God's Next Army

[kat_lair]

So, Friends in the UK, who saw tonight's Channel 4 documentary about the Patrick Henry College - a fundamentalist Christian "university" dedicated to educating the future leaders of  USA? And Friends in the US or elsewhere, are you aware of this and what's your opinion?

I am just... horrified and sad but not surprised. I have a Christian background and count myself as fairly spiritual person. But when religion becomes this organised, this manipulative, this absolute, it stops being about faith and becomes about power and control.

Most of all I felt so bad for these students in the College, most of them completely home-educated, kept totally apart from any mainstream cultural influences, not given any chance for independent thought. One of these children (they may be 18/19 but that is what they are, brainwashed children) earnestly compared the last US election and the issues debated within it (mainly abortion and homosexuality) to a 'battle between light and darkness'. The young women were saying things like "The God has given me these talents to serve him until the right guy comes along and then it is my duty to serve him" and "One thing that I have come to realise is that women are just not suited for higher leadership positions" - 150 years of feminism down the drain.

I don't know wherther to laugh or cry. At the moment I'm leaning towards the latter. Any thoughts?

Comments

[kat-lair.livejournal.com]

I don't know the exact numbers but I know they're growing. You're right, it *is* scary. Evangelist Christians in the US (and to a smaller degree elsewhere) are organised and ambitious. They are looking to fill all the influential positions with people who will use them to push the extreme conservative agenda. And in the US they are well on their way to succeeding.