The spirit in the sky

"We're kickin' it for Christ!"

I just watched an amazing documentary called Jesus Camp, about the children of Evangelical Christians in Missouri who are trained to become "soldiers" in an "army for God."

Nine-year-old Rachael has my name and my freckles, but then I watched her go up to an adult stranger at a bowling alley and earnestly encourage the young woman to become saved in Jesus' name. Twelve-year-old Levi nods seriously when his mother, who homeschools him, quizzes him from a textbook called Exploring Creation With Physical Science: "A popular thing to do in American politics is to note that the past few summers have been very warm. As a result, global warming must be real. What's wrong with this reasoning?" And ten-year-old Victoria, whose favorite music is "Christian heavy metal and rock," worries that people will suspect that she dances "for the flesh," when really she is dancing for God.

When the children give testimonials at the Kids on Fire Bible Camp, where they also speak in tongues and pray to God to end abortion, one little boy has the chutzpah to stand up and admit that he sometimes finds it difficult to believe in God, because He can't be seen. His fellow campers stare at him, stunned. Later on, we see the same boy with his arms outstretched to the Lord, weeping.

The children's minister who runs the camp points out that Islamic radicals train their children to strap on hand grenades and become suicide bombers, and it is Christians' duty to retaliate by training their own children to become warriors for Jesus. Then she tells the kids that Harry Potter, were he in the Old Testament, would be put to death. "This means war! This means war!" she chants, before the kids pray for the faith of a life-sized cut-out of George W. Bush.

It's a really stunning film, up for an Academy Award next Sunday. I highly recommend it!