Training Extremists While They Are Young

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It is probably no more than an ironic coincidence that the Kids on Fire camp is in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota. Or perhaps not. Kids on Fire is not your mother’s summer camp; rather, it is a place where children–some as young as six–receive instruction in glossolalia, go on field trips to political protests, and learn to chant for “righteous judges” for America.

At Kids on Fire, the children pray over a cardboard cutout of George W. Bush, and they wash their hands in bottled water to cleanse themselves of their wicked ways and drive out the devil. Some children are filled with the Holy Spirit and go down in a trance-like state. One little girl is said to have been “pinned to the floor” for over an hour by the Holy Spirit. Children describe seeing “gold dust” on their hands, feeling compelled to dance, and being “slain by the Holy Spirit.”

Becky Fischer
, leader of Kids of Fire, who wants to “take back America for Christ,” says “I want to see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people are to the cause of Islam. I want to see them radically laying down their lives for the gospel, as they are over in Pakistan and Israel and Palestine.”

The documentary film, Jesus Camp, made by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, follows three children as they participate in camp activities. Opening today in Los Angeles, the film has already stirred quite a bit of attention. It won in the “scariest movie” category at the Traverse City Film Festival.

One of the children in the documentary, Tory, who is ten years old, says something that is scary enough for me. Tory explains that she prefers “Christian, heavy metal rock and roll” to Britney Spears:

“When I dance, I have to make sure that that’s God. People will notice when I’m just dancing for the flesh.”

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

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And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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