Lots of gingham, I'd imagine.
Other and I went to Jesus Camp last night, and it was a real experience. The movie itself was a bit appaling; I guess there really are people who homeschool their children so that they can tell them that evolution and global warming are lies made up by the left (though their reasoning for why the left would make this up was never clarified). That's kind of scary in and of itself, and the parts where they made all these little kids cry because they're sinners and don't believe in Jesus enough were hard to watch. But the interesting and surprising aspect of the experience was the audience.
This was at the local indie theater, so of course the people who would show up to see a movie called "Jesus Camp" weren't going to be of the Evangelical persuasion, they were going to be pretty damn liberal. What I didn't expect was for them to need to prove how liberal they were by laughing hysterically at the Evangelical Christians.
Yes, the part where the rather portly prayer leader inveighs against McDonad's, fast food, and sitting on your ass and getting fat was pretty hypocritical and funny. Yes, the part where she is driving along talking about how much she loves America and the view out her front window is of a particularly hideous strip of sprawl, with gas stations, fast food restaurants, and endless pavement is a heck of a juxtaposition. We all had a nice laugh.
But then a theater full of young adults was laughing at a little girl explaining her religious beliefs. The theater was tiny, and four people took up the whole row to my right, and it crossed my mind at one point that I should lean over to them and say (in an affected Southern accent): Ex-cuse me, but y'all're laughin at a nahn-year-old. If there had been another scene with the girl, that probably would've happened.
I'm not sure where the accent would have come from. Perhaps it has to do with my inability to be confrontational with strangers; I could put on a character and thus distance myself from the situation. (I'm not a person who can admonish fellow moviegoers.) But it might also have something to do with the politics of the thing. It's one thing to sit in a tiny indie theater in a big city and laugh with your fellow liberals, but what if all of a sudden the person sitting literally next to you revealed herself to be something else entirely? What if the "enemy," i.e. a person from a different part of the country, and thus with potentially (and stereotypically) different beliefs than you, was there in the room, present in a way that the people in the movie were not?
We were very bothered by all this. To sit and laugh at these people (these children) on the "other side" of the culture war seems to be just as bad as what they're doing. I had the impression that the Left, with its Theory and its Intellectuals, was supposed to be about getting above the black vs. white understanding of issues like this. You're laughing at them because they take the Bible literally? They're laughing at you because you believe we came from "goo." Where does that leave us?
These people were laughing at a 9-year-old girl because she believes the explanation she's been given by the entire world around her. As if they themselves would believe anything different as children having been homeschooled in Missouri. No, they'd probably be walking around quoting Nietzsche.
I've given it some thought before, and I believe that if I'd grown up Christian, I would have eventually lost my faith. I think that it would've been painful and traumatic for me, because I would have wanted to be a good person, and therefore a good Christian. That's what I found most striking about Rachel, the nine-year old; she really wants to be good. She really wants to be good, and to be good is to believe. What will happen to her if one day she finds that she can't make herself believe anymore?
Where is the empathy for these children who are being made into "foot soldiers" (their phrase)? The "children's preachers" made no effort to disguise the fact that they are using -- their word -- these kids for their own means. Where is the understanding that these foot soldiers are actually having a serious impact on the country?
As Other put it: Ha Ha Ha; we're so superior. Ha Ha Ha; the Evangelicals got the Presidency. Ha Ha Ha; they took over the Supreme Court. Ha Ha Ha; they stripped us of Habeas Corpus. Ha Ha Ha; they overturned Roe vs. Wade. Ha Ha Ha; we're living in a theocracy. Ha Ha Ha; they're herding us into camps.
This was at the local indie theater, so of course the people who would show up to see a movie called "Jesus Camp" weren't going to be of the Evangelical persuasion, they were going to be pretty damn liberal. What I didn't expect was for them to need to prove how liberal they were by laughing hysterically at the Evangelical Christians.
Yes, the part where the rather portly prayer leader inveighs against McDonad's, fast food, and sitting on your ass and getting fat was pretty hypocritical and funny. Yes, the part where she is driving along talking about how much she loves America and the view out her front window is of a particularly hideous strip of sprawl, with gas stations, fast food restaurants, and endless pavement is a heck of a juxtaposition. We all had a nice laugh.
But then a theater full of young adults was laughing at a little girl explaining her religious beliefs. The theater was tiny, and four people took up the whole row to my right, and it crossed my mind at one point that I should lean over to them and say (in an affected Southern accent): Ex-cuse me, but y'all're laughin at a nahn-year-old. If there had been another scene with the girl, that probably would've happened.
I'm not sure where the accent would have come from. Perhaps it has to do with my inability to be confrontational with strangers; I could put on a character and thus distance myself from the situation. (I'm not a person who can admonish fellow moviegoers.) But it might also have something to do with the politics of the thing. It's one thing to sit in a tiny indie theater in a big city and laugh with your fellow liberals, but what if all of a sudden the person sitting literally next to you revealed herself to be something else entirely? What if the "enemy," i.e. a person from a different part of the country, and thus with potentially (and stereotypically) different beliefs than you, was there in the room, present in a way that the people in the movie were not?
We were very bothered by all this. To sit and laugh at these people (these children) on the "other side" of the culture war seems to be just as bad as what they're doing. I had the impression that the Left, with its Theory and its Intellectuals, was supposed to be about getting above the black vs. white understanding of issues like this. You're laughing at them because they take the Bible literally? They're laughing at you because you believe we came from "goo." Where does that leave us?
These people were laughing at a 9-year-old girl because she believes the explanation she's been given by the entire world around her. As if they themselves would believe anything different as children having been homeschooled in Missouri. No, they'd probably be walking around quoting Nietzsche.
I've given it some thought before, and I believe that if I'd grown up Christian, I would have eventually lost my faith. I think that it would've been painful and traumatic for me, because I would have wanted to be a good person, and therefore a good Christian. That's what I found most striking about Rachel, the nine-year old; she really wants to be good. She really wants to be good, and to be good is to believe. What will happen to her if one day she finds that she can't make herself believe anymore?
Where is the empathy for these children who are being made into "foot soldiers" (their phrase)? The "children's preachers" made no effort to disguise the fact that they are using -- their word -- these kids for their own means. Where is the understanding that these foot soldiers are actually having a serious impact on the country?
As Other put it: Ha Ha Ha; we're so superior. Ha Ha Ha; the Evangelicals got the Presidency. Ha Ha Ha; they took over the Supreme Court. Ha Ha Ha; they stripped us of Habeas Corpus. Ha Ha Ha; they overturned Roe vs. Wade. Ha Ha Ha; we're living in a theocracy. Ha Ha Ha; they're herding us into camps.
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