Something I didn't see mentioned in the previews I've seen of the film "Jesus Camp" and that I doubt is fully explored
in the documentary is the intense pressure that was put on these 'willing' children before they appeared on film looking
so comfortable with their plight. As a young boy I was once sent to what was then (60's) referred to as a christian
'retreat'. It was actually a 4 day intense brainwashing attempt, culminating nightly in massed meetings in an assembly
hall where small children were threatened with hell's torments and exhorted to grovel before the cults altar in
'surrender to god' and to 'accept Jesus as your saviour'. The mental and emotional pressure cooker atmosphere was
intense and I now realize very much purposely crafted. Hysterical children were crying all around me and trudging
towards the stage to obey the speaker, with what later degree of commitment I do not know. I do know now as a
middle-aged adult that my strength of will in resisting those imprecations and indoctrinations was in part my own
'personal saviour' and I have never forgotten the experience. How much worse the conditions under which these children
live? I had a few days of it, these children of fundamentalists experience it daily and can only escape at adulthood if
at all. If they seem to wear their chains of indoctrination lightly, remember they have often carried them from earliest
memory.
Make no mistake, there is -no- difference between the Muslim, Christian and Jewish radical fundamentalists except in the
details of their dogma. All are addicted to and dependent on their cults, all are quite certain they carry the One True
Word in their book, and every last one believes sincerely that they are gods chosen messengers and therefore not
responsible for the harm they do and the violence they support. -All- crave the power only a state theocracy can wield
to enforce their belief system on others and to oppress non-believers. And every last one of them do all they can to
raise their children in an atmosphere where their chosen dogmas are the only beliefs known, seen, discussed, understood,
or accepted. Intolerance of ideas outside their dogma is the one universal truth every last one of these cults share.
And contrary to what you will often hear, most of that intolerance is directed inwards towards their own families and
peers, with constant examination and interrogation of belief and behavior, and swift criticism and punishment for 'sins'
against the 'sacred' belief system.
Organized religion and corporate plutocracy are the two most violent, oppressive and thoroughly evil forces threatening
human society today. May God, if he is watching, give us the grace to save ourselves from them both.
Rixter – Thu, 2006 – 09 – 28 10:47
I know there are more important things I should be thinking about, talking about here, and certainly more
important things I should be doing. But sometimes I come across some "Father of the Latin Church" spewing drool and have
to just stop, gobsmacked, stunned, and take a moment to reflect on the kind of men whose statues are standing on
Catholic properties all over the world. Here's a so-called "saint" and his opinion of women:
