After reading Stephen’s post, I was inspired to write about how children in the US are brainwashed. I had recently watched a documentary called Jesus Camp and I thought it was an excellent example of the indoctrination of children. It reminded me of The Manchurian Candidate and Melley article (Stephen covered most of the points so I won’t spit them back out).
The movie is basically about an evangelical Christian summer camp. Like the video below says, these children are training to become preachers or “warriors for Jesus.” As you can see, all the attendees of this camp are children. Children are most susceptible to new beliefs and ideas. The pastor in this documentary also compares her teachings to Islamic schools that prepare their children for jihad.
Although this is not as extreme as the topic Stephen posted about, there are obvious signs of brainwashing. In the trailer (below), one of the boys was talking about how he was saved at the age of 5 because he wanted more out of life (:40 mark). When I was 5, I barely knew what life was; I went to school and had friends and family; that was pretty much it. I wasn’t thinking about what life had in store for me or if there was something more to life.
This next clip about Harry Potter pretty much speaks for itself.
I feel that it’s sort of over the top. Both the camp and the parents of these children are just pumping certain information into them and the children will obviously believe it all. They home-school their children so they won’t be influenced by information that might be contrary to their beliefs and they even pray to a Christian flag, for instance.
So I was just wondering how you guys feel about this now that you’ve seen faith-based brainwashing in two different cultures.
Also, I recommend you watch it if you get the chance!
As a parent of two young children, I too was disturbed by the portrait of kids being brainwashed. The prayers the children were encouraged to offer up to the cardboard cutout of George Bush, though, provided a moment of unintentional humor in an otherwise dispiriting documentary.
In the Old Testament, Satan was a kind of prosecuting attorney, literally an “adversary” who challenged the faith of the faithful (think Job) in the service of God. So, in that spirit, let me be Satanic and ask this: what is the difference between brainwashing and indoctrination? Do we call indoctrination brainwashing when it is unsubtle and morally or ideologically repugnant to us?