This video summed up in one sentence: the look into the secret Christian camp which ‘kidnaps’ mostly gay and lesbian children (with their parents’ permission) and spirits them away to another country so they can be ‘cured’.
For more detail, here’s some info from the documentary film site itself. It says:
“Kidnapped for Christ is a feature-length documentary film, which follows the stories of several American teenagers who were sent to an Evangelical Christian reform school located in The Dominican Republic called “Escuela Caribe.” The school is run by Americans and is advertised as a “therapeutic Christian boarding school” whose mission is to “help struggling youth transform into healthy Christian adults.” While many have praised the school for saving the lives of hundreds of troubled teens, in the past several years many former students have begun to speak out against the school, claiming that they suffered both psychological and physical abuse during their time there. The film’s director, Kate Logan, set out to document the experiences of the students at this remote boarding school and was given unprecedented access to film for seven weeks on campus in the summer of 2006. Through candid interviews with distressed students, footage of staff imposing extreme discipline and punishments, and finally the attempted rescue of a student being held at the school illegally past the age of 18, she was able to reveal the shocking truth of what was actually going on at Escuela Caribe.”
“The film centers on the story of David, a straight-A student from Colorado who was sent to Escuela Caribe in May of 2006 after coming out to his parents as gay. Like many others, David was taken in the night without warning by a “transport service” and was never told where he was going or when he would be brought back home. While at Escuela Caribe, David had no way of communicating with any of his friends or family back home until the filmmakers arrived and he decided to ask them if they would smuggle out a letter that he had secretly written to his best friend. Once word got back to David’s community about what had happened to him, many people sprung to action and formed a plan to get him released. Getting David out of this school, however, turned out to be a much more difficult task than anyone had thought, and the trials they went through to get David released revealed just how far Escuela Caribe would go to prevent a student from leaving.”
Wow.
What did you make of that?
Comments
72 Comments so far
my thoughts about this entire issue
http://pommier.tumblr.com/post/14857311096/sometimes-i-consider-leaving-christianity
I can’t be bothered typing it all out again
sometimes this world disgusts me…
can I link to this MM team? If not, I’m sorry!
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I like your blog post. Unfortunately because the bible has so much in it, it is not to hard to find something to back up any pre-existing prejudices.
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Good for you. I enjoyed reading your blog.
I wish more real christians would speak up against the loony fundamentalists. I’m not religious but from what I understand Jesus was a tolerant, accepting person, not hateful.
As the Bible was written by men so long ago of course attitudes have changed and religion needs to move on with this.
Bigots have used the Bible to justify slavery, wars, guns, prejudice and executions. It must be so convenient to say you have God on your side just to defend horrible self-serving acts.
I hope Australia manages to avoid the lunacy of some USA religions.
….Cheers
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Oh My God. How very sad.
I must admit my first thoughts were: if you want to ‘de-gay’ your child, why are you sending them to a ‘camp’ populated with other gay kids – whom they will be bunking up with?! I’m imaging there are guy dorms and girl dorms? Hello????
Just shows how naive these parents actually are.
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W.W.J.D… What would Jesus do??
If He was still in His grave He’d turn in it for what people are doing in His name… God is LOVE…
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Jesus is New Testament. The fundamentalists like to focus on the darker, bloodier, less love more hate Old Testament.
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This is unbelievable! Cowardly. Good on Kate for exposing this.
How do they get those young people out of the country without them knowing where they are going? I suppose their parents sign their life away without knowing what is really at that camp or they don’t care as long as their child is healed (over with scars that will take many more years to break through). I think the parents should be made to go there and live that life for a few months and see what it does to their self esteem. All of this because of a complete refusal to see the truth and accept their children or teenagers for who they are and a refusal to see how lucky they are (or were) to have them.
Will that camp ever be shut down? especially if in another country and the teens are there with parental consent… I hope there are avenues for those young people to prosecute and receive compensation. More importantly, who should pay?
I think the mental torture would be the worst. After being told what to do and being instructed to live a regimented life you would have to start your life again re-building self-esteem. David seems like he has wonderful friends back home but what about others who have lost all contact with people and what about those who are not as resilient or don’t have support to re-build their lives. It seems like they are there for years?
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Why oh why can we not just let people be? Arrrrrrrhhhhhhhh!!!
Who is any one to judge some one else especially over something as harmless as being gay or lesbian or other. I find this infuriating!
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Why is Christianity always under so much scrutiny on MM, but other religions not so much?For example Islam has very strict views on homosexuality, abortion and adultery,and in some middle eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afganistan people get put to death for these things, women are subjected to honour killings for getting raped but we never read of it here on MM.
The only thing we seem to get regarding Islam is fluff pieces such as Mia metting a lady on a plane and , gasp, she was just the same as you and me and wasnt “forced” to wear her burqa (and please correct me if Im wrong as I dont read every single post on here). The way MM would have everyone believe is that Christianity is some wackjob, hateful, evil cult and the reality is just not the case, the majority of us are accepting of all humans and believe that God loves us all no matter what side of the fence you sit on.
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If you’re so worried that Islam doesn’t have a bad enough name already then by all means go ahead and write your own piece for MM! This camp just happens to be lead by a Christian group, I don’t think MM is out to get all Christians and I’m sure they would have still run the story even if it was an Islamic or Jewish camp. This is about the injustices that gay and lesbian teens are suffering through not about any specific religion!
Islamaphobe much!
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Are you serious? Methinks you are looking to be outraged. Just one recent article: http://www.mamamia.com.au/social/men-who-want-women-segregated-the-haredim-causing-outrage-in-israel/
And I don’t think MM has ever attacked Christians. We just attack extremes of any religion, or non-religion if that be the case.
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Yeah I am serious, can you provide a link to any other “extreme religions” stories you have done that isnt related to Judaism or Christianity? I am serious as I would like to be stood corrected if this is the case. How about any other human rights atrocities from other regimes (not necassary religion related) around the world?
Whenever this protest gets brought up by people, the usual suspects just seem to reply with “well why dont you write one”, ummm because Im not a writer and havent had the training and education that journalists have, but thanks for the tip anyways.
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I find articles about Christianity much more relevant to my everyday life, as Australia (MamaMia’s home base) like it or not is a predominately Christian country. I am an atheist, but Christianity is the religion that I am surrounded by day to day. While there are millions of people of other faiths both in Australia and worldwide, it is the Christian viewpoint that dominates in this country – Christmas, Easter, our Prime Minister even wanted to include a preamble to the constitution that included references to a Christian God. I may be interested to find out more about other religions, but information about Christianity is more relevant to me than other faiths. Even if articles about Christianity outnumber those on other religions, I’m not sure why that wouldn’t be expected from an Australian website…? To me, it seems like visiting America and wondering why it’s so hard to find Vegemite – it’s just not so relevant in that market.
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Rick, I really appreciate how you were able to incorporate in said article ‘How Haredim beliefs are different to ‘mainstream’ Judaism’
Sadly, people seem to plunk all Christians into the same basket.
I consider myself an evangelical Christian, but my beliefs do not in any way align with any single ‘evangelical Christian’ that has been described here.
It’s a tough one. Maybe we should just kill all the crazy ones? {JOKE!}
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You have to be very careful when writing anything about Islam – hasn’t some guy been sentenced to death recently for a tweet? Christianity is by its very nature tolerant and therefore open to abuse by operatives like those who run this dreadful place, and the parents of those who are taken there. The most basic foundation of Christianity is to ‘love one another’ – cant get much better than that. Jesus Christ definitely didn’t say that applied only to heterosexuals – or indeed Christains!
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Arh, I wish so many of you who commented below would have a ‘good chat with my mother-in-law, who is a ‘good Christian’, who feels sorry for all the poor gay people, who can’t go to heaven because they haven’t received God.
Yes, she makes me sick, but how to do you argue with these views.
I’m almost ashamed to call myself Christian (usually go with Protestant or Lutheran, just to distinguish). Sad that so many people give Christianity such a bad name.
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I don’t know if this has been mentioned – I haven’t been through the comments, but there was a movie that came out in the 90′s called “But I’m a Cheerleader!” that although was very tongue-in-cheek, had quite a similar theme (sans Christianity). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0179116/
The intolerance of anyone choosing to do this to their children takes my breath away.
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Evangelical ‘Christians’ make me sick, they seem so extremist!
I know there are good examples from many different faiths, but no religion should be about brainwashing and deprivation of liberty.
Mormons, Scientology, etc..I hate these damn cults call themselves a religion.
