A very good article.. plz read the entire thing
http://www.yayacanada.com/jesuscamp2.htmlA copy of the film Jesus Camp came into my hands this week. I watched it last evening and I'm glad, because now that I've seen it I'll never have to look at it again.
In spite of my own background, I tried to approach it from the point of view of one who has not seen the inside of Pentecostalism, and although much of it is typical of what has been going on for a long time behind closed church doors, I can certainly understand why people would find the political implications frightening - and why they have sympathy for Becky Fischer's kids.
Fischer makes no bones about literally creating an army of replicas of the automated Stepford child - "surprisingly precocious and a little creepy" - who will impact future governments and society in favour of Christian extremism.
The aim is much less about the love of Jesus and far more about political clout than any truly Christian teaching ought to be, given that Jesus himself separated faith from state in his famous line about rendering to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.
Not once did Jesus say, "Go ye therefore and take over the government" or "Go ye into the ends of the earth and enforce the gospel". He said if people don't want to hear you, shake the dust of their town off your boots and move on. Matthew 10:14
He recommended simply letting one's light shine so that converts would be attracted by goodness and love, not compelled by threats of hellfire and eternal damnation. I don't know who threw the segments about wailing and gnashing of teeth into the New Testament and attributed it to Jesus, but it couldn't have been Jesus who ranted thus - unless he was a hopelessly schizoid personality, which somehow I doubt.
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Hagee calls the hate words belching from his bloated lips "diamonds", but the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council recently found him in violation of broadcast regulations, saying in part:
"He stands resolutely against homosexuality. That is clearly his right but he does not stop there. As in the above-cited CKRD-AM Focus on the Family decision, he pins on gays and lesbians a “gay agenda” and the “brain-washing” of children in the schools. He accuses the “homosexual lobby <... of> pushing this curriculum.” In other words, he has attributed to gays and lesbians “a malevolent, insidious and conspiratorial purpose, a so-called ‘agenda’”, to use the terminology of the Prairie Panel in the CKRD-AM decision. In this case, as in that, the Panel finds that such an attribution constitutes a breach of the Human Rights and Religious Broadcasting Clauses of the CAB Code of Ethics.
Hagee advocates and looks forward joyfully to a war on Iran, as does Michael Coren, another so-called Christian broadcaster on CTS.
Hagee believes that Christ will Rapture the "saved" before they can be harmed by nuclear fallout. He has even reinterpreted scripture to say that Jews no longer have to convert to Christianity in order to be saved from the chaos to come.
Like so many other fanatics, Hagee worries about the "brain-washing" of children in public schools, but doesn't bat a wattle when it comes to depriving them of a childhood in order to carry out the political goals of religious extremism. Completely unconsidered in all of this is Jesus' stern counsel against harming little ones.
Are Falwell and Hagee projecting their own personal demons onto the world, as did Swaggart, Bakker, Haggard and others whose immorality was exposed? Is it any wonder that somebody is making money doing background checks on church employees and volunteers?
Does Becky Fischer, an equally rabid finger pointer have something to hide as well? Only time will tell, and we would be well advised to stay tuned.
http://www.yayacanada.com/jesuscamp2.html