Brooke Koppenhaver Jesus|Politics

The documentary Jesus Camp is a large step from the information we had previously been looking at from Thomas Jefferson and the ideas of Giroux. This movie is in many ways trying to entangle religion into politics, something Jefferson would not be happy to see. Jefferson was a huge advocate for separation between Church and State and letting the decision be an individual one. Throughout the documentary it becomes apparent that the Evangelical Christians have a negative feeling towards the government over-all. If there were truly a separation to these Evangelicals between Church and State there would be no need to stress or worry about who was going to be in charge of the country. They also spent time raving over George Bush and talking about how he was pushing the country in the right direction in regards to religion.  Jefferson would be furious if he would have heard the Evangelicals talking this way. The mother towards the beginning of the video also raised an interesting argument about the government; she believed that putting her children in school to be taught by other people was going against God’s role for her as a mother. In a sense saying that that she didn’t trust the government run schools to teach her children. I don’t necessarily think homeschooling is wrong but her motives behind taking her kids out of school are wrong. Another issue that stood out to me was during the camp when Pastor Becky brought someone in to talk to the children about abortion and making them feel guilty about it and told them it was their fault and they needed to stop it. She is trying to get these young children to carry the weight of decisions that are made by adults much older then them, these children should not even know about abortions at this age. I found it disturbing that one of the pastors at the end mentioned that so many of these Churches have been formed lately. To me it seems like the Evangelical Christians are trying to go back to times before separation of Church and State. They believe if you don’t agree with them you are wrong and they need to “save” you. Jefferson and Giroux would be very disturbed by these actions and thoughts.