‘Burn a Koran’ day, another example of extreme ignorance!
An ex friend of mine will say about many examples , oh they aren’t true Christians,and whilst he is a good dad and has come clean, has he gone back to try and right wrongs he did to people when he was off the tracks? No! is he racist and homophobic, yes. I think a bit like AA, one should seek forgiveness from people you have wronged in the past to have a clear conscience, not just say, oh well it’s all ok now because now I’m a Christian.
Rant over.
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Do the parents pay for the children to be taken to this place? If so, they most likely let the cameras in as a way to advertise, what other reason could there be? It saddens me that any parent would send their child away to be “cured” in such a manner. So wrong on so many levels. I am not a christian, but I will keep these children in my thoughts and hope they can find some way out and lead a happy existence.
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As a parent how can these people allow their children to be abused like this?!
I a mother of a five year old and five month old and there is nothing on earth they could come home and tell me that would allow me to allow this to happen to them.
The fact that this has had barely any comments and isnt a more popular post also saddens me though and further fuels my theory that people don’t like to criticize religion even if religion is being used as the excuse to perpetrate….
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Why did the camp let the cameras in?
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I wondered the same thing, too. I can only assume that they think there’s nothing wrong in what they’re doing and saw an opportunity to convince the rest of us! So misguided, arrogant, stupid … and sickening to think parents would hand their kids over to them. Makes my skin crawl.
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That is so upsetting.
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I’m a Christian and believe homosexuality is a sin (but no bigger or smaller a sin than a lie or straight sex outside of marriage – they are all equal sins) but God is love and he gave us free will. This is taking away that free will, and is not what Jesus would do at all. He showed people love and a better way, and gave them the OPTION of changing their lives because he had something better in store. I am so sorry for all of the awful stuff ‘Christian’ people do in the name of God. It’s not representative of all Christians, or God. This is another extremist group who have lost the plot.
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Trolling? I sure hope so. There’s no sinning about it. It’s part of life.
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Thank you Emma I couldn’t comment on the sinning part nicely….
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Oh don’t worry, I had trouble too.
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Sorry I am also a Christian and I do not buy in any way that homosexuality is a sin ( no matter how small). I assume you meant your message to be somewhat supportive but your disclaimer sits badly with me. It is wrong on so many levels to compare a natural state ( yes I believe God created and loves them as they are, and that is gay) to a lie ( a man made choice) is just wrong wrong wrong!!!!
Yes I was raised Christian and I believe in God still but I do not believe uncritically everything the church tells me. I use my own intelligence and that tells me that an individual who is homosexual is no lesser human being than me and their existence or actions are not a sin!
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Wow, a Christian that gives Christianity a good name.
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I could have written your post word for word. The funny thing is though my husband who is an athiest also has an intolerance against homosexuals and often says to me ‘but your a Christian arent you supposed to dislike homosexuality”? , sigh, its the one thing we cant agree on and I just can’t fathom his thinking.
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It’s known as the ‘squicky factor’. Grossed out by the thought of the act. Know to afflict those who aren’t religious and therefore have no other real reason to object or feel uncomfortable. Sadly often uncurable…..
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Belinda you read my mind.
Conveniently some Christians like to ignore the other parts of the New Testament that tells you to stone your cheating wife etc…GAH, makes me so embarrassed to be a Christian sometimes..
the bible is not meant to be taken literally people! God is love!
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As a Christian I find this whole idea of re-programming and flagellation so totally disgusting. God created us all as we were meant to be – black, white, gay, straight, freckles and all. To set out to change the fabric of a person is to undo what God has Himself created. Anyone see a flaw in that logic? These parents and teachers need some serious lessons in what it means to be a Christian.
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Completely agree i’m a collapsed Catholic. I believe in a loving Jesus but all the other stuff doesn’t sit well with me i particularly dislike people quoting Leviticus to “prove” God doesn’t like or want gay people. Especially because if you are quoting Leviticus to me you had better damn well be kosher as well or your argument wears thin
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Yes missamoo!! I’ve hauled out that quote from Leviticus too many times to count when having discussions about homosexuality with people who are very adamant that it’s a sin.
“An eternal decree for your generations in all your dwelling places; you may not consume any fat or any blood.”
I find it particularly effective if they happen to be eating at the time.
