The plot thickens!

A few weeks ago, I watched a documentary called “Jesus Camp” (which was very disturbing I might add) It was about a Pentecostal children’s minister who runs conferences and an annual summer camp for evangelical kids.

“We want to reclaim America for Christ.”

(try not to imagine the words I am saying in my mind right now)

In parts of this documentary, the pastor says:

“If you look at the world’s population, one third of that 6.7 billion people are children under the age of 15. One third! Where should we be putting our efforts? Where should we be putting our focus. I’ll tell you where our enemies are putting it, they’re putting it on the kids…

Do you know that Muslims train their children from the time they are 5 years old, to fast during the month of Ramathan?...

You can go to Palestine and I can take you to some websites and show you photographs of where they are taking their kids to camps like we take our kids to bible camps and they are putting hand grenades in their hands, they are teaching them how to put on bomb belts, they’re teaching them how to use rifles, they’re teaching them how to use machine guns, it’s no wonder with that kind of intense training and discipling that those young people are ready to kill themselves for the cause of Islam. I wanna see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people are to the cause of Islam. I wanna see them as radically laying down their lives for the gospel as they are over in Pakistan in Israel in Palestine, because we have, excuse me, but we have the truth”

(again, the same words in my mind…)

and then she adds:

“the reason you go for kids is because whatever they learn by the time they are 7-8-9 years old, is pretty well there for the rest of their lives…

I can go into a playground of kids that don’t know anything about Christianity, lead them to the lord in a matter of just no time at all and just moments later they can be seeing visions and hearing the voice of God. Because they are so open, they are so usable in Christianity”

Near the end of the documentary, a reporter asks her whether or not what she does is brainwashing, and he points out that learning is different from indoctrinating.

to which she replies, “I don’t think any child gets anything by choice, … I would like to see more churches indoctrinating…”

(I think this part doesn’t really need any comment or explanation)

Well in the end you can see in the documentary that somehow it ends up being about supporting a political party, that is not my point here. What I intend to point out here, is that a group of people have a belief, a strong belief, and they know as I do, that the most effective, efficient, fundamental and the easiest way to enforce what they believe in, is to put their focus and effort on children. And this scares me to my very core. And then I think about what I believe to be right, and about educating children…

You see where I’m going with this!?

How can I tell what I think is right, is actually right? Is there a right or wrong? Do I have the right to educate children towards what I believe in right? Does a government, any government, have the right to pick up a direction of education and guidance for children and have educators and teachers work towards that direction?! How can we distinguish between brainwashing and enforcing our own beliefs, and educating our children to become free thinkers or giving them proper thinking tools and skills to think and choose for themselves? (is it even good to be free thinkers?!?!)

There is a very thin line between brainwashing and teaching, it is extremely difficult to figure out if we do what we do because we want a better world for our children or we do what we do because we are influenced by a political party or a certain world view or whoever else, and now we are trying to influence the next generation.

So I now correct myself.

The first and most fundamental step is NOT to work on kids.

It is to work on ourselves.

Think, read, ask, talk, explore, learn…

And as we expand our horizons and learn how to think better and be better and do better, there is no doubt our children will see, learn and follow.