As a newbie here on TFP, I am a bit trepidatious to respond in this thread. I read the OP and have read all the responses, and I felt I had to put in my bit. I have been a Christian missionary for the past 20 years, and most of that time has been spent working with kids. I have extensive experience in leading, planning and executing camps with children (ages range from 10-20, mostly in Asia), and I would like to express my thoughts regarding the "Jesus Army" situation.
1. Any organization who doesn't follow the reality of Child Development is setting themselves up for heartache. I would NEVER take a 6 year old to a camp like this! Six year old kids are still very succeptable to being scared, and to tell them that they will have to "fight in an army" is assuring numerous nightmares, and possible bed-wetting situations, regardless of whether or not the child loves God or not.
2. Our rule is that we only take kids overnight who are over 10, and they must be a mature 10. We are assured of this by an extensive application process, and their parents or guardians must convince us of this. Plus, we tailor our material to age appropriateness (if that's even a word
3. The group that I observed in the trailer is obviously (from someone who knows, trust me) a pentecostal-bent group, as evident by upraised hands and faith-filled utterances. This faction of Christianity is much more emotionally inclined than mainstream Christian groups, including my own ministry.
4. "Army of God" is not a literal army. What many people who are not familiar with this type of Christian group doesn't understand is that when a phrase like "Army of God" is mentioned, it doesn't mean an actual ARMY. Scripture talks about "weapons of warfare" in the book of Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10 through 18, and it has to do with putting on spiritual armour, such as:
a. Belt of Truth around your waist
b. Breastplate of Righteousness
c. Feed shod with Readiness of Gospel of Peace
d. Shield of Faith, which extinguishes arrows of evil
e. Helmel of Salvation
d. Sword of the Spirit (word of God)
e. Prayer
Who wouldn't like to have their kids be truthful, righteous, peaceful and faithfilled, and beyond, what Christian parents wouldn't want their kids to have their heads filled with the realization that they are graciously and lovingly saved, that they can use the word of God (without judgement, of course), and that they can pray to God for whatever reason they have?
I don't know if that was involved in this camp, but it would have been if it had been MY camp.
5. Christian kids aren't taught that it is a glorious thing to go and blow up a group of innocent civilians, killing themselves in the process. I have yet to see this happen - if you have, please, enlighten me (crusades not included)
6. Organized religion isn't killing people - those who high-jack organized religion kill people.
7. Jesus is scandalously different than most of what mainstream American denominations have portrayed Him to be.
Ok, that's my stuff. Hope it hasn't offended anyone - if so, let me know, and I'll apologise to you, and together we'll find a middle-ground, or we'll just agree to disagree. Won't see that in a lot of Christians, will ya?
