After viewing Jesus Camp in class last week, I was really struggling with separating my personal beliefs from my observation and judgements of the Fundamentalist lifestyle/belief system. It’s incredibly frustrating to see something that I so strongly disagree with at work in real life. Hearing about this type of organized religion and indoctrination is difficult to grasp, but seeing it in action on screen was a huge shock for me. After thinking a lot about what was presented in the documentary, I was able to step back a little bit and take into consideration the psychology behind groups like these. This week’s Strozier readings helped me to gain a more level-headed perspective on the inner workings of those so heavily influenced by the Fundamentalist mindset.

While I was viewing the film I kept questioning what was running through the minds of people like Becky, the children’s preacher, and the parents who functioned as home-school teachers. How could they be so narrow minded, I wondered. That is, until I realized that by not taking into account the complexities of their perspectives, I was being fairly narrow minded myself. While I stand firmly by my personal opinion that guiding someone towards or imposing upon someone a set of pre-determined beliefs is wrong, I must say Strozier’s writings helped me to understand that religious thought is deeply engrained in the believer’s mind in a way that is far more complex than I previously had reduced it to be.

The sort of division and distancing from one’s self that is required to fully commit to a Fundamentalist lifestyle is incredible. When Strozier noted “I cannot stress enough the suffering that lies beneath the often angry, arrogant, and superficially confident exterior of a paranoid person,” a light bulb went off for me(65). Becky, was a difficult person for me to see in action, but when I applied this notion of her as suffering on a deep, psychological level, my perspective shifted. Her exterior persona certainly did not sit well with me, but she did fit the description of a paranoid very well. She seemed to harbor a strong distrust for anyone or anything not aimed at emphasizing the omnipotence and impending reign of God’s Kingdom on Earth. Even in her warning to the children about the evils hidden in Harry Potter, it’s obvious that Becky is someone deeply afraid and unsure of the world, and perhaps, of her own faith. Her persona overcompensates for any doubts she may feel, though, so that no one in her congregation will feel the desire to turn away from God’s plan.

I was incredibly upset with the congregation’s refusal to legitimize the young, blonde boy’s feelings of doubt. This moment was another reason why it was so difficult for me to try to see things from the Fundamentalist leader’s perspective. Strozier notes that people operating under the Fundamentalist mindset “recoil in disgust” at groups or people that act in a way opposing to their general doctrine of beliefs “…without recognizing the authentic feelings of confusion about a human future that serve as the basis of all expressions of the apocalyptic”(104). If Becky or the congregation would have comforted this boy, they would consequently display lack of conviction to their own beliefs, at least from their point of view. Strozier goes on to explain that Fundamentalists are able to uphold their beliefs, which are split between belief in salvation and hope and extreme radical violence and absolute ending by essentially stepping away from themselves: “One can only maintain such separation, however, by a systematic disowning of one’s own feelings. Splitting at dissociation lie at the center of the fundamentalist self”(110). I was particularly struck by this passage because I immediately recognized that this doubtful little boy, is simply in the process of dissociating himself from his feelings so as to come to terms with and practice that which is being indoctrinated within him.

Even the most radical leader/believer, like Becky, might have begun her journey towards spiritual rebirth as a questioning, doubtful youth. The entire process of becoming wholly Fundamentalist is presented in the documentary from start to finish. When I think about it now, I see how many of the slightly older children had already been “born again,” because they had already successfully detached from their feelings of doubt. Their easier experience of becoming indoctrinated may have to do with a difference in family structure, education, or personal interactions. Regardless of the exact reason for any of the children or adult’s personal experiences it is obvious that some “trauma” as Strozier suggests, shifted the Fundamentalist’s perspective so that they are able to rationalize and carry out their aims as “good Christians”(116).