So a few friends had been pestering me to come with them to a youth group meeting for a little over a month and I decided that I might as well go and see what evangelical youth are all about (being that the adults that I've been exposed to are complete conservative, right wing, bush loving wackos, I wanted to know if their offspring were any different) They weren't, the entire 2 hours they had some creepy dude standing at a podium preaching about how we had to be good people or we'll go to hell, how every christian must do his or her very best to try to convert the pagans by spreading "gods" word any and everywhere. This wackjob made us discuss and act out situations that you can actually just talk to someone about god, like waiting in line at the grocery store. This is how the conversation was when I was the person playing the "godless pagan" as they referr to atheists, agnostics, and all other non-christians.

Me: Damn these lines are bad

Christian do-gooder: You know where the lines aren't bad?

Me: Where?

Christian do-gooder: Heaven

Me: Oh really? why is that?

Christian do-gooder: because god always has room in heaven for those that believe in him and follow the holy spirit

Me: Interesting, because I was under the impression that there would be a long line due to the fact that people have been trying to get in for thousands of years when it actually doesn't exist!

To me, the worst part about being there wasn't this guy standing up there talking about how this god is so perfect and how you must put your faith in him and follow him blindly and convert all others. It was how all of these kids, some of which I've known for almost 10 years now have been so horribly brainwashed into believing in god for fear of going to hell, being ridiculed by their family, and a hole assortment of other things. They are even saying that all of these political issues like stem cell research, gay rights, abortion, etc. are the agenda of the satan and that he influences the people to support the progression of these issues in order to condemn their souls to hell. Can anyone believe that? If I hadn't seen the youth pastor say it myself I wouldn't be able to believe that such atrocities are being taught to people my age. Christianity is making an army of god warriors, the likes of which that hasn't been seen since the crusades.

Now I took some time and debated with a few of these kids after the session was over. I talked about jesus camp (which I haven't seen the majority of) most said that these kids are the future leaders of america and that they are exactly what god wants the human race to be, from the portions of this movie that I've seen, we are in deep trouble if america's leaders are going to be like that. I spoke with a few about the crisis' going on in africa (particularly darfur) they said that god is there watching over all of the killing, but until they accept him into their hearts, he cannot stop the fighting. I even discussed the dark ages with them, some said that THE DARK AGES WERE THE BEST YEARS OF GOD AND HUMANITY, I wasn't aware that a time of feudalism, death, poverty, disease, deciet, war, and clerical wrong doing were what people had in mind when they thought of god.

I am absolutely stumped as to how people can believe the trash that is being thrown into their heads