You have been awarded 1 Power Point for fixing the embed code for Dead Pool video Jesus Camp (controversial 2006 Evangelical documentary). Thank you for helping maintain VideoSift's reliability.

I thought this was a scene from Jesus Camp.

So, Jesus Camp wasn't bad enough, eh?

I think you're missing the point. The issue is not whether or not he should be criticized/reprimanded for saying what he did. He's a public figure, words matter, and he should be thrown to the wolves for it (though it probably won't happen). The issue is whether or not he actually believes/endorses what was said. You watch the video, listen to his tone and his actions, consider who is audience is, and its pretty obvious that he's just getting carried away in the moment and doesn't realize the full import of what he's saying at that moment. For some reason, politicians on both sides of the aisle seem to forget that cameras and the internet exist.

This is no different from how the Republicans attempted to portray Howard Dean as mentally unhinged after footage of him getting exuberant at that one rally back in the day when in reality he was just getting carried away with the excitement of the moment.

>> ^jimnms:

That Imus guy was just making a joke too, a bad joke, but he got fired for what he said. Huckabee jokes that all Americans should be forced at gunpoint to listen to the brainwashing of David Barton and he's considered presidential material?
If a politician joked that everyone should be forced at gunpoint to listen/read Richard Dawkins, he'd be be hunted down and burned at the stake.
>> ^VoodooV:
I'm no fan of huckabee, but you don't think this is taken just slightly out of context?
Guy was just making a joke...a bad joke, but a joke nonetheless.

>> ^bmacs27:
Title Fail. First of all, obviously he is being tongue in cheek. Second of all, he technically says they should be forced to listen, not believe, or be indoctrinated or anything else. While he terrifies me (mostly because of his electability), he's not the craziest son of a bitch in jesus camp.

>> ^shuac:
Yes, he was just making a bad joke. If you insist on inferring more into it, help yourself.

That Imus guy was just making a joke too, a bad joke, but he got fired for what he said. Huckabee jokes that all Americans should be forced at gunpoint to listen to the brainwashing of David Barton and he's considered presidential material?

If a politician joked that everyone should be forced at gunpoint to listen/read Richard Dawkins, he'd be be hunted down and burned at the stake.

>> ^VoodooV:

I'm no fan of huckabee, but you don't think this is taken just slightly out of context?
Guy was just making a joke...a bad joke, but a joke nonetheless.


>> ^bmacs27:

Title Fail. First of all, obviously he is being tongue in cheek. Second of all, he technically says they should be forced to listen, not believe, or be indoctrinated or anything else. While he terrifies me (mostly because of his electability), he's not the craziest son of a bitch in jesus camp.


>> ^shuac:

Yes, he was just making a bad joke. If you insist on inferring more into it, help yourself.

Title Fail. First of all, obviously he is being tongue in cheek. Second of all, he technically says they should be forced to listen, not believe, or be indoctrinated or anything else. While he terrifies me (mostly because of his electability), he's not the craziest son of a bitch in jesus camp.

>> ^RadHazG:

Compared to the sickening insanity of Jesus Camp? Wow. Such a bright kid, can only hope we get more like him.


I upvoted this comment (back to zero).

So... someone downvoted--from hiding--because they LIKE the indoctrination into mindlessness that is Jesus Camp?

Compared to the sickening insanity of Jesus Camp? Wow. Such a bright kid, can only hope we get more like him.

This video has been declared a duplicate by the original submitter; transferring votes to the original video and killing this dupe - dupeof declared by bleedmegood.

*dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/The-Passion-of-the-Jesus-Camp-Counselor

This video has been nominated as a duplicate of this video by marinara. If this nomination is seconded with *isdupe, the video will be killed and its votes transferred to the original.

*dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/The-Passion-of-the-Jesus-Camp-Counselor

*Promote

Too crazy to not be seen. My buddy who found this saw kids watching it in the documentary movie "Jesus Camp"... http://www.jesuscampthemovie.com

@ponceleon (for a response to your Dark Matter questions see above)

First off, I'd like to thank you for a very interesting discussion. It is through such dialogue that we clarify our thoughts, and your responses have really helped me explore many different ideas.

I'd like to start out by explaining why I responded to your post in the first place. Your initial post called for the end of all religion. It seemed to be a gross overreaction to the clip. You seemed to be equating every single religious person with a fanatic Muslim willing to kill for his beliefs.

