NOTICE: I will be gone for over a week, and will likely not be near a computer much (which is nice). However, I have been busily writing in the background and, should all things go as planned, scheduled posts should still appear on this site. I won't be here to answer emails, but you should still have a few things to read.


Apostrophes and stereotypes.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger      5 comments      link this post     


A friend told me about the movie Jesus Camp. I have yet to see the movie and, in true typical fashion, the local newspaper has yet to mention the fact that part of it was shot at nearby Lakewood Park Bible Camp, the Assembly of God camp just outside of Devils Lake that I grew up attending (and still attend during family camp in June, when we kick off the youth camping season).

It was and is a great camp; I have very good memories from those years and I also received a very necessary spiritual foundation there. I still help out with design work every now and then, and I painted the large signs up front by the altar that talk about carrying the flame to the next generation and worship. The camp is situated on the edge of Devils Lake (the actual lake, not the town next to the lake; they have the same name). Devils Lake the lake is its own story.

You can see Lakewood Park in many shots of the movie trailer I linked to above, from the cafeteria scenes to the shots inside what I grew up calling the "tabernacle", the large church building that looks like an upside down ark inside, high-beamed rafters, a bit barn-like. It has rough wooden benches in the back half and gray, padded seats towards the front, with large, white blocks of foam hanging from the ceiling for sound purposes. Most of the scenes of the kids praying, crying, etc. are happening at Lakewood Park Bible Camp.

I'm curious to watch the movie. It's supposed to be fairly even-handed and not a mockery. The strength of a documentary like this is that it doesn't let someone hang onto a stereotype unless they are a person who has no intention of ever thinking beyond it, anyway.

Perhaps you look at the trailer and think: psycho. Think maybe those people are crazy, wacked, weird, out-of-control, fascists? That's the Bible camp I grew up attending (though I did not attend Jesus Camp). I guess you'll have to decide if I fit that stereotype. I haven't seen the movie, and so I can't say another thing about the content or the group that used the Lakewood Bible Camp facilities. I have no idea if I have similar beliefs or not, though I obviously don't think LPBC would allow a group in that was in opposition to Assembly of God/Pentecostal beliefs.

One point I want to make is in regards to all the material, stories and articles written by professional journalists (what, they can't Google Devils Lake?) and discussion involving this camp and the location of it. It is NOT Devil's Lake. It's Devils Lake.

There is no apostrophe.

This is a huge difference and, as much as you want the rich irony of the town being possessed by the devil for your article, as much as the apostrophe allows you to end your article with a clever turn of the phrase, the name is not a possessive. It is a reference to the Native Americans referring to the lake as full of spirits, hence the name of the Spirit Lake Tribe that borders the lake.

Think I'm being petty? Much ado about that little apostophe is being made as people can't get over the name of the town and the subject of the movie. If you're a professional than do your research. We can still spell and fact-check out here in fly-over country.

Official Movie Site: Jesus Camp movie
ABC News Report: YouTube clip (Hat tip: Graeme)

UPDATE: (Moved to comments section for length and post continuity.)

READ MORE: Further post on Jesus Camp.

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Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger      9/13/2006 09:45:00 PM      (5) comments      Links to this post    
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5 Comments:

My most profound spiritual breakthru came in that old tabernacle, that upside down ark, foam and all.

That was in 1990 and I have never been the same.

I'm guessing this isn't going to be a promotional video for LBC.

It's like cats sitting in a tree next to a swimming pool trying to make a documentary about swimming. They've never been in the water and can't for the life of them understand why anyone would.

Sigh..........

By Blogger Gene, at 14/9/06 10:32  

Sounds scary! :0

By Anonymous robbie, at 14/9/06 13:49  

And again Robbie, you've missed the point.

When don't you?

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 18/9/06 14:50  

I've moved the "update" from above down here to the comments section because it is long, slightly off the topic (just slightly, heh) and I don't have a blog set up for those "read more" links that would be very helpful. Sorry for any inconvenience.

