Jesus Camp

So last night our family watched "Jesus Camp", the documentary that is up f or an Academy Award this year. Several things were a bummer for me on this. First of all, it confirmed the absolute cluelessness within so many conservative Christians as to the heart of the Lord for the lost. The us vs. them theme came through strong. The documentary revolves around a lady who is a Children's evangelist/prophetess. Her entire training focuses on a militaristic attitude towards non-Christians. The right wing focus on changing government/politics is the key m.o. for "changing" the world. The other serious mistake they made was to allow the filming of children speaking in tongues, etc.; a clear scriptural violation where Paul points out that when unbelievers or unlearned are present then you must keep the prayer gift to yourself and to God.

Comments

[Don-nie]

Lance,

Nice...I want to see this but you confirm my fears of this film. It seems like the documentary put out in the early 90's on the different faces of evangelicalism. It gave information and footage of a main line seeker sort of church, a charasmatic deep south church, and a few others. (Emerging/Organic/Simple churches were excluded from this work...apparantly post-evangelica means anti-evangelical). The most frightening scene was from a childrens church camp setting. The film maker was making the point of how children at the camp were encouraged in subtle ways to give testimonies that displayed how bad they used to be and how good they were now. Innocent, but the remarks made seemed to insight a seperation not from past sinful activity (in some cases the activities did not even appear sinful) but instead a seperation from past "sinful" friends. The encouragment to not only seperate from "sinnes" but even further to celebrate the amount one was seperate was...well...sickening.

Don-Nie

[Jess]

Okay...I am glad I didn't even waste my eyes on this type of stuff. Word to the young wise eyes watching. GO SEE MATRIX...much better than focusing on the "sadness" of "poverty" or the "pity" associated with this type of problem.

Like Nike ads imply...take your own shoes to the street and live it...don't just preach it. LIVE the life. Much, much more like the early church did it. Much more like the "saints" people emulated and looked up to.

Be a "saint" and live this life for as far and long as you can. You will find that you live much fuller if you live your life to the fullest.

Jess