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Kindergarten of Christ
November 18, 2006
The American evangelical
organisation Kids in Ministry trains children as young as five in
the gifts of healing, prophecy and speaking in tongues. Mick Brown
attended its Extreme Prophetic Conference in Missouri
Audio: interview with Mick Brown
Sound & vision: Christ camp
Click here
for Jesus Camp, Main Page
At 9pm – a time when
most of the children might have been expected to be in bed – the
atmosphere in the Christ Triumphant Church was approaching
fever-pitch. On stage, a teenage Christian rock band called Signs
and Wonders was playing something sweet and exultantly hypnotic.
Some of the children
were dancing, their bodies writhing and twisting, their arms
flailing in the air, perspiration on their foreheads. Some had
fallen to the ground, 'slain in the spirit', as the phrase has it,
and were now crouching and kneeling in prayer, while the grown-ups
moved among them laying on hands, some speaking in tongues.
Ruth, who is eight
years old, was sobbing quietly. Earlier that day she had been one of
those to come forward during the 'prophetic dance' session, when
Pastor Becky Fischer asked if anybody had heard the word of God and
had something to impart.
Ruth had stood up
and addressed the gathering of perhaps 150 children and half as many
adults, seated in neat, attentive rows: 'Is there a boy in here
named Alex, and a girl in here named Abi?' Two children had risen in
different parts of the room.
Ruth had addressed
each of them in a clear, unwavering voice. 'I saw, like, Abigail was
going to bring people back to Jesus in China. And you, Alex, I saw
that you were going to be a missionary in India.'
Afterwards, I had
asked Ruth what made her say these things. 'When I was dancing,' she
said, 'I just heard "Abigail and Alex, Abigail and Alex" come into
my mind. And then a voice told me they were going to be
missionaries.' She had never met Abigail and Alex before.
And where did she
think the voice came from? Ruth looked at me, as if to say, isn't it
obvious? 'God,' she said.
The numberplates on
the cars and camper-vans parked outside the Christ Triumphant Church
in Lee's Summit, Missouri, suggested that some families had
travelled hundreds of miles to attend what was billed as 'The
Extreme Prophetic Conference for Kids'.
The event was hosted
by an evangelical organisation called Kids in Ministry, founded by
Pastor Fischer. Kids in Ministry describes its aims as to promote a
vision of 'how God sees children as His partners in ministry
worldwide'; with the purpose of equipping children 'to do the work
of ministry and release them in their giftings and callings'.
What this means, in
simple terms, is training child-ren, some as young as five, to use
the 'gifts' of healing, prophecy and speaking in tongues more
commonly associated with Old Testament prophets and Jesus Christ
Himself.
It is estimated that
there are up to 70 million evangelical Christians in America, of
whom about a third would describe themselves as Charismatics – which
is to say, emphasising a belief in 'charismata', or the supernatural
gifts of the Holy Spirit, including healing, speaking in tongues (or
glossolalia, as it is more properly known) and a belief in prophecy,
the ability to communicate directly with and to 'channel' the word
of God.
A heavy-set woman
with a helmet of teased and tinted blond hair, and a cheerfully
purposeful demeanour, Fischer, 55, grew up in a Pentacostalist
family in North Dakota. Both her father and grandfather were
ministers and as a child, she told me, she was always 'hungry for
the things of God'.
Her early life was
spent in business. She managed a motel and a country music radio
station, where she would do her best to 'weed out the really ungodly
songs, even if they were top 40. Things like Tight Fittin' Jeans by
Conway Twitty – we wouldn't play that.'
For 13 years she
managed her own sign company, called – inevitably – Signs and
Wonders. At the same time she began working in children's ministry,
first in a local church, and then in an organisation called
MorningStar. It was there, Fischer told me, that she 'really got
educated in the prophetic', and in the mission of nurturing
'prophetic gifts' among children. She travelled to Tanzania and
South Africa as a missionary, and in 2001 returned to North Dakota
and founded Kids in Ministry.
Central to the
evangelical movement is a literal belief in the prophecies of the
Book of Revelation pertaining to the apocalypse, or 'End Time', and
the Second Coming of Christ. This, it is believed, will be heralded
by chaos and warfare, but also by a proliferation of signs and
wonders and the emergence of a new generation of prophets and
apostles, heralding a great Christian revival.
Children, Fischer
told me, are 'part of God's End Time army', as capable as adults of
operating in the 'gifts of the Spirit', including preaching the
Gospel, laying hands on the sick, raising the dead and speaking in
tongues.
She cited the
biblical book Acts, 2:17: 'In my last days I will pour out my spirit
and your sons and daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see
visions, your old men shall see dreams.'
