Watch it here and leave your thoughts. I think you know mine…
Dan, the funny thing is that I DO know the heart of Christians, having been one myself! I was raised in a Pentacostal church, “saved” and “filled with the holy spirit.” (yeah, I spoke in tongues. I have an interesting piece about that for another time.) The term “Evangelical Christian” is not simply a label for a certain type of Christian. It is a term founded upon the key point of “evangelizing.” In fact, this is directly from the NAE’s website:
We believe in a biblical faith demonstrated by loyalty to the Word of God and commitment to proclaiming its message worldwide.
Which is EXACTLY what the Jesus Camp is all about, indoctrinating unsuspecting kids (saved at 5? come on now) to send them out into the world as little evangelists.
If you do not believe that that is the calling for all Christians, better read your Bible a little more.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:Matthew 28:19
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Mark 16:15
TJM,
I guess we have more in common then I thought. When watching Jesus camp, I found myself saying, ‘I can’t believe they just said that’. ‘I can’t believe that they are showing that’. I am a pentecostal, but I don’t brand myself with evangelicalism or any other brands for that matter. Like you, I was saved at a young age and baptized in the Holy Spirit at 16. I grew up in a home that taught many of the values that you see in Jesus Camp. To use your websites title, ‘Where faith and logic Collide’. My faith as a child was not a logical one. My reasons for believing in Jesus were based more on my respect for the adults in my life and trust that what they believed was true.
As a teenager, I started to question everything that I was taught. I had to build my faith myself. I thought that I had lost my faith because I didn’t know why I believed. My logical mind had questions that had to be answered. In the past 7 years I have taken a new look at Christianity as I ventured away from evangelicalism and rediscovered what it meant to be a follower of Christ.
I am dissatisfied with many of the evangelical forms of evangelism as a form of marketing Christianity.
I am dissatisfied with how Evangelicalism has endorsed a political party.
I am dissatisfied with the hedonism within the church towards a me-centered faith.
I am dissatisfied with with how some Christians have disregarded the planet, and the poor because of some sick view of Christian escapism.
I believe that God wants to restore the lives of people today. Jesus came preaching the kingdom of God which has more to do with how we live as children of God and less about how ‘they’ should be living.
I hope to see a day, when follower of Christ will once again find a place in our society as bearers of light through our lives of service, and love.
A good book into these matters is called ‘Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith” by Rob Bell
In retrospect. After reading from the link to nae.net that you provided, I would say that I am an evangelical in these terms. (I don’t read any Jesus Camp methodology in their values at all.)
I guess this is the danger of labels. I believe that sharing Christ has more to do with how you live, then what you say. I think most Christians would agree with me, but as sinful people ourselves, it rarely comes across that way.
A challenge to you. If you don’t like the Jesus Camp method of evangelism, that’s fine. It doesn’t make you less evangelical. Share the hope that you have in Christ in ways that ignite your spirit and bring hope to people around you.
Jesus challenges us to look at our own lives more then the lives of others. Our responsibility is not in judging others, (Jesus Campers included). But to shine the light that Christ put in our hearts so that others might see it and be transformed.
I watched this documentary a couple months back.
There is a scene near the end of the movie, where the kids are told to protest against abortion. They are told about how the children will lead them, the children will speak the truth.
Then, the adults duct-tape the kids mouths shut, and write on the tape “Life” on that tape.
I felt the symbolism on this one was just about perfect. The kids are taught that their voices speak the truth, then the church - LITERALLY - puts words in their mouths.
RSS feed for comments on this post · TrackBack URI
Dan said,
March 29, 2007 @ 10:22 pmDon’t you see the slant in this video. I think it’s funny that these producers can splice this video together and use it to profile all evangelical Christians.
In order to understand the clips that you see in this video, you have to know the heart of Christians.