Will Obama's Kids Go to Jesus Camp?

Over the past few weeks, Barack Obama has really extended himself in an attempt to appeal specifically to the Evangelical Christian voting bloc. A very powerful voting bloc in this country. I'm going to continue to watch his moves with this group closely, but as fate would have it, Netflix delivered the documentary Jesus Camp to me yesterday. I just finished watching it and I have to say, I still feel a slight chill.

The documentary follows a group of children as they travel to a Bible camp and to various other Evangelical gatherings. I think that parents should teach their children right from wrong and that they should instill in them the values that they think would make them good citizens and inhabitants of the world, but there is a fine line between raising good human beings and scaring children into submission.

Jesus Camp is one of the most powerful documentaries I've ever seen and that's saying a lot because I watch a lot of documentaries. It's powerful in that it throws the curtain back on just how insane some of these Evangelical Christians are. Take a look at the clip below from the film and tell me, do you think the Obama children will be attending a Jesus Camp like this one this Summer? I think he needs to answer that question as he attempts to con them into voting for him by likening himself and his beliefs to theirs. Hell, I guess having attended Trinity United Church of Christ for all of their lives, his girls may feel right at home at Jesus Camp. They'd just be trading one insane message for another...Notice in the clip below the way they bring the George W. Bush cardboard cut-out into the room and then implore the kids to pray over it and talk to it. Then notice the way near the very end the kids all start chanting, "Righteous Judges! Righteous Judges!" after that guy gets them fired up about ending abortion.  So very sad....

I'm so absolutely disturbed after watching this doc. I truly am. Watching those kids weeping as those adults yell and shout at them is just sickening. Obama is a fool and he's playing a dangerous game--this win at any cost mission that he's on.  He's making so many promises to so many folks, he can barely keep track of what he's told whom--and why is he so damn hostile when he is questioned?! Reminds me of Bush who has been notorious for reacting the same way when called on something foolish that he's said or done. Wake me when this is over... --SUGAR

Comments

[imustprotest]

Sugar, thank you for posting this. Although I guess this film did receive a lot of press and awards, I had never heard of it. It is very difficult to watch. IMO the scenes with the children so worked up to the point of sobbing are child abuse. Shocking and sad.

[Dakinikat]

This is exactly the reason the framers of the constitution put up that wall between church and state. We should NEVER fund these kinds of things. Our Nation was founded during the age of Enlightenment, not the dark ages. Although it took us many years to enfranchise each and every one of us, we should NEVER go back to the time when Superstition ruled and Reason prevailed only among a powerless few.

Excellent Post as usual sugar!

[laney]

Sugar,
1st time at your blog, its terrific. Your graphics are great (i'm an artist, i ALWAYS notice).
Jesus Camp is very disturbing, I could not sit through it.
I'm so glad you mentioned the similarities between Bush and Obama. I think this is one area people do not talk about enough. It quit frightening, isn't it?

[Edgar]

When the documentary first came out about a year ago, I remember watching a clip in which a 5 year old said he was a sinner and he needed Jesus.

5 year olds don't talk like that.

There's a fine line between teaching our kids about God and teaching them to talk like evangelical preachers.

[SUGAR]

imustprotest, it is too much. I consider myself a Christian (albeit with a potty mouth that I'm in constant prayer about lol) but I would never subject any children that I may have to such treatment! That is only a 10 minute clip from the movie. The entire hour and a half film is so scary. The filmmakers did an excellent job of just letting these kooks tell the story themselves. I had been holding off on watching it for a while, but it came at just the right time.

Thanks, Dakinikat! :) We absolutely have to have separation of church and state. First of all, everybody doesn't practice Christianity, so how are we to be a fair nation if we alienate those who do not subscribe to that faith?

Hi Laney and thanks. Unfortunately, I'm no artist, but thanks anyway. lol The movie is very disturbing. Very disturbing. It's almost as if Obama is trying to blend together a bit of Bill Clinton's and GWB's campaign tactics, but the two are like oil and water.

Edgar, the film clearly shows the parents indoctrinating those children with that stuff. You are so right. There is a very fine line between instilling values in your kids and sending them off into the world filled with crazed obsessions about things that are absolutely none of their business. I wish that women wouldn't use abortion as birth control, but it is none of my damn business. I wrote a post here last year about that after the legislature in Mississippi tried to ban the procedure. The thing is, these evangelicals profess to believing that God is almighty and yet they won't let Him handle his own affairs! lol Why in the world do they think he needs them to do his house cleaning!?

[Chevalier]

Sugar, you're one of my all-time favorite bloggers. Thank you for posting this!!

The Jesus Camp thing looks like a joke. Tell me again, how do we DARE to laugh at abysmally backward people in Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia, considering there are such f***wits right here in our backyards.

Speaking to a cardboard cut-out President?????? In 2008, you wouldn't've expected to have such crazy kooks still alive and thriving.

