Jesus Camp
Yesterday Eddie and I watched the documentary Jesus Camp, which examines the work of Becky Fischer and her evangelical Christian camp for kids in North Dakota called "Kids on Fire." It some ways the content of the movie was what I expected, another "scary" presentation of evangelical Christians (see Bradley Wright's post on this topic). However, Corey pointed out a review by John Trott that I think more accurately reflects my take on the movie. In particular, Trott very articulately explained how the movie makes one feel ambiguous about beliefs, socialization, and the separation of church and state. "Where is the border between belief and action, faith and politics, the Bible and culture? And where is the border between Christianity and America?"
I strive to be very tolerant of religious diversity and generally respect people who are spiritual, regardless of their particular religious practices. I must admit, though, that parts of the movie were "scary" for me. In particular, I really do not understand speaking in tongues and witnessing makes me rather uncomfortable, particularly when it's done by children. However, there were other parts of the movie that were admirable, even though they weren't presented that way, such as the desire of children to be close to God or teaching children basic good behaviors.
There were two things about this subculture of Christianity shown in the movie that I found particularly troublesome. The first was the blatant rejection of science. While I'm familiar with the debate over creationism, I didn't really appreciate the complete rejection of scientific findings and the mockery of science that was illustrated in this film. The casual dismissal of scientific evidenced regarding global warming was especially disturbing. The other thing that bothered me was the attack on Harry Potter. Now, aside from my personal affinity for Harry, it seemed strange to me that fiction or creativity had no place in the subculture portrayed in the movie. It was also troubling that the adults so easily dismissed the one book series that has gotten so many kids in America to enjoy reading again.
Overall this was a fascinating movie and I highly recommend it, especially for social scientists. Our next movie night is dedicated to Happy Feet, which I doubt will generate such a lengthy post.
I strive to be very tolerant of religious diversity and generally respect people who are spiritual, regardless of their particular religious practices. I must admit, though, that parts of the movie were "scary" for me. In particular, I really do not understand speaking in tongues and witnessing makes me rather uncomfortable, particularly when it's done by children. However, there were other parts of the movie that were admirable, even though they weren't presented that way, such as the desire of children to be close to God or teaching children basic good behaviors.
There were two things about this subculture of Christianity shown in the movie that I found particularly troublesome. The first was the blatant rejection of science. While I'm familiar with the debate over creationism, I didn't really appreciate the complete rejection of scientific findings and the mockery of science that was illustrated in this film. The casual dismissal of scientific evidenced regarding global warming was especially disturbing. The other thing that bothered me was the attack on Harry Potter. Now, aside from my personal affinity for Harry, it seemed strange to me that fiction or creativity had no place in the subculture portrayed in the movie. It was also troubling that the adults so easily dismissed the one book series that has gotten so many kids in America to enjoy reading again.
Overall this was a fascinating movie and I highly recommend it, especially for social scientists. Our next movie night is dedicated to Happy Feet, which I doubt will generate such a lengthy post.
posted by Janet | 7:20 PM
3 Comments:
I too get frustrated about the use of religion to reject science (just as I do the reverse as well).
I'm less clear on cultural guidelines. I'm okay with Harry Potter, but I can understand some people not wanting it for their kids. I spend a lot of time being uncertain about where to draw the line with cultural consumption.
BTW, I completely agree with your post about grading... the only slightly downside to a great job. (Well, maybe department politics too).
Jesus Camp is now in the netflick's queue... I'm trying to withhold comments until I've seen the entire thing.
I am ambivalent about witnessing. On one hand, I shiver to think about young children being asked to save souls for the kingdom. They are simply to young to know what they believe and why they believe it. To my way of thinking, for an adult to ask a child to do this is blasphemy. For adults, however, it you legitimately believe you've found the truth, wouldn't it be criminal not to spread that around? Intellectually, this can lead to dialog which is where I think all truth is found.
As for Harry Potter... this is old wine in new bottles. When I was a kid in the early 80s, the geniuses of evangelical leadership decided that Dungeons and Dragons was demonic. My parents, who are ordinarily reasonable people, took this hook line and sinker. My father confiscated my entire collection of D & D paraphernalia. All that did was alienate me from them.
Restricting cultural consumption is well and good, but it should be discussed. My father usually did a good job explaining why we did not consume things like my neighbors. We did not have a VCR, play sports on Sunday, participate in little league raffles, or play cards (which killed me when we got to Probability in Math; my teacher could not understand why I didn't know that there are 4 jacks in a deck).
Jan -
This is a movie I have wanted to see. I have always had a hard timewith the rejection of science as well. One of the reasons I had been so ready to leave Midland (other than the terrible work conditions) was the fundamentalist within that community and the local evangelical preacher who used the local public access station to promote his "pro-creationism / anti-evolution" agenda. It scared me. Everything was so black and white, right and wrong... no room for any questions, other options, etc.
And an extra jaded sidenote: lots of republicans in that town as well!
H
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