drove by a charismatic Mennonite church. They believe in the wild worship and the spiritual gifts, but won’t drive cars in any color except black (because that’s too showy). Dogmatically, Christianity has become so diverse that even within the same denomination or movement, you can never be sure what you’re going to experience when you walk through a church door, no matter what their title is (Baptist, Reformed, Evangelical, Traditional, Independent, Unitarian, Pentecostal, etc.)
I grew up in a denomination referred to as the Evangelical “Free” church or e-free for short. This meant that they decided to reduce the mounting pile of dogmatic human-created rules to only 3 or so, but outside that, left people to believe whatever they wanted. We just forced ourselves to get along. We succeeded, and it was fun! I didn’t realize how fun anti-religion was until I left home and descended into the world of religious dogmatic Christianity. I’m more at home with folks like Jesus, C.S. Lewis, John Eldredge, Philip Yancey, and others who were or are pretty disgusted with dogmatic churches or religion in general.
6 nee // Nov 10, 2006 at 5:11 pm
I blogged about this film last month, too. Interesting to see it brought up again last week in the news as the fired preacher (in a heap of moral trouble) from Colorado Springs was in the movie.
Regarding blaming electrical problems on the adversary, this attitude, as well as the habit people have of explaining things as god’s will are equally exasperating. I guess it is comforting for some who can’t accept that #$&* happens or that people here on earth are culpable for their own choices which affect themselves and others.
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