Jesus Camp

Tracee and I watched an A&E special titled Jesus Camp last night. It is amazing how much agree with so much of the content of the "conservative fundamentalists" and yet I completely reject the methods of indoctrination which I witnessed.

Why focus on high pressure, high emotion, Sinners in the hands of an angry God, damnation model? I can easily see this hard line teaching in my own reading of the Bible, but I believe the larger focus is always on Love, and inclusion. Choice and opportunity to seek the path instead of obligation, fear and force.

I think the story line that the evangelical indoctrination is a "witch's brew" intended to take over American politics is old and tired. Government is of the people, by the people and for the people. God does not need the US government to defend him, or to do his will. He needs people dedicated to loving one another and sharing Christ's example.

Big difference between teaching and empowering individuals for ministry and the groupthink/indoctrination model I saw exemplified in this show.

I wonder if the director cut out the less volatile scenes to make a better show?
I wonder if I should take a harder line.. Am I "luke warm"?

1 Corinthians 13 (THE MESSAGE) ---- The Way of Love

¹ If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. ²If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. ^{3 -7}If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

^{8 -10}Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.¹¹When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
¹²We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!¹³But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.