Here's the twist. The people who made the documentary (not the church) seem to have had a different agenda for the movie than just showing children learning and growing in God. Their agenda seems to be a comparison of evangelical Christians to Muslim jihad. They focus on things like "God's Army" and take several seens of weeping and dramas out of context to seem more like brainwashing than teaching children what God wants for their lives.
Let it be known that I approve of the camp but not the movie. The movie has an agenda that, from what I've read and seen, is not the agenda the church has.
Here is one of the trailer videos for this documentary. Right off the bat you can tell that there is a definite mood being set by the film makers. Watch the video and then read the comments below that are straight from this churchs website and from the mouth of the woman who is speaking in the video. Do the research and try to recognize that this may be an army of young people but it is an army of love - not hate.
WHAT DO YOU WANT PEOPLE TO LEARN FROM THE FILM?Here is one other thing that was said by Becky Fischer taken from the comments of another website:
When you say "people," there are two groups of people we can discuss--the secular audience and the evangelical community.
I wondered from the beginning what the secular audience would find interesting about what we do at all because we work pretty much exclusively within the Church world in our ministry. Before the addition of the political content, I assumed their interest would be the supernatural nature of what the children walked in because we live in a culture where the supernatural has come back into focus again particularly in the secular world. However, now I am concerned the secular audience will be focusing on the political side of things, and completely miss the power of the living God who is alive and well, and working through the lives of even small children in this film. We want people to see God is real and alive and active in our lives.
As for the evangelical community, my focus as a minister has basically been to bring an awareness to the Body of Christ (i.e. people who are committed followers of Jesus) of the potential spiritual dynamos we have in our children. My hope is that Christians will look past all the political mumbo jumbo and see this film for what it is--as one news source said, this is a movie about extreme faith, not politics. It's also about the importance of discipling children in the Christian faith. My hope is they will be able to see the more obvious truth which is children are capable of understanding, feeling, being an enthusiastic, and powerfully effective part of extreme faith in Jesus Christ because this is an extreme generation.
These kids are not interested in sitting on the sidelines of Christianity until they turn 21. They want to be a part of what God is doing in the earth NOW! If the Christians don't wake up to this fact, statistically we face the very real possibility that we will lose the next generation to the Christian faith. My hope is Christians everywhere will see this and realize they need change the way they are currently discipling their children, taking their kids beyond the basic Bible stories and truly disciple them as active members in the kingdom of God.
"I want to thank you for something you said in your Aug 9 entry that was very accurate and insightful—you said, “they probably took the clips of them praying for George Bush and things like that and edited the thing to look probably more political than it was.” That’s exactly what happened!”Links
“They had over 260 hours of footage,that had nothing at all to do with politics, but managed to build a whole 86 minute film around a handful of so-called political segments. So thank you for setting the record straight.”
“We’ve taken so many hits from the “liberal left” if you will and and some real bonified wackos that have accessed our website, and I don’t feel like I have a political bone in my body. The whole political thing was a complete surprise to us and wasn’t introduced into the project until about 2 months before it was finished. My head is still swimming at times with “how did this happen?”
“All those scenes about kids disssolving into tears after I make some strong statements—a lot of that was edited in to make it look like they were responding to certain comments. When in fact we just start worshipping God at the end of our services and the Holy Spirit begins to fall with amazing power. Most of those tears have absolutely nothing to do with me drumming up emotional statements.”
“This last one is a puzzle — how did accepting the evidence for climate change and global warming become anti-Jesus?” A number of us in the movie are having a fit that this was put in the film. It has nothing to do at all with us. It was an off handed comment made by a homeschool mother, and several of us talked to the film makers to remove it, and they refused. So it puts all of us in a bad light. But that’s life."
---------------
Kids in Ministry
The Movie Site
New documentary... (Blog)
9 comments:
I'm not entirely convinced that the comparison of the the Christian children to the children of Islamic fanatics is a biased view from the film makers. In the trailer and another video clip, Becky herself draws that comparison. It's really that comparison that leaves me feeling so uncomfortable about the movie. I don't deny that if they're out teaching their kids what they believe then we should be teaching what we believe, but the comparison certainly sends the wrong message.
I agree with what Amanda said.
