the 1st time i heard about this documentary was when it was nominated for an Oscar, a couple of years ago and i'll admit, i was intrigued. i find Crazy Christers funny/sad in the same way i cringe while watching reruns of He-Haw and Jerry Springer; why would you want to put yourself out there and show the world your backwoods ignorance? i dunno . Anyway, for some reason, NetFlix recommended it the other day and so i added it to our queue.i can honestly say i've not been so moved by a documentary since the Laramie Project, which (though, i guess not technically a documentary) left me feeling sad and angry. Jesus Camp, though, left me feeling profoundly disturbed. seeing kids, as young as five, screaming and wailing for Jesus to overturn Roe vs Wade, speaking "in tongues", and denouncing their "lack of faith" is just scary; listening to doe-eyed little girls proselytize*, denounce dancing as "sinful", talk about "hearing god" and their "gift of prophecy" was almost as frightening as those kids in the Grudge, the Shining, & the Ring.
growing up Roman Catholic, faith was something i kinda took for granted: you believe in God. everybody believes in god. he's everywhere (like the CIA), so don't piss him off or you go to hell (which is like Florida, but without air conditioning or Disney World); all kids go to heaven, because they're kids and how much sinning could they possibly do (before puberty kicks in). the devil existed only in cartoons where he sat on Donald Duck's shoulder, wearing red pajamas and carrying a pitchfork; he wasn't disguised as Harry Potter (not that we had Harry Potter, in those days, but you get the idea).
it's apparent that the Evangelical Christians view the US as the current battleground of a holy war; us versus them, the damned versus the saved, and they're enlisting early; out of the womb and into the pews. if this movie is any indication, the next wave of the Faithful are being spoon fed doctrine and politics with side orders of shame and hate and seasoned with a heavy dose of anger and fear. i recommend this movie, if for no other reason than to have a peak at the next generation of GW Bush's, Pat Robertson's and Ann Coulter's and the subculture in which they're being reared (which is filled with Bizarro world versions of Sesame Street where the evils of the evolutionary theory are preached against and Metallica sings about lovin' the lord, and ordinarily product placment t-shirts proclaim Jesus as the King).
the best thing about it is that i'm sure the Evangelicals and Right Wing Crazy Christers view it as a love letter; an honest portrayal of their movement which is fueled by manifest destiny and armed with the word of the almighty. i can imagine them watching it and thinking how fantastic it is to watch the next generation being shaped in their own image, before unleashing them on a world that's rotting and pustulating with sin and corruption. they find it as moving as the Left finds the warping and twisting of kids disturbing and unsettling...
*don't think, for a minute, that the irony of the Crazy Christers going out on "recruitment drives" is lost on this faggot.
2 comments:
I really need to see this thing. I've been meaning to. But it's just not a "sit down with a bowl of popcorn" sort of movie, which i like. Having grown up in a churchy-evangelical-speaking in tongues sort of family, I REALLY need to see this gig.
You guys are stronger men than I am: I don't think I could get through this with my best effort...I would probably go crazy blind furious or else be so shaken up I'd vomit....
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