Pentecostal minister Becky Fischer teaches kids how to raise the dead

[Video Link] Pentecostal minister Becky Fischer teaches kids how to raise the dead. At the six minute mark she explains that kids can successfully pray their dead pets back to life. Good luck, kids! (Via Dangerous Minds)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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benher

Science has a better chance of succeeding here than religion…

or
Cue the Zombie Apocalypse!
- http://www.matthewpetty.com/ Matthew Petty
  
  Or in the case of resurrected fluffy pets, “Cute! The zombie apocalypse!”
- pyster
  
  science is a religion. religion is a collection of beliefs and ways of doing things. nothing more. no need for a god, supernatural bs, etc…
  
  do not confuse popular religions that require these things as being what religion is.
  - dculberson
    
    Science is not a religion, actually. You might want to go back and figure out how you got that one wrong because there’s a glitch in your thought process.
    - RobDobbs
      
      Meh, they’re the same. One focuses on subjective evidence and the other on objective.
      
      …At least it seems that way – but I have no proof.
  - phisrow
    
    For a definition that weak, science is a religion, religion is a religion, and the McDonalds Operations Manual is a holy text…
    
    It isn’t so much that the definition is “false”; but that it is so broad and vague as to be completely useless.
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1670283353 John Hubanks
    
    Actually, no. Science is not a religion, and to claim it as such is interminably silly. The difference is qualitative and irreconcilable. Religion, by definition, is a faith-based endeavor. Science, by definition, is an evidence-based endeavor.
  - Ludopathy
    
    Religion lacks a self correcting mechanism, that’s why relgion keeps spewing the same bs for 2000 years, even when proven wrong.
    - BrianOman
      
      …
      Religion is, if anything, a perpetual self correcting mechanism. Churches and orthodoxy are generally an antithesis to the precepts of religions. Don’t confuse religion with it’s institutional implementations.
      - Ludopathy
        
        Are you serious?
        
        How can be something a “revealed absolute truth” and be “perfectible” at the same time?
        
        I guess it’s A MIRACLE PRAISE THE LORD!
  - James Penrose
    
    “science is a religion. religion is a collection of beliefs and ways of doing things”
    
    So my cookbook is Holy Scripture? The dough shall rise again if I follow the Ritual of Kneading and have enough faith?
    
    Somehow I do not think you grasp what the word science means and possibly what the word religion means.
  - Petzl
    
    science is not a religion.
    religion is not science.
    religion is religion.
    science is science.
    any questions?
Scot Taylor

Let her start with Jamey Rodemeyer. Then we’ll talk.
http://twitter.com/Orr_Dewy Andrew Orr

Wow, christian necromancy? What’s next, training children to hate gays and non-christians? Oh wait, they already do that! “Who wants to be the dead person? Do you want to be the dead person?”
Lobster

It worked! You’re back! Hey everyone, look, Cujo’s back!
- lysdexia
  
  “You stink, Church” (while we’re referencing Mr. King)
RJ

John Coffey says it’s possible.
http://delayofgame.ca Rajio

“I need some boys. Who wants to be dead?” … shivers!
BBNinja

“Can i tell you a secret? Don’t laugh if i tell you this? You promise not to laugh?

I know some kids that have prayed for their dead animals and they came back to life again…”

“GOD CAN DO ANYTHING! SAY GOD CAN DO ANYTHING! (kids repeat)…”

“SAY I CAN DO THE SAME MIRACLES THAT JESUS DID! (kids repeat)”

/scary
Godfree

Criminal.
sdnative1958

This is by far one of the most disgusting, horrific, dangerous, mind-bending, warped, crap I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Adults playing that superstitious nonsense with other adults is bad enough – but with CHILDREN?!

