Have you seen the documentary Pint-sized Preachers? If you did, what were your thoughts?

Kids are very impressionable. For a year, my oldest (incidentally, when he was four) thought he was a plane.

Their minds have been poisoned and now they’re spreading that poison.

I have not seen that particular documentary, but I have seen a different one with a name that escapes me right now.

I feel it’s child exploitation. Children will believe anything you say if you say it the right way, so I feel it’s incredibly cruel to brainwash them into your religion, let alone trick them into dressing up and running around screaming about your gods. If you have to fill a child with something, fill it with love. Filling it with religious mania and hate is sick.

What is it with Southerners and exploiting children?

But in all seriousness, it looks awful. I agree with that one comment that says preaching has become a “carnival sideshow” due to evangelicals.

I watched it (or something very similar) a few years ago. I am fascinated by this type of thing even though I find it creepy as well. Whilst I believe in God myself, I feel that these kids have had the beliefs of others forced on them with extreme consequences. I would imagine these children must be absolutely terrified of what will happen to them “at the hands of God” or maybe their parents?! if they don’t spread the word of the lord. That can’t be a very enjoyable childhood if you ask me.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Brilliant!

It is a way Satan has devised to mock religion.

I was put off by it and couldn’t watch it in its entirety.

I think I’d like to se that it would be interesting to watch. @DominicX from what I’ve read about tent revivals, preaching has been a carnival sideshow attraction that has waxed and waned since the mid 1800s. There used to be these preachers that would do circuits and go all over rural areas and it was like the circus was coming to town when they came. I’m guessing television has kind of killed it’s popularity.

I was really into my church as a kid and I used to give “sermons” all the time at the church podium. It wasn’t nearly as entertaining as the southern baptist kids I bet though. We were Reformed Presbyterians (aka the Frozen Chosen) who are known for being very dry and academic ministers. So I doubt I would have made a hit on the circuit.

Even in my very “dull” church, I could feel a certain energy about the pulpit. It’s like being on stage and powerful people in the community stop and listen – hang on to your every word because you are the authority on God. I bet it’s even more powerful in a charismatic church. I doubt the kids need to be forced to go along with it. It may be fun for them. It was fun for me and I didn’t get to shout or anything.

I think that if I were a boy, I probably would have gone to seminary and become a minister. I loved it that much. But Reformed Presbyterians bar women from being ministers. So I grew up a bitter agnostic. I may not believe in it anymore, but it would be cool as hell to get a chance to get up and preach again. It was that much fun.

Marjo Goitner was a Child preacher who later exposed the evangelist racket .

@Simone_De_Beauvoir , my daughter was convinced that when she grew up she would be a frog. A boy frog.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir and @Judi I was convinced that I would be a Mermaid when I grew up because my dad told me I could be whatever I wanted to be!!!

I haven’t seen the documentary in question, but the concept bothers me a little. I was used this way when I was younger—though not that young—and I did not grow to appreciate it.

The whole thing reminds me of a scene in Jesus Camp where Levi, one of the kids the documentary follows, meets Ted Haggard (pre-scandal). Levi mentions that he has been preaching a bit, and Haggard asks him why he thinks people are interested in his preaching—because he’s young, or because he’s good. He goes on to say, “use your cute kid thing until you’re thirty, and by then you’ll have good content.”

Levi clearly doesn’t know what to think of this comment, especially as it comes from someone he admires, and the directors express their own bewilderment with Haggard’s behavior in the film’s commentary. Whatever I may think of the man himself, though, this particular comment seems to be nothing but honest (even if a bit brutally so). These kids are a gimmick, and I find that to be deeply unconscionable.