Jesus Camp

I watched this flick last night. Its just plain creepy.

They follow a few children around, the two main characters are very bright young people but I pity them, unless they break away they will never know the joy of simply asking why. I also pity any child that is followed so closely, they're 10-12 years old and seem to rarely be out of sight of their parents. This is a big problem I have with home schooling. Going out and having fun, doing stupid things that might get you injured but won't kill you is part of growing up. You can raise a child that has diverse experiences that will be able to adapt to any surroundings, or you can isolate a child so their only goal is to ensure that their surroundings never adapt. I am not sure that the second route is not child abuse, or more properly, child neglect.

I hate dogma, I hate the idea that there is anything that cannot be questioned. It makes me very sad when I think of growing up in a home that does not let you ask questions. But there is hope, even the most oppressive indoctrination cannot completely stifle human curiosity. There is one child that does come forward at church and says that he's struggling with his faith, god shows him no signs and so he has doubt. The camera crew does its best to try to capture the awkwardness of the moment.

Another truly awkward moment is when Ted Haggard takes the stage, he makes jokes with the camera but there is something slightly nasty about the jokes, its in fun, but not completely. There is also the part when he then meets the young boy with the gnarly rat tail who is very very sincere about his faith talking with Big Ted the Meth Head, who seems so blatantly fake by comparison. Even the very short segment that Ted is featured in makes you wonder how he was able to become the head of any major organization.

Well Im outta time, so watch the movie if you want, its worth seeing but its creepy. you've been warned.