In spite of my personal belief that organized Christianity is a cultural failure, I admire these folks for trying. If only the people they were trying to reach actually read the Bible and tried to live their lives in accordance with the principles set forth by Jesus. Every time the Soulforce activists are arrested, or even visit one of these parachristian extremist training camps [such as the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary led by Albert Mohler, Jr, the guy who advocates "treating" gay or lesbian fetuses with maternal hormone patches], it ensures a flurry of local media attention and even some national attention. This forces the extremists and the local warlords who habor them to expend money on extra police and court time. This is money that otherwise would be spent discriminating against and persecuting people with whom they disagree.

Jesus Camp

I thought this movie would be funny. It was truly disturbing. [OK, the scene where the still-closeted meth-snorting, hooker-blowing Rev. Haggard tells the cameraperson to "Repent!" was funny and not the least bit disturbing–but only because it does not involve any innocent children.] Were I The Dictator, or even the District Attorney, I would arrest or prosecute most of the adults in this movie for child mental and spiritual abuse.

The documentary follows several preteen children from their home towns to a parachristian extremist summer camp where they are taught that their elders' particular set of peculiar superstitious beliefs and worldview are the only correct ones and that it is their duty to indoctrinate the rest of us into them. One girl reminded me of Mary Catharine Gallagher, but only the pathetic parts of the character, not the funny ones. It was hard to laugh during this movie because I felt so sorry for the actual kids who were its primary subjects. It was so obvious that they were parroting dogma that they clearly didn't understand to win the approval and love of the [very warped] adults in their lives.

Parachristian hate mongers invade San Fran

As if we needed another good reason to build an impenetrable wall around Texas. What do you think would happen if these folks decided to invite 15,000 of their closest friends to Lubbock, TX for a massive weekend rally followed by organized attempts to convince the locals to repent their chosen lifestyle of false-god worship and obsession with controlling the consensual behavior of others [because Zeus doesn’t like that]?