Movie Review: Jesus Camp

It is hard to pick what is the most horrifying about this film. The film takes you on a journey with Evangelical Christian children, heir parents, and their pastors. You delve into a culture of fear and faith which is always a devilish combination.

For a minute I wasn't too concerned, after all Pastor Becky mentioned Harry Potter, and the kids gasped as she told about wizards being the enemy of God. This of course didn't drive me to fear because after working in a bookstore on a Harry Potter release night...there are a lot of people out there who don't believe children's books are the enemy of God. Then the kids started talking about it and how they watched the movies anyway. Cut to the next scene where the kids repeated what they were told about being the army of God.

The film portrayed these children as pawns in a political game; though everyone was denying it. Not to imply the kids don't believe the information they are regurgitating out. There were many moments when I couldn't believe what I was hearing or seeing, but nothing struck me like the pure militarism of faith and demonetization of anyone different. This was captured beautifully at the end of the film when Pastor Becky was on the air with a liberal talk radio host. She said that America's is destined to fail because democracy is destined to fail. It will fail because it requires that everyone be treated equal...yeah, you just read that. I think now would be a good time to draw attention the slight Aryan nature of the Bible Camp. I ask you to count the minorities if you feel so inclined or moments when you feel like the word Jesus could be replaced by Hitler or Muslims with Jews.

While I did like the film, because I like anything that infuriates me. A friend pointed out the radio host talks down to the viewers, and panders to the liberal agenda of the film. I completely agree. While he does serve a purpose it is difficult to take him seriously because in the context he sounds as radical as the reactionary Christians. Personally, I think the film would have been stronger if they had left him out and focused solely on the subject. If the filmmakers still needed someone to contrast their subjects then why not a neutral narrator? Someone without agenda.

On the Cari rating system: 4/5

Beware Feminism will Destory Everything!

At first this was funny when I saw it on Feministing.com, but the longer it went the scary and sadder it because.

The highlights:
1. women are the root of everything wrong in the world
2. feminists hate babies, and though the trailer didn't say it we eat them too
3. Hilary is evil for having one child...I'm sure there is more to this
4. women raped during military service never should have been there
Oh, there were so many. If this is a joke site please let me know. I hope it is, but I looked under internship, and became even more disturbed and had to close the site.

Hate Crime or Freedom of Speech?

I don’t think of myself as prudish or conservative in most aspects of y life, however then I read an article and can’t help but feel outraged. www.UPI.com featured an article called Aloud_blogger_appears_in_court. Apparently, there is an all girl pop group called Girl Aloud in England. A man, Darryn Walker, is accused of violating England’s obscenity law, Obscene Publications Act, by blogging about the fictional rape and murder of this all girl pop group. This blogged fiction is about 12 pages long, and features the kidnapping, rape, multination, and murder of the girls. This case is considered the first real test of the act since pornography has become so readily available via the Internet; it also appears to be the first case involving the written word.

This caught my attention because as I said I don’t want hinder freedom of speech, and I accept different standards for those in the public eye. But is it just me, or is this blogged fiction hate speech? Of course I also consider rape a hate crime. (Definitions are taken from Dictionary.Reference.com).