The independent film "Jesus Camp" the children are being brainwashed, is this child abuse?

Answer 1

It broke my heart! I was raised in that kind of church, but not nearly as violently aggressive as that and I'm still damaged! When I was two, I told the lady next door she shouldn't say just a minute unless she actually meant 60 seconds! Every thing you do is a sin! You can never relax because you're always worried that the next thing you do may send you to hell forever. But the main thing I wanted to do was to ask that woman, if your church begins to run the government, what will you do to me if I refuse to believe? Will you torture me to make me convert? Will you strap a plastique vest on one of those children and send them to my house?!

Answer 2

It is nobodys business but the parents whom raise these children, Half the problems in the world is other people sticking their noses where it dont belong in other peoples business, If you want to see child abuse look no further than the television, The smoking commercials where they have a bunch of kids saying I have a ciggerette after dinner or on the way to work and the likes,, That is true child abuse in the extreme, And the people making those commercials should be charged with child abuse,, jesus camp is totally up to the parents and no body else,,yes sure your gonna have some cases that result in child abuse but those are isolated incidents, And also the makers of the show can push their view on the entire world while they watch a show as such, Remember its only the folks who made the show pushing their beliefs off on others,

Answer 3

I haven't seen the movie yet, so any opinion of mine is by necessity uninformed. I have an inherent problem with children being indoctrinated solely in one viewpoint on anything - religion, politics, economics, whatever - but that's just my view. One other answerer whose convictions I don't share does make a valid point - technically, we wash children's brains every day, from the way we teach them history to the advertising we allow them to be shown, indoctrinating a particularly Western philosophy into their pores. What is "the American Dream" or "the British Way of Life" if not a widespread, societally-accepted form of brainwashing that is fed to both adults and children to shape their aesthetic values, their aspirations and their ambitions?
I've struggled with this point when watching documentaries about the Woodsboro Baptist Chapel - the psycho-Christian group who teach their kids that "God hates fags" - and about the mother of the neo-Nazi pop twins who are "Prussian Blue". Technically, all these people are doing is raising their children in a belief-system. The point that disgusts us is that the belief-system in which they are being raised is so at odds with our own. Does that make it brainwashing? Does it make it child abuse?

I think there's an argument that it does - and from reviews I've read of the Jesus Camp movie, the response of the girl seems to be closest to proving that argument. It's presumably possible to say that raising children to believe in things that are so entirely separate from the mainstream could be said to isolate them and stunt their intellectual and emotional development, almost as effectively as locking them in a cupboard for the majority of their young lives. When confronted with the dilemmas of the real world, they are then entirely unequipped to deal with the conflicts between these extreme and rigid belief-systems which are what they have known and the world in which they try to make them work.

So while the definitions of brainwashing and child abuse are probably more fluid than many people are comfortable accepting, I think that ultimately, yes, there's an argument that making children so afraid of sin that they, for instance, question the rightness of their wish to dance, could be considered both brainwashing and child abuse.

Once again though, my opinion is uninformed, as I have yet to see the movie.

Answer 4

So "brainwashed" means being taught something?? Children are "brainwashed" in every school setting in the world! It is the adults responsibility to teach the children!

In Jesus Camp, the adults are teaching the children about God and how to live for God.

The only problem is that a lot of people watching the film disagree with the teaching....

Now if they were teaching children about safe sex..... about evolution.... about dancing like Britney Spears.... would you call that brainwashing?? Probably not...because a lot of people would agree with it!

Abuse? No way.

We need our brains washed with God's word!

god bless

Answer 5

Those children aren't just being brainwashed, they're being psychologically TORTURED. They're going to live their lives afraid to walk into bookstores that contain Harry Potter books, or to watch "secular" TV, or to listen to any "ungodly" radio stations... eventually they're going to think that Satan is hiding under ever rock, behind every bush, behind every smile, if they haven't already had their delicate psyches warped to that point already.

Answer 6

I agree with tasha and with squirt. It is this kind of nonsense that gives Christians a bad reputation.
Yes, this is abuse. I can't watch this mess.

Answer 7

Of course it's child abuse.

Answer 8

of course it is.

it's also unwise to teach your homeschooled kid that global warming is a myth because that's what Fox News tells you.

Answer 9

this camp "teaches" these children by knocking them down with feelings of guilt toward life, and instills a fear of everlasting punishment after death. i know of little else that can be more abusive to a susceptible mind quite like that.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wXVpqP1Uts4

Answer 10

My 11 year-old son watched the movie with me last night, and at one point he stated that the parents who send their kids to this camp (and raise them in this manner) should be locked up. He was especially bothered by all the crying, and the homeschooling scenes.

So to answer your question, in my child's eyes, it's abusive. I agree with him.