I don't think this is a statement about Christianity, but rather, this brand of Christianity. I acted in Holy Ghosts, a play where a man comes to find his wife who has run away, only to find them in a Church of God Snakehandlers. To prep for the movie, the director had us watch Holy Ghost People,
to give us an understanding about our characters in the play.
Another clip: [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUdc5h10zTo&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=iUdc5h10zTo&feature=related
It's based on Chapter 16 in the Book of Mark, when Christ returns and says that you will be able to pick up serpents and will not be harmed, and will drink poison and not be killed.
What you see in Holy Ghost People is a congregation handling rattlesnakes - some big ones. They allow the children to handle them as well. One boy who appears to be about 10-12, passes the snake to his friend by throwing it.
There is a weird part of the documentary - yes, more weird - where the pastor says that God controls the animals, and the snake can't bite him, because God wouldn't allow it. If God wanted it to bite me, it would (at which point, it bites him.) The pastor tells the camera crew, "no, don't help me know, when you wouldn't help me before." His arm swells up to the size of a neck pillow. He says that he has been bit about 10 times, and has always recovered.
This another instance where one has gone to the bible, read something, then unfortunately interpreted it in a way that is supposed to show their faith, but in reality, puts them at risk, and that is extremely irresponsible to encourage other people to test their faith, or better yet, fate. It's like playing Russian Roulette to prove your faith. And you see many children, even small children, in the congregation.
At the same time, most people with kids teach them what they believe. If they are Catholic, their child is taking communion at 7. There is often some peer pressure to accept Jesus and get baptized for anyone over 12 in a Baptist Church.
However, Jesus camp is extremely emotional, like a cult. What could an 8 year old have done that would make them weep that much? They all do! They lay hands on a cut out of George Bush, and while they are symbolically praying for the president (and he needs it), it looks like idol worship.
There is also an encouragement of the children to convert people to Christianity. In a bowling alley, a girl walks up to a woman bowling, and says, "Hi. Um, God told me that he wanted to talk to you about Jesus." She gives her a tract, the woman smiles courteously, and has that look like, "I'm not reading this." There is another DC evangelizing where she says to some old man, "Do you know where you would go if you died tonight?" This is a common, and badl, Christian evangelican technique, because it usually draws on fear, and urgency, like a Used Car Salesman.
What they don't show a lot of is the parents of the kids.
I was sent to summer Bible Camp. We learned about the bible, had chapel, sang Pass it On around the camp fire. About the closest thing they had to the craziness of Jesus Camp was a "game" or activity where the campers were told that Christianity is illegal. Anyone caught with a bible, or talking about God would be thrown in jail, or possibly killed. Our object was to find the secret meeting place. Some people were enemies, and some were helpers. It including someone chasing me through the woods with a bloody axe. The point was to show how it is for some people in other countries, and how we should appreciate what we have.
What it didn't have was a lot of time for long prayer, crying about our sins, etc. Yes, we had to write down a sin, ask for forgiveness and throw it into the fire, but we weren't crying. We weren't begging for forgiveness, because we knew that God was a forgiving God. We also weren't coerced into making this a political statement, when most of us didn't know what was going on in the world.
So, a lot of what I saw were simply industrial strength of what is taught in a lot of churches. When the kids get older, they will have a chance to disagree with their parents all they want.
