I, like so many of you, recently watched Jesus Camp. I can safely say that it was the scariest movie I have ever seen. I am not, in any way, kidding about that. It frightened me. It frightened me because it presented a worldview that goes against my core Christian beliefs. To even imagine what America would be like if it were to fall into the hands of people like the (militant) right-wing fundamentalist Evangelicals like Becky Fischer, or anyone like her, is frightening to me.
One of the many things that has struck me as particularly disturbing is how extremely political the people documented in this movie are. They have mixed their religion and their politics so much that you can’t tell where one ends and one begins. They were brainwashing these poor children with ideas they do not even understand—and most of these ideas had to do with “reclaiming” America for Christ. I found it appalling.
They kept bringing up government over and over again to these kids with regard to their Christian responsibility. To be faithful Christians, they were encouraged to be senators, congressmen, and the like.
Politicians.
They told the kids to be politicians in order to be faithful to Jesus! Government is to be their primary responsibility! Where did they get that from? Certainly not the NT.
I am a Christian. But I found that profoundly distorted view of Christianity disgusting.
What does it mean, exactly, to “reclaim” America for Christ? That makes it sound as though we were, at one point, a Christian nation. My question is: What point in our history was the Christian part?
If it were not so fundamentally disturbing, the irony would be hilarious.
Jesus was not a politician. That is about all I know.
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