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Im another Christian who thinks this is just not on, and seriously appalling.
I think you’d find a lot of Christians don’t agree with THIS, even the ones who aren’t for gay marriage. (I am, but that’s another story.)
Don’t judge us all by the bad behavior of a few!e
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Richard Dawkins calls religion the root of all evil. This is proof. This is like the worst abuses of the Taliban, Nazi’s, Pol Pot and Stalin. If it wasn’t a “Christian” religious group they would be arrested and charged with crimes against humanity.
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As someone who has done duty in Afganistan I can tell you that you couldnt be more wrong regarding the taliban. If that was the taliban running that camp all those children would be dead with their bodies dis-membered and sent back to their families. And as for hitler, he wasnt so tolerant of homosexuals either…
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Exactly their tolerance and attitude is very much like Hitler’s. As for the Taliban, not so much difference, the people who organise these camps are the same ones that blow up abortion clinics and murder doctors. Religion inspired intolerance and hatred is pretty much the same regardless of flavour. Some use it because they believe, others use it as a means of power and repression of thought.
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Really? the very same people? Do you have evidence of this? why arent they in jail? Where is your proof that it is the same group of people? the police should be notified immediately, as you obviously have inside information…..
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Perhaps not the very SAME people, but it’s a matter of degree. It’s the same under-lying attitudes. The people at Hitler’s rallies (my great-grandparents included) weren’t murderers, either – but they allowed it to happen by fostering those attitudes; all it takes is one extremist to be accepted, or for one lunatic to lastch on to this mode of thinking.
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I am a gay Christian…where does that leave me?
/
I don’t understand how the good heterosexual Christians of the world don’t realise we were born gay, as they were born heterosexual. It’s not that hard to figure out!
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And another queer Christian here.
Things like this make me weep. I hate to see the assumptions people make about “Christians”, and about any person of faith. And I hate the way that people decide that the existence of fundamentalists makes all religion “evil”. I don’t know where I’d be now if I hadn’t had my faith in God to call on over the years. I respect that others don’t believe what I believe, but please, let people respect my faith, and my existence as a queer Christian! (So many people don’t believe that you can be a feminist, lesbian Christian. Well, I AM, and I don’t like being told that I don’t exist.)
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OMY GOSH! I’m a Christian who believes in Gay marriage. Love is Love. And I believe that God was the one who created love. love between man and women, love between man and man and love between women and women. This makes me sick in my stomach that they’re being treated like this. Like they’re not worthy. but the thing is we’re all worthy no matter who we are. We are all worthy of love and of loving whom we choose to love.
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So awful… So awful. There are no words really
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Absolutely no disrespect to anyone of any faith, including and especially the Christian faith(s). But FM, there is almost nothing that I find remotely inclusive, interesting, enticing or wholesome about most faiths, and especially the christian faith.
I am willing to be stood corrected. And my father-in-law is a practicing Catholic and one of the nicest men I’ve ever met. Perhaps, in many ways, the nicest. But good men do not a faith make.
Am I out of line? I just purely and simply don’t understand it.
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You’re not alone. I’m an atheist. I have many close friends who are religious (one is a minister). Whilst I respect their choice and love them dearly I cannot for the life of me understand why some people so intelligent can believe in such woo. I get the appeal, but some desperate need to believe in a supportive nurturing supernatural being does not make one exist. I’ve given up trying to understand and just accept we see the world differently.
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Have you seen Religulous? Such a thought-provoking doco (it’s by comedian Bill Maher) and I didn’t understand how people can believe before I saw it and then after I saw it, to see the way they skirted around questions and stuff…they just had no answer if there wasn’t a bible passage they could point to.
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Really?! Thats not gods work! Thats the devil misleading Christs children to think its ok to do that! They are using a scapegoat- by saying its “kidnapped for christ” and in the eyes of god they are sinning themselves! Its a persons right to be themselves! And its sexuality is NOT a choice, its a given as in they were born that way!
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This is a pretty appalling example of religion gone wild, People letting their ‘faith’ got to their heads, All under the guise of ‘the greater good’ .. I don’t support gay marriage, But nor do i support this, What people choose to do is their choice, And who are we to judge them on it just because it’s not our own choice and or belief?
I don’t believe people are born gay, I also don’t believe people are born straight, A baby is born unknowing of anything, And progresses through life on lessons taught and the examples we ourselves set.