That fat blob moron dip-wad needs to be locked away.
CSBD

It really sucks that this is going on, not that these kids are being fed bullshit, but that they are being trained to believe ANYTHING that they are told even when it contradicts reality and does not work. I think that is the main point here. Get the kids to belive that they can raise their dead pets, then when it doesnt work, make sure they will still believe whatever bullshit you tell them; followed by a nice contribution to the “im your religious leader and I don’t have to work for a living” basket.
Huwman

So that’s what goes on in the daycare room for the Republican Convention.
Kirby_G

What happens when these kids are in the middle of the pain of losing a loved pet, and they pray just like they were told, and nothing happens?

As much as we’d like to say “Well, they realize God isn’t real”, much more often the result is that they think “My faith isn’t strong enough” or “I’m not good enough” and blame themselves. It’s a self-hate spiral that this type of Christianity feeds on.

You are a sinner. God will help you. God didn’t help you? Well it’s obviously because you are a sinner. God will help you. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

I was able to get out. Many of my friends are still there. I see this every single day.
- RobDobbs
  
  Well… clearly your faith wasn’t strong enough.
phisrow

Dear Children,

You can pray your dead animals back to life, just like Jesus!

And if it doesn’t work, fluffy is dead because you are a bad, bad, Christian. Why, it’s almost like you killed fluffy, and you make baby Jesus cry.
- MadMolecule
  
  I’m glad I saw your comment before I posted, because I was typing almost the exact same thing, even down to calling the pet “Fluffy.”
  - agthorn
    
    Well duh, all hypothetical pets are named Fluffy or Rover.
    - phisrow
      
      Except in Phil101, where are men are “Socrates” and all animals are “Bucephalus”…
      - zombienietzsche
        
        ILL NAME A CITY AFTER A HORSE IF I WANT TO!
robjmiller

So, are these kids to infer that if they are unable to bring their pets back to life that there is something deeply wrong with them?

I have to agree.
- geolith
  
  Once the kids get the message that failure is proof of a defect in their belief or other personal failings, the trick would be to get them to ask the teacher to demonstrate how it should be done.
  
  Wonder if the good reverend has any pets?…
http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/ Deidzoeb

Is she teaching them how to create zombies, or be zombies? (Say BE ZOMBIES.)
Warren_Terra

Didn’t work out so hot last time it was tried.
pyster

christians btw give me the willies.
Telegram Sam

ToYNbEE IDeA in KuBriCK’s 2001: ReSuRRecT DeAd PeTS on PlaNeT JuPiTeR.
http://www.facebook.com/nickgold2012 Nick Gold

Anybody know where this was taking place? It strikes me that a lot/most of the children appear to be, how should I put this, not very WASPy? I wonder if an element of this is taking advantage of immigrant families.
Tribune

Title of video is Jesus Camp Singapore Part1. So my guess is Singapore. Then again I have not watched it yet sooo maybe Singapore is some christian slang for raising the dead.
phisrow

Incidentally, for those not familiar with this Becky Fischer’s, er, previous work:

The (rather disturbing) film “Jesus Camp” is a documentary about the summer camp she used to run where our wee little warriors for Jesus could come to be trained. It’s not a “madrassa” of course, because that isn’t an english word…
http://freedocumentaries.org/int.php?filmID=226
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  It’s not a “madrassa” of course, because that isn’t an english word…
  
  I’m surprised that they’re still using ‘camp’ with it’s connotations of feather boas and sloppy Piaf karaoke.
http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/ Deidzoeb

Is it possible she’s going so far over the top, she’s kind of innoculating them against supernatural claims? They’ll all go home and try to resurrect Fido and Gramma, or fail at recreating the other miracles of Jesus like she said they could do, and they’ll have personal experience of authoritative Christians lying or being proven wrong about supernatural claims. I know that a lot of people will continue to believe claims in spite of seeing them proven wrong, but kids figure out the myth of Santa and the Tooth Fairy.
gijoel

Why does this sound like the plot to a Steven King novel?

