Antonio Tross-Jesus Camp

     Thomas Jefferson established the Wall of Separation, to establish a separation between the world of politics and religion.  This made it freer for people to practice their religion the way that they wanted to.  In the Jesus Camp documentary, the argument for the importance of religion was based on its relevance in political discourse.  While the documentary didn’t really comment on the liberal side of Christianity (with the exception being the radio host and his interviews), it did touch base on the conservative.  The youth minister in the film had a lot of faith in George W. Bush and a lot of the politics that he established.  Author Henry A. Giroux comments on that and talks about how George Bush was recognized for how much he did for right-wing Christianity in politics (271).  I think that Jefferson would have had a problem with this because what Bush was said to have done is the complete opposite of what he wanted.  Giroux also points out how Bush pushed for open dialogue about fundamentalist Christian values in politics (273).  Another comparison that can be noticed between Giroux’s article and the information in the documentary is the use of Christian extremism (277).  The youth in the Jesus Camp documentary were being trained, in a way, to approach their religious beliefs more actively and more radically then it had been done before.  These young children were talking about become “martyr’s” for Christianity which is really intense.  I could not even imagine kids their age who would honestly say that they were willing to die for something.  Because of their values, I feel like they were missing on the opportunity to grow up and make their own decisions.  It seemed like a lot of the kids in this documentary were just following what their parents had done before them and I think that is because they weren’t given the opportunity to explore anything else.  In my opinion, this documentary is important because it shows us where the future of politically based Christianity is headed, in terms of conservatism.