Jesus Politics-Megan Morgan

The film and directors’ interviews in the Jesus Camp video address the point of the entanglement of religion and politics as a characteristic feature of our age by showing everything through the eyes of Becky Fisher and the children at the Christian camp. Yes, I have seen people speak in tongues but it was nothing like seeing how the kids in the video do and how they cried while they were praying. The part that stuck out the most was when they were teaching the kids about abortion and pretty much teaching them how to get involved in politics so that they can help stop all of the abortions. I feel that kids that young should not be taught about abortion and I don’t understand how kids that young can fully understand what’s going on with politics and abortion. Another way that they addressed the point of politics was when they showed the kids crying and smashing the cups because it’s God’s enemy. This interferes with what Jefferson believed because he felt that religion and politics should be separate. He believed in being able to practice your own religion, but that the two should never be combined.   The most important issues that the documentary raised for me comes from the reading on Jesus Camp where Becky Fischer talks about how as many as half of the men who signed our constitution were ministers or Christian leaders, and how this gives the whole separation of church and state a “black eye” (15-16). She also went on to say that who better to speak out for Christian values that our nation was founded on than those who know the scripture well. I think that keeping the church and state separate are hard to do sometimes and I agree with Becky when she brought up the point above. One last thing that stuck out was when they put up a cardboard cutout of George Bush in front of the kids and had them praying for him. I again don’t understand what kids that young know about things like that and do they really fully understand what they are praying for? I think that some of these kids were almost taught what to say and do and were never given any choice and they were never given a chance to live a “normal” life like every child should.