UPDATE, AND A LONG ONE: The "good folks" at Slice of Laodicea have weighed in on the movie. Surprisingly, they have found a few things wrong.

1. The world is wrong in its interpretation.
2.The fact that the woman in charge of this minister is...prepare yourself...a woman pastor.
3.The fact that the early church and the Reformers (the second God to them) would never have done something like this camp thereby meaning God wouldn't.
4.Basically, the usual. Basically, condeming everything. Because there weren't enough hymns, subservient women, and liturgy. Etc.

There's the usual pleas for Jesus to come now and save the "remnant" from such people as those who would hold such a camp. People I know, people my Godly mother knows, people whose lives I see beautiful fruit in. That the readers of Slice would have the good fortune to even meet such people and be blessed by them, but no. Condemnation instead.

I think Slice readers might be very surprised and uncomfortable in heaven if they think it's going to be as western, reformed and as white-bread as they seem to think it's going to be. Their mansion over the hilltop might be right next to some holy-rollers.*

I would refer these Slice readers to my earlier post about the place of watchmen and be a bit more pointed: you are no longer watchmen. You've gone far past it, far past being a good service for the church into being a cutting, sniping, wounding shame for the world to see. You are the bad Pharisees you claim you aren't. You are the judgemental people you claim you aren't. You are the problem you claim you aren't. You are all the things people say about you that you slough off with a few scriptures and a pious "come Lord Jesus." Anyone looking for an excuse can find it, and you have chosen to find your's in selective scripture. You say you serve God but you also raise an altar to Spurgeon, Calvin and MacArthur. You fight and hiss about how to correctly dot an "i" or cross a "t" and do nothing but congratulate yourselves for your rhythmic goose-stepping. You are the nitpickers, the ones who can't see beyond exterior dress and music styles and the messy lives of beggers, theives and prostitutes who haven't made it John Calvin's hat-and-bonnet club by living up to your rules.

I see nothing of Jesus in what you say or do, nor do I see a reverence for a Holy God, a reverence that you so love to claim that you have, in the way that you grind down anything of beauty that He uses that is outside of your understanding or comfort zone. You eschew true discernment of things gone wrong in favor of finding wrong in everything. You can't even agree in your own snarling pack. You make it worse, because any fool can see not everything you have said is wrong is actually wrong and that makes seeing what you've said that's right nearly impossible.

You are the problem. You are the Hollow church. You may not be the emerging deception, but you are the moldering deception.

You may think you are holy and just and justified and right, but someday you will answer for all the cutting, stabbing and killing of other true Christians and true Christian ministry that you did not understand; you will have to answer to the God you claim to honor for all the things you were so sure were wrong, were evil, were signs of apostasty when in reality, you had merely chosen not to allow that God might choose to work in any way beyond your miniscule human understanding and opinion.

You make me ashamed to call myself a Christian because your use of that term is anything but. Be careful you're not that goat you are so sure you're not.

Before you lash into me in true Slice fashion, I'll give you a little more ammo to work with in which to prove I'm not a true Christian, since that is what you do best.

1. Posts on Christianity
2. Posts on Slice
3. Posts on Jim Bublitz
4. Comment regarding Slice at TeamPyro

*Before, however, you write me off as just another Assembly of God apostate, I would like to point out to those of you so fond of Guilty-By-Association accusations that Ingrid writes for the Worldview Weekend network. The last time WVW came to North Dakota it was held at one of the larger A/G churches, the kind of churches you all like to bash and smash. Brannon Howse had no qualms about it, since WVW seemed as inclined to take mine and my mother's and all the other charismatic's money as well as the rest. My parents and nephew and I had a fabulous weekend and brought the material back to our church to share with everyone. The people who worked hard to get WVW to North Dakota included a number of those evangelistic-A/G people, again, routinely thrashed on Slice. What I'm trying to say is that you cannot just write other believers off like you do. It will come back to you.

By Blogger Julie, at 18/9/06 22:55  

I neglected to post the link to the Slice article, which is necessary. Here it is.

By Blogger Julie, at 19/9/06 10:15  

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