The Observer, November 17, 2006
Volume XXXIX, Issue 11
Indoctrination breeds hate, conflict
The Evangelical movement is a scary thought for most intellectual urbanites and liberal college students who usually dismiss it as the religion of primitive Bible–thumping mountain men. However, as Jesus Camp, a documentary film about an evangelical summer camp reveals, polemic and extremist views have gained great ground amongst many Americans.
In the film, youth evangelical pastor Becky Fisher explains her rationale for her views – if Palestinian, Iranian and Iraqi families are indoctrinating their youth to embrace a fiercely militant brand of Islam opposed to America, why don't we do the same in response? For the evangelical movement which has been embraced by 30 million Americans, this is a war both at home and abroad. Thus, Fisher's question becomes more relevant. In the post 9/11 era, how far does sensitivity and tolerance lead to our destruction as a nation rather than help it? In reality, objectively answering her question is much harder than what we may believe.
Last month, over 100 U.S soldiers were killed in combat. This summer, two U.S. soldiers were captured on a patrol, brutally tortured, and literally ripped to shreds. For evangelicals, many of whom have close ties to the military, the death and dying in the Middle East represents something deeply personal and emotional. The question for many then becomes like the old adage – why not fight fire with fire? What goal does cultural sensitivity and religious tolerance really accomplish when people want you dead?
While Fisher's form of indoctrination may seem to have all the answers, it is essentially deceptive. Indoctrination in general provides black and white answers in a world that exists in shades of grey. Indoctrination of any sort desensitizes one towards thoughtful action and thus induces the potential for an individual to commit terrible acts of violence and hatred. The only answer perhaps is that indoctrination of any form is reprehensible.
Its horrifying effects are seen in several scenes like the one in which Becky Fisher admonishes and preys on the insecurities of young children to the point where kids are rolling on the floor screaming out their sins in pseudo-religious babble. It would seem as if preachers like Fisher are trying to instill a deep emotion back into the religious experience of church. Therefore, more than anything, what Jesus Camp illustrates is the often powerful effect that indoctrination will have upon people's psyches, particularly the young and impressionable.
As the future leaders of America that many of these young evangelical children will undoubtedly become, this is perhaps no less dangerous and malicious as terrorist training camps that train young children to fire AK-47's. Fisher's Jesus Camp may be less physically violent but perhaps no less threatening as she seeks to conform children to her brand of insular, dogmatic, and militant form of thinking through coercion, guilt, fear, and reward.
Thus, Fisher's acts are no less reprehensible than those of militants in the Middle East. Personally, the scariest part of Jesus Camp is the fact that demagogues like Fisher are actually taken seriously at all. As Sara Brady of Premiere Magazine states, "[Evangelism]'s views on science, the role of women in the church, and politics are so polarizing that almost any viewer, whether Orthodox, agnostic, or atheist, is bound to have an elemental reaction from the first shot of six-year-olds weeping in religious ecstasy." Perhaps it is time for Unitarian Universalists and other religious pluralists to incorporate a summer camp into their services.