I understand that a strong focus would be good especially when kids starting at sixth grade already learn about sex and kids as early as fourth grade already learn about drugs and alcohol.
I went to camps too growing up. But never has any of those camps I went to had a comparison such as the one Amanda talked about.
It's just unnerving hearing it.
I guess what I want to say is that we need to try to look past all the hype. This camp is about disciplining our kids, yes. But don't take that as scary. Cheerleaders learn discipline at an early age these days as do gymnists. If you want to be able to get into a good dance school or orchestra you are training from the day you can walk. All of these are looked on as maybe too much for the children by some and by others it is the only path to excellence. And you know, I think they're both right. But this camp isn't even as tough as the above disciplines can be. I saw laughing and fun on some of these videos of the camp on the net. They weren't pumping them full of scripture and memorization from sun rise to sunset. You may not want your children having that level of commitment and that is understandable but why should others not have that opportunity? Its not a cult to want to train your child up early.
She does make a comparison between what she is doing to radical Islamic movements. Its not to say that its politcal of even radical to the point of testing the children's faith. I think that what she wants to put across though is that training our children IS important. Otherwise, what foundation will they have if something earth shattering happens in the days to come?
I also don't want you to misunderstand me. I haven't fully formed my opinion yet, because I haven't seen the movie.
I am all for Christian camps. I wish I had been able to go to camp when I was younger. I am all for teaching our kids in the way they should go. I'm just not convinced that this particular camp is the way to go about doing that.
Obviously you have a vested interest in this camp. I've not meant to offend you in any way; I'm only stating my caution in regards to this matter.
Its not so much that I have a vested interest in that I'm in some way related to the camp and its workings but that I have been to camps similar to this when I was in high school and I feel strongly in raising a generation of Christians whether young or old that is not timid in their faith and not afraid to stand up for what they believe is right. You'll get that feel through out my blog if you have a moment sometime to look at what I've written. God bless you and I pray that we both get more perspective later on!
This camp is sick sick sick.
No one should have the right to tamper with the minds of young kids like that. This camp is a sect - nothing else. This is the equivalent of bringing kids to a KKK or neo-Nazi meeting! The authorities should intervene, and the people responsible - parents and organisers, should be brought to court.
Give the poor things a chance to make up their mind, please. Religious teaching - of any kind - should only begin at maturity. Education should concentrate on fostering compassion and respect for others - something that most religions claim that they support but fail (miserably) to implement. Have you read the newspaper lately?
Religious people, of course, would never agree to that. They are afraid that there would be very few takers at the end! That is why institutionalized religions understood a long time ago that they must start their indoctrination early in a child's life. No human beings raised in a rational environment would take all those superstitions seriously. Normal people grow up and stop believing in Santa Claus.
What the next step? Christian schools where all subject matters are forbidden except religion? Oh yeah, we know that you religious people like you have only one book on your shelves… Not that you've read it of course (otherwise you might realise that it contains quite a few atrocious recommendations...).
I'm so tired of seeing religions spoil my world, and the world of my children. So tired of those small, scared people who hate rationality, knowledge (and in general, women).
Ooohhh what a pity. The world is in a pretty bad state right now, and is in deep need of compassion, not more religious fanaticism.
The only thing I will say at this time to this comment is that no one is forcing these children. There may be the rare exception of a mother who is an dictator in her Christian home and insists on it but most of them are coming to camps like these of their own accord. They are not being brain-washed. They are being taught. I'm sorry if you feel venomous towards religion but try to look around you and see that Christianity, true Christianity, is not like other religions. Also, see my post for today - When are We Teaching?
I believe you. I am convinced that the children went to the camp wholeheartedly - in the same way that German youth went to the Hitler-Jugend training camps.Young children are trusting little creatures that can easily be influenced, which is why we have laws against adults trying to seduce them, for instance (this is just an example - I am not inferring anything about the camp here).
As for your remark about Christianity, I'm sure that any good muslim, hinduist or buddhist would claim the same thing.
If we were to lists all the gods of all the religions in a small book (there are about 2000) with say a short description, your's would appear on page 46..or 74...or 87... But you would point to it and claim to be absolutely sure that it is the only 'real' god. From my perspective, this would be funny...if the consequences for humanity were not so disastrous.
I commented back to you on a new post. Please see Feedback Worth Posting.
Post a Comment