Volu m e II - Purdue University Calumet

change, but the goal of this initiative for them is education. Educating those who do not believe that climate
change is real, and pushing our world leaders to be more proactive on the climate change issue is being
consistent with a message of goodness. This is a crusade, religiously motivated, but that is consistent with a
moral and scientific, vision of goodness.
Another modern day example of a crusade is demonstrated in the documentary Jesus Camp. The film
follows charismatic, Pentecostal Evangelical leader Becky Fischer and her “Kids on Fire” summer camp at
Devil‟s Lake, North Dakota. Here she aggressively encourages young, impressionable children to become
Christian soldiers in an effort to bring America back to God. Throughout the film, Becky, in her sermons,
repetitively evokes dualistic good vs. evil imagery to promote what could be considered a crusade for God.
The documentary reveals the goal of this aggressive, Evangelical movement is to spread the word of „God‟
through young children. It enlists young children to relentlessly repent for their sins and impure thoughts
and to consider those who do not go with God to be with the Devil. These children are also encouraged to
perform their own sermons for the group and they do so by emulating Becky‟s charismatic style. Becky
herself invokes militaristic language as she discusses the children as soldiers for God, armed with the
Gospel. While Becky speaks out against the so-called „terrible‟ habits of Muslims, she does seem to show
respect for Fundamentalist, political Islamic tactics as she states she wants to see children “radically laying
down their lives for the Gospel” as children do for Islam (Jesus Camp). Here is a crusade, an aggressive
movement, directed towards spreading an absolutistic vision of Christianity by children soldiers armed with
the Gospel, and with no appeal to ethics to question the moral legitimacy of their actions.
Now both the Evangelical Climate Change Initiative and the Evangelical Christian summer camp in
Jesus Camp are crusades. However, just as religious traditions can be life affirming or destructive, language
can be used in destructive or life affirming contexts. It is important to be weary of both in order to express
a vision of goodness in our actions, and our language. Language is used to legitimate destructive behavior,
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