Ryan Carroll- Jesus Camp

The documentary Jesus Camp was quite interesting and eye opening to me.  The radio announcer at the beginning was discussing the fact that religion has become too intertwined within the political system and the film proves that to be very true.  The children in the film seemed to be almost brainwashed in a way into thinking how the church leaders have told them to since the first sermon they attended.  Choice does not seem to be much of an option in this camp, the only choice you would be welcome in having is that of choosing Jesus as your savior.  If the campers weren’t to choose that then they would be called sinners or would be ridiculed enough to give into the pressure.  Jefferson would not be happy with how the evangelists are portrayed in this film.  He would not support the supremacy antics of these Christians that are trying to make America a religiously based nation.  Jefferson was the one that instated the first amendment, and everything that these people are doing goes against that.  In the end part of the documentary one of the campers, Levi, goes to a mega-church sermon led by a man known as Haggard.  That man met with George Bush and his advisors weekly to help with decisions.  Haggard said that the power of the evangelical Christians is immense.  If they were all to vote in an election, they could easily sway an election one way or another.  That statement terrified me because what does that mean for every other American voting?  Does that mean that they have no say at all anymore?  These are serious questions to be asked when statements like that are made.  The most important issues raised in this documentary are the separation of church and state and the power of religious groups in political affairs.  The separation of church and state was put in place for a reason and some religious groups think that it is a stab at their religion for not being able to practice certain things in school or not be able to have group prayer in school.  These rules were put in place to keep the educational environment one free of any biased views, religion, or discrimination.  Overall this documentary was very intriguing and I enjoyed watching it, even if I didn’t agree with anything that was happening in it.