I saw
Jesus Camp in New York last week, and have been very surprised to see that no reviewers are mentioning the shocking harassment, intimidation and verbal abuse of children shown in this film. In scene after scene, children under ten years old are loudly and frequently threatened with Hell, coerced into 'confessing' their 'sins', told that there are 'phonies' among them who 'pretend' to be religious, and basically forced almost every minute of the day to offer absolute, unquestioning obedience to their disturbed, obese tormentors. The widely-distributed scenes of these children in tears take on a very different and very sinister meaning when you actually watch what it takes to get them there.
Even more upsetting than the coercion, and having to watch these tiny little kids obviously scared and suffering, is the thought of what it does to the psyche of a child to be told by some freak nutcase that "the President has come to visit us today" and then be forced to pray to a cardboard cutout of George W. Bush.
Isn't it their own insecurity and despair that makes these people imprison their children out of the reach of books, films, travel and even the society of other children??? I mean, I know that there are theological questions here, that many Protestants believe that we are born evil and have to be scared into good, but how can anybody who knows a thing about children, their innocence and their trust in us, really believe this? Leaving the politics aside for a moment, if these Evangelical adults really believe that their religion is 'the truth' why can't children be trusted to choose it freely, through having it explained to them?
It's just disconnect after disconnect. My husband goes, if they don't believe in science or technology, how can they drive a car or watch television?
If these children are being literally forbidden to think for themselves, adolescence will clearly bring them to a very scary cliff, where they either jump, break free of everything they've known and arrive in the reality-based world in a totally abandoned and emotionally/intellectually stunted state, or stay in the cruel Orwellian double-bind of being literally unable to accept reality without some kind of horrible psychological damage. In Jesus Camp there is in fact a very chilling absence of adolescent kids, and a brief moment where one of the adult weirdos was telling the little ones to promise that they wouldn't leave the church as teenagers. I left the theatre wondering most of all what had happened to the teenagers, and their families.
Our respect for freedom of religion in this country is a great thing, and an inviolable thing, but the costs are just huge, incalculably huge, to where they reach right into having to condone child abuse.
Please please go see this very thought-provoking movie with everybody you know.