[briarhopper]

I have attended many Evangelical churches and found none like anything in this film. When the Rev. Wright scandal erupted on TV, some black commentators insisted that most black churches are like his. The black people I know assure me this isn't the case. One guy, who's a kneejerk Obama supporter, gasped in negation when I asked about the church he attends. His preacher, he emphasized, blames the black congregation and demands that they not try to blame whites for their troubles. Youngsters like those in this film sound to me more like O-bots!

[Janis]

Eew, eew, how do you watch this without ingesting an entire gallon of pepto-bismol?

[CB]

Will rent this movie. I had no interest in seeing it
when it played locally, having had some first-hand experience with evangelicals.

Here's some info about Denver that needs to get spread far and wide:

As for Hillary having to negotiate with lawyers for her role in the convention (I read this, but for the sake of the Democratic Party hope it isn't true). She has to be on the first ballot. I received this email:

"Historically, what has happened at the Democratic Conventions is:
In the last 10 Democratic Conventions (1968-2004) one was uncontested (Bill Clinton's 1996 re-nomination). Of the remaining nine - even though the ultimate nominee in every case had a clear majority of delegates well before the Convention - in SEVEN of the nine, the names of the other contenders were placed in nomination and voted on at the Convention. The only times this didn't happen were in 2000 and 2004 (although in 2004 Rep. Kucinich still received some votes on the roll call).

This year we need to make it known that we want Hillary’s name to be placed in nomination. We believe that if this does not happen it will disenfranchise a great many Hillary supporters that we need in order to take back the White House in November.

Example of an email that I [the person sending the email to me] received:
I just heard on MSNBC (Fineman-Newsweek) that the Clinton camp as been negotiating for Hillary name to be put into nomination at the convention, that Obama doesn't want to waste the time, and that he hears that she will not be nominated. Do you know where this stands? If this is true, it is a deal breaker for me.

It is my understanding that this will be decided between Hillary and Obama’s campaigns. We do not know what is happening behind the scenes but we do know that we are united in our belief that 18 million people voted for Hillary, that hers was an historic campaign, that her delegate votes need to be counted for the record, and therefore her name should be placed in nomination. Hillary delegates want to do what they were elected to do and vote for Hillary on the first roll call vote."

[CB]

An analysis of how to win in 2008, written by Donnal Brazile, the day after the 2004 election. It's all about the Obama factor, Hillary isn't mentioned.

http://www.slate.com/id/2109328

...excerpt...

This is a new moment to identify and recruit better messengers. Perhaps it's time to tap into the "Obama" factor: Scour statehouses for young, energetic, inspiring, and emerging leaders with the ability to connect the head and heart. Too many of the old Democratic guard have stayed in Washington, D.C., too long to fully recognize how most Americans live their lives. I admit that I'm also guilty of being a little out of step with some of my family members. But I can play a mean catch-up when I visit my red home state or when they visit me here in my blue colony of Washington, D.C. (Yes, we are still fighting for statehood and voting rights.)

[ea]

Gloria at http://insightanalytical.wordpress.com/ has a couple of posts about Obama's courting of religious conservatives. I think there is a REAL danger of the United States becoming the Christian fundie state, with all those men who want this to happen claiming it is necessary to counter the Islamic fundie states. If this happens, all of us XXs will be living in hell.

[Pat Johnson]

This movie is illustrative of a subtle form of child abuse. When you start messing with kids heads this way you are practicing abuse. It is as toxic as any other brand of abuse because children as susceptible to this brainwashing. These adults are insane and the insanity is being perpetrated on young, developing minds. Sad.

[We_Count]

I too have seen Jesus Camp and it scared me! I still have chills running down my back even now just thinking about it. It is a definite must see if you have not seen it already.

[Sugar]

Thank you Chevalier! :) When the lady holding the carboard cut-out Bush said, "Yesss Lord..." I thought I would die from laughing, but it's too sad to even consider laughing.

Briarhopper, I have attended Black churches like the one in the film while visiting various churches in college and let me tell you, each time I encountered one, that was the first and last time I visited. But, "most" Black churches are not like that, just as I'm sure "most" Evangelicals aren't like the ones in the film. However, a great deal of them are just that extremist in their views/thinking. A lot of Black Evangelicals voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004 whether they will admit it or not due to those extreme views. I have opinions about certain issues, but I'm of the mind that it is not my business or place to judge anybody, so I don't and I encourage others to do the same. Besides, Jesus didn't walk around judging folks and shying away from them. That's what these Evangelicals don't seem to get and it's really sad.

CB, as usual you are keeping me on my toes! :) The D.C. "statehood" thing is just pitiful. How in the world is is that the seat of the nation's government, the residents don't have the power that those rubes have? Everytime I see a motorcade passing through the downtown area I am amazed and then I think about the hypocrasy and I want them to hurry up and get their asses out of the way.

ea, you are right. I will check out insightanalytical today. Thanks.

Pat, that's their goal. Get them while they are young and turn those minds into mush. The kids in that video are the ones who keep the student population at places like Bob Jones University and Oral Roberts University and Liberty University steady. Those universities depend on this brainwashing or they'd have to go out of business..............

We_Count, it is very scary.