Jesus Camp

I saw Jesus Camp. Well, I finished it today. I started watching last night, but I fell asleep. Not that it was particularly boring. I was probably tired. Tired from what, I don't know, but yeah, I was dead with about a half hour left.

It was really odd, actually. The movie I mean. It took me a while to catch on to what was going on, because I always confuse the different types of Christianity. I was raised Muslim. So you know... "Christians are bad, you don't need to know more than that. Grr." I always forget the jokes, and stereotypes and all that business. I'm pretty ignorant in this subject, I guess. -shrug- No one informs me, and I don't try too hard to be educated in it.

This movie was about the Evangelicals. It really does seem like brainwashing, maybe not in the everyday conception of it, where you get locked in a facility and are made to repeat and are punished when you go against something. But essentially, that's what it is. And they said it better than anyone else could. They're raising an army. An army of children who will in the future have the power to conduct what goes in today's society and government. They get taught songs. They get homeschooled. They are taken to camp. I mean, these children are sheltered to a very high level, and are taught only what the parents believe to be important, also probably brainwashed.

You can't totally blame them for sheltering their children. Most parents are so scared of reality, that in the long run it really is just simpler to keep them cradled in an environment that the parents personally approve of. Freedom at that age is just a word. No one is allowed even a taste of freedom before they learn speech, but even then, they are sheltered and taught only certain things. The movie really shows you to what extent these children are taught their 'calling' and how do adhere to their 'savior'. And they run a great campaign, too. That the children are the most important people in the world. It's true, too. But they use that as a way to instill their beliefs even deeper into the children. Everything else teaches people that there's much more to the world than just people, just children, than simply growing up into a person. The world gives people so much to worry about. The Evangelists give the children exactly what to worry about, what to care about, and what to focus on. All children want to feel important, and a bit like adults. The Evangelists cater to that in a very controlled fashion. Well props to their success.

I went through that, too, but of course, in a Muslim setting. I got taught what's wrong and what's right. I was definitely sheltered. I was pushed to my best. I was given responsibility and made to feel like important. I was very close to being spoiled. But I'm brown, so of course I got a hell of a lot of beatings in the mix. And I can be stubborn, and I had a mouth. So I got beat a fucking lot. But I mean, they really would've been successful. I had a Hindu friend in elementary school, but I wasn't too close to her, because I thought she was dumb, because she Hindu. I got along best with Muslims. I thought everyone who wasn't Muslim was useless and dumb, to an extent. One of my favorite teachers was Jewish though, so I guess you can't be too sheltered in a public school. The negations of my upbringing started early.

The Evangelists don't view what they do as brainwashing. They are wholeheartedly raising their children with the best intentions at heart, and with a wholehearted belief. They're trying to give children, who they believe to be the most important people though not the most experienced, the best that they can achieve. But that strong belief in children might also have bad affects. They suppress sex, and when something is put on a pedestal, they often become the same thing. A lot of them might be burgeoning some very innate, intimate feelings for these children they're putting such a large piece of their life into. And I really do believe that some of those children will be tramatized as they grow up, while others will be so strong in their brainwashing, that they will either be very successful or very miserable.

Some of the kids that the movie showed were just.... Haha. One I'm almost sure if going to kill himself. One might grow up to be a pedophiliac pastor himself. One might grow up to marry a pastor and beat her kids to a pulp if she gets that far. It's definitely thought inspiring.

I don't know if the people who made the film were of the opinion that what the Evangelists were doing were right or wrong, but the way the movie ended made me think that it was a movie to support the cause. Documentaries tend to end on a positive note, and this documentary ended on the main preacher saying that these children will grow up and do exactly what they were trained to, and she had a lot of faith in that.

Not that I'm against faith, and nor am I total Anarchist or Atheist, but essentially forcing anything for or from children, be it ideas, food or cock, is disgusting.