So you need to go watch the video previews for this documentary, located here: Jesus Camp .
Alright, feeling thoroughly gross/scared/pissed off/whatever now? Good.
I wanted to write about this because I'm sort of a Christian, and I often feel like that comes into direct conflict with my liberal and quasi-feminist sensibilities. Because you say "I'm a Christian" or you wear a cross, and you just see people's opinion of you change for the worse in the academy 90% of the time. I'm actually only aware of 1-2 other academics in my own field that I would consider more devout than me, and I hardly ever go to church. I might, if it were good socialization time. But really, all Catholic Churches seem to be are big cesspools of drama and old lady gossip and I get enough of that from my students!
But those videos did two things: they scared me and they made me want to admit my beliefs less. I'm actually going to address part 2 of that first...
I'm not one of those "you must accept Christ as your lord and savior to go to heaven" sorts of people. In fact, I really just think you need to treat other people well. Some version of the 'golden rule' is in nearly every religion out there. In fact, my beliefs aren't even particularly in conflict with my pagan friends beliefs, some of them think I am one of them. The core beliefs--there might be some sort of afterlife (note the might), you should treat others well, etc. are just about the same in the majority of major religions. Prayer and spells have a whole lot in common, not that your average fluffy bunny pagan wants to admit that. There are advantages and disadvantages to just about every belief system.
I don't think we need to beat down other religions, and that's where the first statement I made up there comes in.
To think that Christians (not Catholics, because there is generally a big difference between ceremonies with people talking in tongues and spazzing out and those without, I hope, and I've never been to any in a Catholic Church where somebody did) are now telling kids that they need to be soldiers of God? To give them the sorts of training that children might get in the middle east?
Sorry, that's some freaky shit.
Muslims are not our enemies. Hindus are not our enemies. And for the portions of those countries that are currently in "conflict" with us, the individuals that live in those countries and worship are NOT our enemies--really.
To teach kids that they are, that they should lay down their own lives for Jesus, to make those kids willing to kill themselves or others for Jesus--well I'm sorry, but if Jesus really has the power to come back from the dead I really hope it's to put the smack down on these fuckers. (Pardon the swearing, but what else ARE they?)
This sort of training isn't for good, this isn't singing little happy Jesus loves me songs (which I always giggled at and nobody else ever seemed to know why...) this is the sort of creepy evil that is creeping into public institutions everywhere (See: the president, etc.)
That our country's elections can be swayed by Fundamentalists scares me. That they act like extremists scares me more. I've ran into extremists from several religions and they all believe in the same crap: they hear voices, they think they know when the world is going to end, they think they have the right to control other people's lives...
Actually, the one recommendation I usually give entering college freshmen is NOT to join a student religious group because it's easy for the group to become too dramatic, to engage in too much group think, etc. I think this might be true of organized religion in general, but I've seen it happen to my friends in both pagan and christian groups, so I can only really speak for those. And if that's true, then the last thing I'd want is for my kids to be introduced to that crap early. Sheesh.
Oh, and lastly? Little girls should not refer to dancing as "For God" or "for the flesh." There's something intrinsically creepy in young girls beginning to think that dancing is purely for seduction, especially when kids' dance classes are so often just for exercise, coordination, and so on. *sigh*
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Hey Jill:
I've seen the previews for Jesus Camp too and I was likewise creeped the bejeezus out. I sort of kept thinking, no shit, about the Nazi Youth: this whole Krusade for Kids thing is just as insidious and dangerous to my mind.
I write this as a lapsed Protestant (Christian Church, Disciples of Christ if you want to know the precise denomination) who has occasionally thought of returning to the fold. The reasons I left (and have considered returning) are manifold and depressing, so I won't explore them here, but this sort of imagery always makes me want to keep my distance from Christianity.
In regard to some other points you make: a girl I was trying to "get with" was a devout Christian and she was not as certain as you that following the "golden rule," universal as it may be, was enough to earn salvation/redemption/passage to heaven, however you wish to phrase it. I didn't end up "hooking up" (as the kids these days say) with the young lady in question, but it wasn't just because of that. Or maybe it was. I was never exactly clear why we didn't. It was a shame, really: she was an incredibly bright girl and we had discovered that we had much in common. We both loed old movies, Sherlock Holmes stories, the work of Douglas Adams. . .I'm so lonely.
I need a hug.
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