This morning I happened to see an interview with the directors of the documentary, Jesus Camp. If you haven't heard about the movie or seen it, it basically follows the lives of three kids at an evangelical church camp in North Dakota. Although the directors didn't mean to turn the film into a political commentary, that's where the movie seemed to end up. So after watching the clip (it's just a featurette I found about the movie on YouTube), I'd like to know your thoughts about the hot button issue of the separation of church and state. Good? Bad? Of course it would be great if everyone was a Christian and we ruled society on Biblical principle. But can we or should we guide secular society by Christian standards if we have the power to do so or encourage it? The Bible seems to only speak of rules within the church.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Jesus Camp
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7 comments:
Guess my adding the wikipedia link was predictable.
Ok. So you're really gonna make us think about this movie? I've been trying to avoid it for lo these many months since it's release and oscar nomination. To make a really informed comment, I should watch it, however, I'm not sure I'd be able to. The level of discomfort with this documentary is very high, both at a level of knowing the footage is real, and knowing that the editors would likely take the most sensational footage and portray this as typical Christian practice. But before pressing further, I need to think and read a bit more.
Yeah, I know this is a touchy film and the directors said that they've gotten very negative feedback to very positive feedback and everything in between. But with all this 2008 election hooplah that's started to descend on us now, it got me thinking about a Christian's role in a secular political world.
Haven't watched the movie. I did see interviews with both the directors of the camp and the movies. But the interesting thing about it is that the director of Jesus Camp did not feel that the documentary put the camp in a bad light. At the same time the directors of the movie seemed to be very sensitive of being objective about how they portrayed it. I think they made it a point to run it through the director of the camp numerous times before they ran it.
First of all, based on this clip of the movie, I think it's wrong how people will focus on certain issues to advance their political agenda while ignoring others that they don't follow (i.e., taking a strong stand against abortion while ignoring God's heart for the poor, widows and orphans.)
Also, I don't think that Jesus mixed "religion" with politics. At a time when people thought the messiah would overthrow the Romans and establish an earthly kingdom, he declared that his kingdom was not of this world. I don't think that we can't be political if we want to, but we should definitely not use our faith as a guise to advance a political agenda. God desires worship in spirit and in truth, and to do otherwise would be the equivalent of what the Pharisees and Sadducees did (and we know how Jesus felt about them).
I wholeheartedly agree that no one should use their faith to get votes, but what do you do when your secular constituents obviously want one thing and you want the way that you know God says is right? So, for instance, take the gay issue. Should we say they can't marry because we believe that marriage is between one man and one woman?
Paul asks in 1 Corinthians, "What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."
This has been a conflict that's gone through my head numerous times over the years, and I still haven't come up with an answer that I'm convicted about. Of course we know that following God's standards is always the best way, but should we force people outside of the church to follow standards that was set up for those inside of it?
The laws of the land simply express what we as a body of citizens believe is good for our society *as a whole*. Different sources inform our citizens about what is good and bad. In fact, it's our civic duty to express these opinions. And so, we grapple with which beliefs work better for society as a whole and which should be reserved to personal morality.
For example, requiring church attendance would never be a Christian's stand for the society at large. But we do believe that having 1 man and 1 woman as the context for marriage is the best possible solution for our society. It provides the greatest opportunity for emotional, physical, and mental balance and stability within the home, as well as the best possibility for procreation. (By the way, human history is definitely on our side in this one.)
So accusing Christians of imposing their will upon society is just the pot calling the kettle black. Everyone in a free society should be supplying their thoughts in the political process. And this republic of ours is making the bet that the majority are rational thinkers and will make wise decisions.
wow - this is the first time I hear about this movie. Now that I am graduated (whoop!) I am starting to realize how cut off from the entire world I've been for the last year or so.... anyhow - i am now catching up on the blogs!
this is scary! i completely agree with all the responses everyone has had. I dont have any good comments to add. I do believe that church and state should be separated though. For the exact reason Kirsten listed above - we aren't supposed to force anyone into Christianity - they have to choose it, God has to drawn them. What's best for society (i.e. the gay/lesbian marriages) is quite a difficult issue though. If the individual is gay/lesbian, whether or not the law allows marriage, will not change the fact that they are unlikely to procreate -- so the law in this case wouldn't do any good. Just because we dont allow them marriage doesn't mean they'll become straight and start having kids... i do think that the law should not allow couples to adopt and stuff though, as that would be a very unstable home.
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