an odd way to celebrate

In celebration of completing our first semester at seminary, a few of us rented Jesus Camp to watch. We'd all heard about it and felt the need to watch it for ourselves. For those who don't know, Jesus Camp is a documentary focusing on an Evangelical camp for children that trains them to be "soldiers for Christ." Praying in tongues, uncontrollable sobbing...it's all there. And it scared me.

These kids are being indoctrinated. They're spitting out phrases that they don't even understand, just repeating them because someone told them to. They're being told to support certain movements and certain political leaders (yes, they prayed over a cardboard cutout of Bush). It's fundamentalism at its worst. I saw pieces of my conservative background in it, but my younger years were never that extreme. And it scared me to see that groups like that are out there pushing their beliefs onto the next generation.

It made me realize how much of a responsibility I hold in my own position working with kids. I sat through the entire movie thinking, "I don't want to be like that children's minister." And theologically, I know I will never be. But at the same time, I don't want to force my "moderate/liberal" beliefs on them. Indoctrination is wrong, no matter which side it comes from. I want to teach my kids (the ones I work with) to examine things for themselves, to make their own decisions about what they want to believe. I don't want to hand them a message tied up with a nice little bow. I want them to think. And yes, they're kids, so they're thinking only goes so deep. But you'd be surprised about what kids come up with when they have the freedom to think for themselves and work things out. My summer at PASSPORT, I felt like the programs did a good job of empowering the kids to think, and I want to incorporate more of that into what we do within our children's ministry.

I'm just not sure what the appropriate balance is for that openness. And we have to deal with short attention spans...and wide age ranges...and various maturity levels...and a lack of good resources...

Definitely something for me to ponder as I continue in this ministry position...