You very clearly place a high value on reason and logical thought. My initial purpose in posting, then, was to show you how illogical it is to condemn an entire group of people for the actions of a few individuals. You would not consider it reasonable to call for an end to Democracy simply because some people have started wars in the name of Democracy (see Lawdeedaw's post above). It is just as illogical to call for an end to all religion because some people have committed evil in the name of religion. Likewise, just because Sarah Palin blew some hot air on national TV about fruit flies, it doesn't logically follow that all religious people are against science. Or that they all want to convert you. That's another gross over-generalization. As a refutation, I provide the example of two of the worlds biggest religions--Buddhism and Hinduism--which co-exist peacefully with multiple other religions and do not try impose their teachings on those who don't voluntarily come seeking them.

So that was my original point, basically. Your initial call for an end to religion wasn't logical, reasonable, or even plausible. How could you accomplish it? By force? That would rob you of the moral high ground. By law? In the U.S., at least, you would face the problem that freedom of religion is guaranteed in the Constitution.

Given the improbability of a religious-free world anytime in the near future (almost certainly not our lifetimes) wouldn't it be better to use our intellectual powers for figuring out how to get along? And how to deal humanely with those radicals and fundamentalists who refuse to try to get along or insist on imposing their views on others? Personally, I feel that is a much better use of our time and energy than trying to ban religion outright.

This will be my last post here. I'll let you have the last word on the matter. If you want to continue talking about this or other things, send me a profile reply. However, I'm very busy with work right now and might not be able to reply right away, so I apologize for that.

>> ^ponceleon:

@SGD Ah I think we are coming a bit closer together here, but you are backpeddling a bit.
There is a BIG difference between you telling me that it is MY job as a rational person to disprove the existance of God the Son and the Holy ghost, v. telling me that dark matter is unmeasurable.
You see, Dark Matter is based on actual calculations and rational deliberation which leads scientists to see that something is missing from their model. As it turns out, I'm willing to CONSIDER dark matter as a possibility because it is based on something thought out and observable (though itself it may not be). That said, I would not be surprised at all if it turns out to be bunk. But that's the great part of science, Dark Matter can turn out to be real or not real and NO SCIENTIST is going to FATWAH me for believing on either side. It's exactly as you say.
As for why religion needs to go, well it is exactly for the reason you state: they DO try to force their views on others. When Sarah Palin, champion of the religious nuts in this country, gets up and tells us that fruit fly research is "silly and pointless" I see that as highly dangerous and definitely something that needs to be addressed. Killing and threatening artists. Suicide Bombers, child-abuse cover-ups, intelligent design, Jesus camps, invading the west bank, female oppression, and good christians don't vote for Obama.... all great examples of how "good teachings" of a religion have been cast aside in favor of fear, hate mongering, and irrational behavior.
Religion has forced itself on human culture for all of our history and while some good has come of it, a great portion of the bad in the world can be traced back to someone listening to a magical being in their head (or as I often suspect, saying they do in order to sway uneducated masses).
So in conclusion, I think you are now a lot closer to me in what I mean (though I fall on the other side of the argument when it comes to the usefulness of religion), but I do think you backpedaled a bit. Dark Matter /= Jesus.

@SGD Ah I think we are coming a bit closer together here, but you are backpeddling a bit.

There is a BIG difference between you telling me that it is MY job as a rational person to disprove the existance of God the Son and the Holy ghost, v. telling me that dark matter is unmeasurable.

You see, Dark Matter is based on actual calculations and rational deliberation which leads scientists to see that something is missing from their model. As it turns out, I'm willing to CONSIDER dark matter as a possibility because it is based on something thought out and observable (though itself it may not be). That said, I would not be surprised at all if it turns out to be bunk. But that's the great part of science, Dark Matter can turn out to be real or not real and NO SCIENTIST is going to FATWAH me for believing on either side. It's exactly as you say.

As for why religion needs to go, well it is exactly for the reason you state: they DO try to force their views on others. When Sarah Palin, champion of the religious nuts in this country, gets up and tells us that fruit fly research is "silly and pointless" I see that as highly dangerous and definitely something that needs to be addressed. Killing and threatening artists. Suicide Bombers, child-abuse cover-ups, intelligent design, Jesus camps, invading the west bank, female oppression, and good christians don't vote for Obama.... all great examples of how "good teachings" of a religion have been cast aside in favor of fear, hate mongering, and irrational behavior.

Religion has forced itself on human culture for all of our history and while some good has come of it, a great portion of the bad in the world can be traced back to someone listening to a magical being in their head (or as I often suspect, saying they do in order to sway uneducated masses).

So in conclusion, I think you are now a lot closer to me in what I mean (though I fall on the other side of the argument when it comes to the usefulness of religion), but I do think you backpedaled a bit. Dark Matter /= Jesus.