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Time Arts: Documentary Reactions

Jesus Camp

             This was something out of the ordinary. Take the title, well, normally we associate camps with either the military where men and women are trained to get in shape and learn the grueling details of war. Or, we associate them with children who go off in the summer to camps where they make smores and learn about nature. Firstly, Jesus is something religious and hardly ever associated with a camp. Religious group activities are usually called Bible Vacation School, or even Bible Studies, but not Jesus Camp. The use of the word camp conveys something that is less religious and more militaristic, though it may be that the objective of the camp was twisted by the filmmakers, but what they portrayed was that the adults and leaders were training the small children to be soldiers of God. They taught them how to be passionate and always emphasized how if they did not comply with believing in God, that they would rot in inferno. For a young child to be hearing this, what else could they believe if they, at 5 or 6 and knew nothing else. This doesn’t leave them much room to be subjective about their religious beliefs. Not only that, but at such a young age, they are prone to fear. 
             For being so young, it is also doubtful that many knew what they were talking about. At such a young age, it is unlikely that any child could seriously comprehend what they were saying, as powerful as it sounds. I was appalled at the scene where the group spoke in tongues, and many even fell into convulsions, which no one around seemed to do anything about. The children were tear stricken and I was just shocked that they would try to reach children so young and also that they tried so hard to put these ideas into them, that they really didn’t think about other options.
             The preacher came off as very convincing, she reminded me much of a military leader. Quite a few times, I remember her telling the children to sit up, listen, and smile, or something along those lines. The point is she would say that line over and over each time to get their attention. This training, it seemed like they were soldiers not to believe in the essence of God, or to be religious, but it felt like they were being taught to spread this idea of if they didn’t believe in God, that they would go to hell, or they have sinned. When the young girl approached the woman at the bowling alley, what else could the woman had thought when this just shy of 6 year-old innocent girl came to tell her about Jesus. By using young children to spread this ideal, perhaps people would think that they have the spirit, because how otherwise could a child of such a young age understand religion? Overall, I just couldn’t believe that this activity existed; I’ve seen it applied to adults, but never towards children. It was a scary and odd that this could possibly exist. It was just way out of the norm for me and I’m still shocked even having days to register what I had seen.

 

Al Jazeera

             Though journalism should be unbiased, it is often hard to keep opinions to oneself because more often than not, people feel the need to defend their country and its opinions and justify their actions. It was really interesting to see news and opinions delivered from sources other than from our nation. We are so used to viewing things on a certain standpoint as to ‘protect’ us from certain information. Previously, I knew that our media was extremely careful about filtering the information that is exposed on the media, but at the same time, I knew that obviously there was more going on than it showed. Many things are barred such as corpses and coffins. We hardly ever, perhaps have rarely ever seen footage or photographs of our deceased soldiers clad in uniforms. It is a fact that thousands of our soldiers have died in war, but the majority of the time, they are revealed through their mugshots, or glorified though memorial processions. Viewing the movie just made it all the more obvious to me that if the media is not exposing this to us, then what other things re we not seeing.  It is terrifying at times that what we see on TV is often what most people believe, but the thing is, that it is purely scary to me that we are continuously being fed certain information that is warped a certain way. I was really surprised about was how takedown of the statue of Saddam Hussein was completely planned. All this time, I just believed that the citizens just wanted to revolt. I didn’t see that all the men were around the same age, and I didn’t know enough history to see that the guy with the flag had been holding a flag in his pocket for more than ten years, only to have it at the perfect timing, to be at the perfect place to display it. Now, for this, it is evident that there are many other things that have been set up for the camera, and it is up to us as citizens to filter what we see, and not just consume what is displayed to us.