Or the plot to the next Laundry novel. Apparently a televangelist gains the power to perform miracles. And we all know who the one true god is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Stross#The_.22Bob_Howard_.E2.80.94_Laundry.22_series
JenAdkins

Well we can laugh at it all we want but the reality is people are going to continue to suffer and die (and NOT be brought back to life) unless we start actively condemning such behavior. This is the same lady from Jesus Camp. She’s training these poor innocent children to be jihadists for christianity. She is a genuine terrorist, but because she’s a christian, we ignore it. That needs to change.
- RobDobbs
  
  You can’t be a Jihadist for Christianity, just Islam. I think you mean to say “crusader” perhaps.
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Oliver-Schmieding/100000452523362 Oliver Schmieding
    
    i like to use the two terms somewhat interchangeable, but generally: if there’s competition, e.g. at the breakfast table, then i’m on a jihad for the last pizza bun – if there are chores involved (like driving to the next walmart) then i’m on a crusade for a salad.
    
    using these abominable words in their intended serious context is sth i would never do -
    instead i refer to ppl engaging in “holy” wars as assholes, regardless of their belief system.
http://weblogwithnoname.blogspot.com/ Chris Tucker GOP Delenda Est!

Science is a religion in exactly the same way that not collecting stamps is a hobby.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Science is a religion in exactly the same way that not collecting stamps is a hobby.
  
  If you could cite the times that anyone has told you that they don’t collect stamps, you might have a valid metaphor.
  - phisrow
    
    I suspect that, in a society where politicians pontificated about the joy of their first discoveries in philately, and those without stamp collections were seen as being rather socially deviant, potentially even immoral, non-stamp-collectors(those who weren’t keeping their mouths shut) might, in fact, mention that fact…
    - Mister44
      
      If more people collected stamps, we would see more pontificated about the joy of their first discoveries in Philately,
      
      Stamp collecting rocks is one of the sure fire ways to get to Helvetia.
- Smoakes
  
  and the same way that bald is a hair color
wylkyn

While I’m sure many “real” Christians wince at this kind of thing, what they don’t get is that this is how I see every religion.
- JakeHamilton
  
  Really? I think plenty of them know that very well, in much the same way that most ordinary Muslims know very well that tens of millions of Americans are incapable and/or unwilling to distinguish between them and violent jihadists.
  
  Was your comment supposed to be clever or something? Personally, my distaste at your lazy, prejudicial generalization about the majority of the human population is only exacerbated by the evident pride you take in smugly broadcasting it.
  
  Grow up, and try doing some thinking that isn’t crippled by adolescent self-congratulation.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JOFGTXJNVJOV2HSH6XRG5DAMXQ r

Didn’t Bart and Lisa do that in a Simpsons Halloween episode?
Humancentric

WTF Singaporean parents?
http://www.ithompson.com ycleptShawn

This clip made me physically ill. I just don’t understand. Why oh why would you tell kids they can raise someone from the dead? I mean, if religion has a place in our world, isn’t a part of that role giving comfort to people left behind when a loved one leaves this material world? I mean, I haven’t found it to be so, but I understand others do. Doesn’t this preacher’s teaching just lead to more frustration and sadness?

I don’t even understand how this whole surreal scene benefits the preacher. Then again, “Learn how to raise your loved ones from the dead” is indeed a catchy title for a breakout session.
erin jones

Becky Fischer was featured in Jesus Camp, which is essential viewing to understand the evangelical whackos who are indoctrinating the next generation of home-schooled voters/politicians.

I’ve read interviews with her and she’s extremely scary because she is not stupid like many of her brethren. In fact, she’s pretty damn sharp. She understands rhetoric and uses it effectively.

She’s great at re-shaping questions about her position on LGBT people. IIRC, she takes the “hate the sin, love the sinner” and “Pray Away the Gay” positions, but places emphasis on how many gay friends she has and how many she’s helped Pray Away the Gay to their ever-lasting joy and relief.

But she admits right off the bat that it might sound crazy to some gay people. She’s very good at reaching out to non-evangelicals and speaking like a non-crazed person.

In contrast to, say, Michele Bachmann, Becky is very comfortable talking about gays: how much she loves them, how much they respect her, how much she’s helped them find a loving place in society, and why they can’t and shouldn’t have equal rights as American citizens.