A girl is not born wanting to wear a dress and make up, They learn these associations with being female, A boy is not born wanting to wear slacks and play with trucks, They are taught this, They know no difference between the sexes until it is pointed out to them.
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No-one is born wanting to wear slacks.
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Yet some wear jeggings, without a long top.
ps… as an atheist it’s reassuring to hear from so many reasonable christians.
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I can’t watch the clip either; as a parent I simply cannot fathom that parents would place their values and beliefs- their ideology and need to conform- above the happiness, health and welfare of the child. I can only imagine the outcry that would ensue if that kind of thing went on with adults- what, because they are teenagers they don’t have a voice? Just appalling.
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I’m a Christian, and yep, that is not ok.
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Disgusting!!! If that young man ever speaks to his parents again, it will be a miracle!!
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I actually cant watch the clip! Ignorance boils my blood like no other and i am way too hormonal tonight(preggochick) i will come back tomorrow to have a look!!
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yes!! i cant watch it either, i just read about the bill in Virginia and i started crying imagining what it would be like being 16, pregnant and being told by your state pretty much that your a horrible person for choosing to get ride of your baby!
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THIS is (amongst a 1000 more things) what is wrong with Religion!!
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No. No no no no NO!!! THIS is not religion, this is bigoted fundamental ignorant people who are perverting God’s word to their own twisted end. This is NOT God. Do we say this is what’s wrong with America? (OK, we probably do). Or this is what’s wrong with people with long faces and strange hair? Religion/Church/God – I know they’re not the same thing but this, this is nothing to do with God or true religion.
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Thank you so much, JosieY
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This is the No True Scotsman fallacy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman
Your argument basically goes that “no Christian would do this sort of thing”, then when presented with the evidence that Christians do this kind of thing all the time, you amend it to “no TRUE Christian would do this”.
THese people identify as Christians, they follow the same Bible as the rest of the Christians in the world and they worship the same god. You can’t embrace the Christians that you like and claim that those who do horrendous things in the name of your (?) faith aren’t part of your religion.
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Watch me.
We are not born Christians (as we are born scots or whatever) it is a way we live our life. I could call myself a Buddhist till I was blue in the face but if I don’t follow his teachings I am not a Buddhist. People who destroy rather than create, who spread fear rather than love, they are not Christians.
I’m sorry if this seems terse Trixie, it is not aimed at you personally, it’s just that this topic gets me a little worked up!
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The christians of which you speak would disagree with you. They believe they are the true Christians. You believe you are the true christian. You believe in opposites – you love, them hate and anger. This is why Rob is right.
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I’m sorry to inform you Josie but there are many passages in the Bible that contradict what you think is good Christian behaviour and what god wants, everything from infanticide to genocide. If you believe the bible is the word of God you can’t just pick and choose the bits you like.
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I’m with you on this Josie. Well said.
But I’m also with Rob. Religion is so flawed!
Can we please all stop pretending to know everything?!
This is why God is so not about religion, he’s all about relationship. Throw everything you know or think you know about God and start again and you’ll see what it’s all about.
There is no such thing as a “true” Christian, or even “good Christian behavior”. My bible teaches me that I am responsible for my own behavior, and not to judge others. My bible teaches me to love and accept everyone as equals no matter what. My bible shows me how to live my life. My own life, thats all. How to interact, how to raise my kids, how to live a full life. Read the new testament people, I promise you if your open to it it will literally change your life.
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Oh my. That breaks my heart. I can’t believe what lengths religious groups will go to make people conform to their teachings. No wonder there is such a high suicide rate amongst gay youth. In the words of my favorite performer Melissa Etheridge “love is never wrong”.
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I’m sure I read a book about this school some years ago. Anyone else heard of it? It was about a girl from Indiana who was sent there.
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http://juliascheeres.com/JesusLand.shtml
found it
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There is also “But I’m A Cheerleader”, a gorgeous romantic comedy set in one of these camps. A much lighter view of the same subject matter, but with enough tragedy to remind you of how wrong it all is.
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Oh someone DID mention it! I commented before I read the comments. Yes it was lighthearted but it was still disturbing on so many levels. :\
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I don’t like organised religion and I don’t like others telling me which is the best way to live. I cannot bring myself to watch the clip.
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Neither can I…
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