Jesus Camp Editorial from Molly Hayes “Where should we be putting our efforts? Where should we be putting our focus? I'll tell you where our enemies are putting it. They're putting it on the kids.” – Becky Fischer, Jesus Camp “There’s this entanglement of politics and religion. What kind of message is that for our children?” – Mike Papantonio, Jesus Camp   The scariest film I have seen this year is easily Jesus Camp, a documentary about a fundamentalist evangelical kids’ camp attended by children from all over the country. The children themselves did not scare me, although admittedly I personally find the little things worrying in general. Some background on the film:  it centers around the “Kids on Fire” camp held every summer and ran by Becky Fischer, a children’s minister in North Dakota. Specifically, the focus rests on a group of kids from Missouri. The scary starts to set in around the second scene, where we watch as these kids perform a dance for their congregation, dressed militaristically and proclaiming themselves ready to become “soldiers for Christ.” These kids are just some of the thousands—possibly hundreds of thousands—of Christian children who are getting drafted into the so-called “culture war.” From “Kids on Fire” to Ron Luce’s Battle Cry program for teenagers, fundamentalist Christian children are being taught a very specific, aggressive brand of Christianity. As the film progresses we see kids as young as five weeping for their supposed sins and speaking in tongues and even a ten-year-old who makes it clear that she dances for Jesus and not “for the flesh.” The use of scare tactics on children so young is deplorable and honestly made me sick. Another very disturbing aspect of their education is how incredibly secluded it is. Seventy-five percent of home-schooled kids in America are Evangelical Christians, and while I certainly have no problem with home schooling when appropriate, I do have a problem with the blatantly false information some of these kids are receiving as a result of their parents’ ignorance and intolerance. One mother in the film says that the schools have fallen apart since mandated prayer has been taken out—she ignores that whole “no establishment of religion” clause in that silly Constitution we have—and so teaches her children herself. We get a sample of their curriculum, all of which is strictly Creation-based. We see global warming dismissed quite handily before we hit the big one:  evolution. “If you look at Creationism,” she tells her son, “it’s the only possible answer to all the questions.” My questions, of course, involve how it explains carbon dating and those pesky dinosaurs. As the lesson continued, I realized how problematic these situations could become. It should not be surprising that people who readily believe the earth is a mere six thousand years old can believe more obviously erroneous information, such as the “fact” that the founding fathers wanted a Christian society. I was pretty sure that George Washington had said something along the lines of, “The United States is in no sense founded upon Christian doctrine”; but then, he was a pinko anyway, right? The press for a truly Christian America is one of the central themes of the film. The kids are unequivocally being told that their divine mission is to retake their country for God. And while it is certainly within their rights as Americans to practice their religion—rights upon which this country was founded—it is not in their rights to try to impose that religion on the government. As I mentioned above, I did not sense a strong grounding in actual history, and that is unfortunate; perhaps if that were not so, the well-proven historical fact that theocracy does not work would be better instilled. Theocracy caused the Salem Witch Trials, the Inquisition, and the Crucifixion. Theocracy oppresses thousands in the Middle East every day. But these children—kids who should be learning about love, peacemaking, and sidewalk chalk—are being trained as warriors for a cause antithetical to American democracy. One of the final segments in Jesus Camp shows the children as they stand in front of the Supreme Court in protest of Roe v. Wade, traditional red tape over their mouths, easily one of the most provocative images in the film. How can a seven-year-old know if she is pro-life? The answer is that she cannot, and the thrusting of these kids into the political arena is cruel and unhealthy and their parents should be ashamed. In the end, Jesus Camp may have only shown a facet of American life, but it is a facet that grows stronger every day. But beyond the politicization of religion and the extremist press of certain ideologies, what worried me the most during the film was the kids. Watching as Hell and sin were described to these children was horrific; there is no reason to articulate hellfire to a five-year-old. Their education is stilted and incomplete. They are being told to go to war as children— Becky Fischer ends a sermon at “Kids on Fire” by pronouncing, “This means war! This means war!” I can barely even begin to contemplate how damaging this all could be; the indoctrination has the capacity to do so much harm.