And she makes it sound all so very logical and compassionate. She’s a smart one, our Becky. If she had a wider reach, I’d consider her extremely dangerous, and not just garden-variety dangerous as demonstrated by this video. This is her gig and she takes it all around the world.

She also sets off my gaydar like an Indigo Girls concert at Dinah Shore, but that’s neither here nor there.
- Mister44
  
  re: “…who are indoctrinating the next generation of home-schooled voters/politicians.”
  
  Not everyone who home schools are religious wackos, or as I like to call them, the “denim skirt” crowd.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

Becky should be invited to the next Erotic Furry Rubdown Video shoot to work her healing magic.
Antinous / Moderator

Teaching them to raise the dead is still not as bad as teaching them to lay low the living, which unfortunately works quite well.
Palomino

Why are there so many Asians there? It looks like at least 80% Is it Asian day? Is she so popular they have different days for different ethnicity’s and races? She caters? Those automatons in green t-shirts hovering over the kids scare the hell out of me.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Why are there so many Asians there?
  
  What part of ‘Singapore’ are you unclear on?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Aima-Littetipot/100002324462052 Aima Littetipot

Just for fun, let Pyster have his way. Let’s play his game and say that science is a religion. So, what’s the difference between the religion of science and the other religions? The science of religion is willing to prove itself wrong. And yours, Pyster?
unklstuart

Child abuse, which is what I thought of the JC movie too.
http://twitter.com/bigbadchang Chang Terhune

But I thought only Jesus could do that.
Guest

How do you come up with she is a Pentecostal minister, her about page
says nothing of the kind. Furthermore I can’t find any evidence of her
being a member of the UPCI (The United Pentecostal Church
International).
SiliconSpin

People like her make me ashamed to be Pentecostal.
- deadbot
  
  SiliconSpin, I have an honest-to-goodness question: Isn’t this what Pentecostals are all about? If not raising the dead, then at least speaking-in-tongues, healing, casting-out demons and what-not. I was raised Pentecostal and was basically taught that if you didn’t believe all the bat-shit crazy stuff, you might as well be Baptist (and hope to hell you make it into heaven).
  - Mister44
    
    re: “I was raised Pentecostal and was basically taught that if you didn’t
    believe all the bat-shit crazy stuff, you might as well be Baptist (and
    hope to hell you make it into heaven).”
    
    That has to be the funniest thing I heard all week. LOL. It’s sad/funny. The number of arguments I have had with Baptists about a myriad number of things (such as evolution) has lead me to believe a lot of them are bat shit insane.
    
    Still – it’s annoying this is the face of Christianity when a vast majority of Christians would say this women is bullshit.
Bobsyeruncle

It’s funny how God doesn’t even give her the energy to stand while she’s spinning her nonsense to her audience. :(
Ben Burger

What a awful person, how could she say that to kids, if I was that old I would’ve believed that, false hope is terrible! When I was little I prayed for my parents to be alright everyday, and I really believed that they would be. When I was 6 years old my dad died because he had a birth defect that affected his heart. I can’t even remember what his voice sounds like anymore. Religion is totally crap, I can’t understand why any adult believes in it.
ffij

Let’s get back to the video, from about 01:35 to 01:50, I think we missed something important:

“Lay your hands on her tummy. And I want you to get serious. Are you serious right now? Okay, here’s what you’re going to say…”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RtphGqbY8s
This is serious.
adonai

Eh, I think she’s just really pumped to play the necromancer in Diablo 3.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Oliver-Schmieding/100000452523362 Oliver Schmieding

don’t make fun of her warm-up routine; with this shtick she’ll be running for president next year for sure.
Barry Smyth

I think its incredibly sad that people like Becker Fischer or people like her are allowed anywhere near children, or that other supposed sane adults allowed their own children to attend this travesty. I mean seriously people ….. there’s absolutely nothing right about this ….. not even in the slightest.