Random Most Horrifying Real Stories from Jesus Camp (10 items)

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  (#1) Motivational Speaker Burned Dead Brother's Mementos

  "Each night we had this guy come in and talk about his life. He claimed he was a former Olympic rower. He had chosen to give it up to spread the word of God instead. I knew he was full of it because he was short and weighed 250 pounds.

  On the last day of camp, he shared that he lost his brother in Iraq that year, and had only one photo of him. He also had a hat his brother gave him before he died. That night, he burned them to show how we can't have greed for earthly things like those items and that God is the only comfort we need."
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  (#2) Gobbledygook To Please God

  "Every time I went to camp, the week culminated with what I guess would look like a cult initiation to an outsider. We were all encouraged to fall to the floor and shout out verses in tongues and cry hysterically and do all sorts of weird dramatic stuff like bowing in an exaggerated manner before a cross, and all the while the pastor was chanting something in tongue speak over the loud speakers. This would go on for about an hour. It freaked me out every time."
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  (#3) Jesus Leaves No Time For Sunblock

  "When he picked me up from camp, my father was absolutely furious with how skinny and burnt I was even though I went with sunscreen. We often weren’t able to apply sunscreen because of the schedule. The indoctrination was absolutely horrible. Hazing was certainly less in the girls dorms, but you still didn’t want to be seen as weak, too masculine, or god-forbid actually have friends who weren’t female. The whole experience of church camp was just awful. I would never go back."
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  (#4) Electric Guitars Outed As Work Of The Devil

  "According to one of the camp's 'scholarly' preachers, electric guitars were basically harps that the fallen angels had take to hell and had transformed into instruments of Satan. The really funny thing was that they had nightly Jesus-rock performances with electric guitars. One of these performances helped inspire me to take up the electric guitar."
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  (#5) Beat Your Kids And Give Us Your Money

  "At the camp, we were taught classes on 'Christian Living,' including the necessity of (once we had children of our own) beating our children, removing ourselves from the influence of 'the world,' including even 'mainstream' Christianity, and giving 20-30% of pre-tax income to the church. Then, to top off the whole experience, we learned how to 'defend ourselves from the coming end-times,' meaning: general wilderness survival, camping, learning to fire bows and arrows, shotguns, and - if we had a really good shot - AK-47 rifles."
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  (#6) Teenage Habits Laid Bare

  "Every Sunday was revival. Every week we were told we were sinners. Every week we had altar call where you would 'bow your head on your knees before God and repent.' When I was older I was preached to for weeks about how much of a sinner and awful person I was for having watched porn. I came to one of the senior leaders and confessed I'd had a porn addiction as a young teenager and I regretted it immediately. I was ostracized and made to feel like I was disgusting."
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  (#7) Drums Summon Satan

  "We had morning service and night service. And after morning we went to different classes about something religious. We were not allowed to have any music that was not 100% Christian. By that I mean no drums, because they were used to summon demons. So no classical music, only gospel was allowed."
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  (#8) Anti-Evolution Ballads Decry Science

  "At Jesus Camp, I performed in skits and sang anti-evolution songs as well as songs about being a warrior for Jesus. I then worked at a Christian church camp for two summers, was in a children's bible memorization group and so on. . . I've been turned off by religion ever since."
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  (#9) Evening Prayer Warns About Eternity In Hell

  "Each evening we were herded into the camp chapel and told horror stories about life after death for non-believers. I used to cringe and dread each evening service. Most of the kids took it in stride, seeing it all as an extension of Santa Claus and similar myths, but the tales of sinners leaping into the fires of hell and having their graves infested by snakes literally scared the devil out of me. Each evening when the call came to come forward I would resist, not knowing why, but certain that eventually, I would be one of the legions condemned to everlasting torment." 
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  (#10) Camp Kids Sing In Tongues

  "I guess the weirdest thing that ever happened the year I went to Jesus Camp was the night our cabin started spontaneously singing in tongues. Ugh. I also once went to a Billy Graham event in a packed football stadium. Just thinking about it now makes me feel a little ill."

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