Framing Jesus Camp

This blog is about Becky Fischer of Jesus Camp fame.

First let me say truthfully Becky Fischer is a genius. I love her.

When I did children’s ministry I would have sold my soul to the Devil to be like

Becky Fischer.

I am a big fan of Meme theory as proposed by Susan Blackmore. Meme theory states that ideas which spread among organisms work in an evolutionary manner analogous to

natural selection.

Religion is the favorite example of nearly all memeticists.

Becky Fischer may not believe in memes, and she may not even know what that word means, but she is one of the world’s memetic engineers.

Becky is not evil, at least I don’t think so. No, Becky is a very talented communicator who specializes in children.

If Becky embraced secular education as her muse for her fantastic talents, we would all be sending her money begging her not to stop.

Anyone who follows the charismatic (Pentecostal) movement like I do knows that Becky is not ill-intentioned.

No, I’m afraid she is not. I can tell because of the church she preached in, as portrayed in the film. That was not a wealthy church, it was modest.

Becky is not executing a masterful scam designed in principle to bring her material wealth. Becky really believes in the Holy Bible as it is framed by Charismatic theology.

Communications expert, Matt Nisbet, has taught us in his research that “framing” is a common and popular tool used in communication. Here I am proposing the concept of theological framing.

All protestant religions claim to be dedicated to the Bible as the inerrant word of God, yet they tend to reach very different conclusions. I feel this is a direct byproduct of framing.

In Charismatic Christianity, the framing emphasizes an experiential connection with the Holy Ghost. If you don’t feel the Holy Ghost moving in you, then you are not practicing biblical Christianity. If one takes an honest look at the New Testament, with emphasis on the book of Acts, the idea is that Christians are supposed to have super powers. The protestants who say that all of this is biblically obsolete because of the rise of the printed bible as the replacement of Pentecostal supernaturalism are reaching scripturally.

Super powers are biblical down to the Old Testament, where people would take what was called the vow of the Nazirite, which Sampson did, were commonly believed to have super powers. Another famous person in the Bible who took the vow of the Nazirite and demonstrated Super Powers, unleashing the ministry of Jesus himself, is John the Baptist.

The simple truth, is that what Becky Fischer is doing is biblical, especially in the context of framing Christianity in the Charismatic theology of salvation = super powers.

I think the esteemed Dr. Nisbet, who is a brilliant investigator, would not approve of me making this argument of defending Becky Fischer as exactly what we should expect from protestants, and more and more everyday we encounter the rise of Charismatic catholics who embrace this theology along with the lovely and unique catholic rites. Dr. Nisbet and I could probably both agree that Catholicism is another species of framing of Christian theology.

I should add that Dr. Nisbet has been writing beautiful work on the coverage of the Pope’s recent visit on his Framing Science blog.

But back to the point. Becky Fischer is the victim of framing. She is made to look like a freak by these film makers. But the simple fact is that Charismatics, and Pentecostals have been doing this for nearly a century. This is not some new uprising of the Religious Right, as the film frames it to look this way using the radio DJ from leftist radio station Air America.

In the film “Marjoe” little kids are on the ground “slain in the spirit” in a Pentecostal trance on the ground. But those film makers chose not emphasize the children, giving “Marjoe” a different framing of Pentecostals.

My final point is that this kind of religion is an inevitable manifestation of Christianity. Unless you could persuade the publishers of all the bibles to add…

“Just Kidding” to the end of the book of Acts, and all the other stuff in the Bible that promises the believers super powers.

With people like Creflo Dollar, Kenneth Copeland, and Pat Robertson the manipulation of this theology as a former charismatic is evident. But in the case of Becky Fischer, she is really just as much a victim as the kids she teaches.