Jesus Camp

The kids are around 9 or 10 years old, recruited from various churches, and are pliant willing receptacles. They are instructed that evolution is being forced upon us by evil Godless secular humanists, that abortion must be stopped at all costs, that we must form an “army” to defeat the Godless influences, that we must band together to insure that the right judges and politicians get into the courts and office and that global warming is a lie. (This last one is a puzzle — how did accepting the evidence for climate change and global warming become anti-Jesus? Did someone simply conflate all corporate agendas with Jesus and God and these folks accept that? Would Jesus drive an SUV? Is every conclusion responsible scientists make now suspect?)

Awareness of the rest of the world is curtailed — one can only view or read that which agrees with the agenda.

Naturally, the kids being so young, there is no questioning of any kind — they simply accept what grownups Fischer and the others say — they get pumped up, agitated, they memorize right wing and Jesus slogans and shout them back obediently. They become part of a support group — a warm, safe, comfortable feeling for anyone, for any social animal, for you and me. No one strays or gets out of line even the slightest bit. (More on peer pressure later.)

[...]

They want to turn the U.S. into the "Christian" version of Iran or Saudi Arabia. A theocracy. The separation between church and state, already shaky with Bush in charge, is under full frontal assault by this bunch — and they are well organized, too. The megachurches tell their parishioners who to vote for, what judges to support, letters to write, and where they should stand on the issues. Well, we all do this to some extent — even in casual chats with friends we attempt to deduce and arrive at a consensus of opinion; a sloppy democratic give-and-take on any number of subjects often gives way to agreement. But this is top-down messaging — no discussion allowed. There’s a scene in the Colorado Springs megachurch run by the Preacher who talks with Bush once a week — same deal as with the kids, only most of the attendees are pliant adults.

Já ég hefði vísast allteins getað kvótað allt heila dæmið.. en þetta er skuggalegt maður. Djís.

Það er frí í vinnunni á morgun. En það eru ekki allir eins heppnir. Tíu ellefu hérna niðri er t.a.m. opið, og mér skilst það sé opið þar alla daga nema jóladag. Vegna þess að stúdentarnir veslast að öllum líkindum upp ef þeir fá ekki kók og appelsínur á mánudegi, hvað sem hann kallast á dagatalinu..

Hallur hringdi og ætlar að kíkja í heimsókn á eftir. Er eitthvað á kenderíi niðrí bæ víst. Síðan kem ég til með að skutla ömmu og Hafliða niðrá BSÍ í nótt.. ég er víst að fá bíl til afnota í einhvern tíma. Gæti verið gaman.

-b.