Okay, I'm telling you.

What rule? Is there a rule?

I haven't seen that movie yet but one of my friends watched and it scared the heck out of him. From what I gather it basically emphasizes the brainwashing that occurs in most churches.

Being a christian myself and going to a church this holds particular interest to me. The conclusion that I have come to find as the most logical one is that we are actually being CONSTANTLY brainwashed by EVERYTHING. When you go to school, you are being brainwashed into believing a certain set of things is right, when you watch a movie, they are showing you what "reality" is. And, even in your own family, you are brainwashed (though I personally would use a word with less negative connotation for this one).

I can't exactly address what you're asking since I haven't seen the film, but i hope this does help.

I couldn't watch it.

jman,... obviously, you've been 'brainwashed'!!

"please tell me not ALL Christians are like that"

If one instance makes you generalize, you're a bigot. You know that, right?

You people have a REALLY hard time with quantifiers. Yikes.

+4,374 Acosmist!

Man, I usually have the HARDEST time explaining what you did so succinctly!

I'm a Christian with a science (Engineering + math minor) background. I believe in evolution, and know how the scientific method works, and disagree with what Kansas law states (though I understand what they are trying to do, they just were poor in execution and implementation).

I actually am a leader in my church (a united methodist). And, no, I don't go preaching to people out in the streets... in fact I hate doing that. The only type of people that rub me wrong (and I rub wrong) are close minded extremist... so if you are a die-hard atheist that "can't see why I'm wasting my hour ever sunday!!!" or the super-christian "need to get rid of swear words and force everyone to see Jesus' light!!!" I deem you as an idiot that is brainwashed. Otherwise, if you can form your own opinions from your own experience and research, and you can change your opinion when encountering new experience and facts, then you are pretty cool in my book...

@fortknok +3263 (what you gave Acosmist - 1111 for long-windedness) :-)

We are SO in agreement there. I'm a centrist religiously and politically and hate dealing with the extremists on both camps of both issues.

wow, there seem to be alot more centralists here than when I first joined. This makes me very happy.

damn Draug... we ARE similar. Politically I'm a centrist, too (though fiscally I tend to lean conservative... hey, I'm a capitalist!)

Centrist here as well haha. I must admit I probably lean more liberal than you guys but eschewing extremism is way more important than any minor things we may disagree on.

I've been to Jesus Camp. That's all I'm gonna say. I've been to churches like that all my life, and that's all I know. I will say this: most churches that are thought of as "conservative" and/or "evangelical" are much like what you see in the movie, though the example in the film is a bit extreme, a lot of it is pretty normal in camps of evangelical churches.

That said, evangelicals are in the minority, thank God.

@fortknox - I'm from Cincinnati, of course I lean somewhat to the right of center, especially fiscally. Cincinnati considers me kind of liberal because I don't own a gun, but I'm anti-taxation and anti-government control unless the situation clearly calls for it do to abuses of power (i.e. the present banking industry to one degree or another).

@Thucy - not everything labeled Evangelical is necessarily what you see in that film. ELCA stands for Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, but we are hardly of the extreme perspective that you find in the more literalist churches. I think the real issue is churches that view every word of the Bible as fact and can't get past the concept that what was written 1800 to 6000 years ago was written for minds much less capable of grasping and understanding the concepts of micro and macro biology and physics, so they were written as morality tales and shouldn't be taken as literal history.

I think you are really referring to fundamental Christian churches more than evangelical Christian chruches. The two are not mutually exclusive, but refer to different aspects of Christianity.

A religious centerist? Is that an agnsotic? Or just a Christian who doesn't literally believe in God?

You're all missing the point of why this thread is absurd. obiwanobiwan is asking for confirmation that all Christians don't send their children to a special camp to learn nutty evangelical, dispensationalist, dominionist, Protestant dogma. That's tantamount to asking if every Jew is a crazy Hasidic who thinks the modern state of Israel is illegitimate since it doesn't dovetail to religious law. It's an absurd question to even ask and doesn't deserve a response like you people are giving.

It's one who doesn't believe in the tenants of fundamentalism (i.e. the OT is the literal truth and Adam and Eve existed with Eve being created from Adams rib and the world having been covered in it's entirity by water from heaven). In short, a Christian who accepts and embraces science as bringing us closer to underastanding the nature of God's work while still being in awe at the enormity of it.

There is only one god!
He is the Sun God!

RA! RA! RA!

:-)

Yeah but we are having a good conversation, Invictus. If a clearly enraging question with an intentional slant got a good and productive conversation going, what's it matter? The point of the original topic is stupid and clearly prejudicial, but the conversation and the eventual point of the whole thread is much more than the OP's topic. You know, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, right?

Then transfer the conversation. Leaving it here just perpetuates this droolingly moronic question.

I don't think obiwanobiwan was seriously suggesting that all Christians are like the ones in the movie Jesus Camp. Rather was expressing his dismay at the Christians in the film. His post was not meant to be taken literally (much the book of Genesis in the Bible).

And your chastisement does much the same, Invictus, as it keeps moving the thread back to the top of the dogpile.

Great film Jesus Camp. I really felt for the little kid who said he finds it hard to believe sometimes.

It's how the majority but certainly not all evangelical churches are. This block of people is considered the "religious right" in America.

[citation needed]

@Acosmist -
"If one instance makes you generalize, you're a bigot. You people have a REALLY hard time with quantifiers. "

cough, cough (irony), cough

Oh, did you just notice that?

I see a lot of things I don't agree with being said, but I am too tired to point them out.

Draugnar: Wait, are you kiddding me? You're from Cincinnati? Where in? I lived there (to be specific, Kenwood of Sycamore Township) from August 1999 - July 2008.

bump

My wife is from Blue Ash and went to Sycamore High School.

My family moved there in 1968 when I was 2. I spent my first part of my school years in Mt. Healthy. We moved in 76 (4th grade) to West chester where I satyed until after I graduated and joined the Corps. Returned from the Corps and got an apartment in West Chester until I met my wife. We moved to Middletown (had a job in Dayton at the time) then Fairfield where we lived for >10 years. About 5 years ago we moved to Hebron, KY (near the Greater Cinci / NKY Internation Airport aka CVG) where we live now.

@Hibiskiss - your statement about Evangelical churches needs some revisiting. I'd like to see proof it is how the majority of Evangelical religions think. The numbers, I don't believe, will hold up. A simple Chi Square with a p-value of .050 or less will be sufficient, but barring that, I don't believe you can make that correlation. More likely (although I don't have the numbers to prove it), you would find that Fundamental Christian denominations are that way, but Fundamentalism is generally a subset of Evangelicalism in Christianity.