David Byrne on "Jesus Camp," a new documentary film about the indoctrination of young Americans into an intensely politicized form of evangelical Christianity.
There were some perfect sound bites – at one point Pastor Fischer instructs the little ones that they should be willing to die for Christ, and the little ones obediently agree. She may even use the word martyr, which has a shocking echo in the Middle East. I can see future suicide bombers for Jesus – the next step will be learning to fly planes into buildings. Of course, the grownups would say, “Oh no, we’re not like them” – but they admit that the principal difference is simply that “We’re right.”In another scene a cardboard cutout of George W. Bush, with his trademark smirking smile, is brought out and the children are urged to identify – many of the little ones come forward and reverently touch his cardboard hands.
I kept saying to myself, “O.K., these are the Christian version of the Madrassas (those Islamic religious instructional schools in Pakistan and elsewhere, often financed by Saudi oil money)…so both sides are pretty much equally sick, there’s a balance." (Although it must be said the Madrassas provide some regular education and literacy where no other option is available, they do community work that is non-religious…and they take in aimless troubled youth.)