Fischer allowed that
not many people took this to apply to children as young as five. But
children, she said, are 'naturally in touch with the supernatural.
You have to remember this is a relatively new phenomenon.
 "When
people start hearing that children are prophesying and preaching
they get goosebumps. But this is happening across the face of the
earth. I've got a friend in Tanzania who runs a school where
children are healing the sick and casting out devils.'
There was not, it
has to be said, much evidence of healing the sick or casting out
devils to be seen at Christ Triumphant, but what was on display was
remarkable enough. Over the course of three days, the conference
offered a series of structured courses in 'prophetic art' ('reveals
the truth of God'), 'prophetic dance' ('You're dancing with the
Lord…') and 'prophetic music' – all designed to channel messages
from God.
The climax of each
session would be the moment when Fischer would ask children to come
forward to prophesy. There was always a sense of anticipation when
this occurred. On the first night, a dozen or so children stepped
forward.
'You in the green
shirt…' A boy of about 10 with a crew-cut pointed to a middle-aged
woman in the audience. 'God told me that at some time you've been
broken, and you've never really got over it. But God says He's going
to build you back up, and don't think about your past, think about
your future.' The woman called back, 'Right on!'
Then a boy named
Levi spoke. 'God told me there's someone here and your hands are
really on fire. God has something for you. Your hands are really
hot, sweating almost.'
A young girl raised
her hand. 'Hey, Chelsea!' Levi said. 'God just told me there's heat
in your hands, and if you just keep studying the word and chasing
after God, every day there's going to be heat in your hands, and
every time you touch somebody they will be healed.' There was a
round of whoops, yeahs and applause.
'You are not a
normal generation,' Fischer told the congregation. 'When they say
history-maker, that is you. And our enemy, who is also God's enemy,
is going to do anything he can to destroy the plan that God has for
your life; he is going to try to destroy you. And if you don't make
the decision to serve God, it'll be too late.'
Becky Fischer's
mission has not passed without controversy. Shortly before my visit
to the Extreme Prophetic Conference, a documentary about her work
called Jesus Camp had received its first screening at the Tribeca
Film Festival in New York.
The film follows the
course of a 'Kids on Fire' summer camp organised by Kids in
Ministry. It shows children praying in front of a cardboard cut-out
of George Bush, and at one point Fischer seems to equate the
preparation she is giving her young charges with the training of
Islamist terrorists.
'I want to see young
people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as young
people are to the cause of Islam,' she says. 'I want to see them
radically laying down their lives for the gospel.'
These pronouncements
had led to allegations that Fischer was brainwashing children and
'raising up an army of Christian terrorists'. When I raised this
with Fischer, she insisted she had been misinterpreted. The children
were not praying to Bush, she told me, but praying for him – as they
would for whoever happened to be President. The talk of 'raising an
army for Christ' and of children 'laying down their lives' was
merely metaphor, of the sort commonly found in scripture.
To her congregation
at least, she remained defiant. 'We've got the liberals quite
stirred up,' she announced one morning, to loud cheers. 'Some people
think I'm a nut and dangerous. Well, they ain't seen nothing yet.'
But it was evident,
too, that the criticisms had left their mark. There were no
cardboard cut-outs of Bush to be seen at the conference, and in the
course of one address Fischer went out of her way to emphasise that
the main weapon in the Christian 'armoury' was love.
'Islam wants to take
over the world, and so does Christianity. But we take it by love, by
compassion, We take it by tenderness.'
What Jesus Camp, and
the reaction to it, does show is just how divided America is on the
question of religion. But while liberal America perceives the
Christian right and its burgeoning political influence as a threat
to individual freedoms, reason and common sense, what I sensed among
the gathering at the Christ Triumphant was rather a defensiveness –
almost a sense of beleaguerment.
Like Christians in
Ancient Rome, they saw themselves as the victims if not exactly of
persecution then certainly of a 'conspiracy' by the media, Hollywood
and the forces of secular liberalism to attack and undermine their
faith.
'I've been accused
of brainwashing these children,' Fischer said, 'but they're
brainwashing our kids 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can't
turn on TV without seeing witchcraft, perversion, homosexuality,
jumping in and out of bed with anybody and everybody. It might be
common behaviour, but it's not normal.' You want to screw up a kid's
life, Fischer said, send them to university. 'They'll turn his head
so inside out and upside down he won't even know which end he's
supposed to wipe.'
The next morning,
there was an appearance by a guest speaker named Stacey Campbell,
well-known in Charismatic circles for her work with children.
A small, energetic
woman in her forties, she began by asking for the Lord's
intervention over the matter of the pornographer Larry Flynt opening
a Hustler boutique in Nashville – 'Because if he can take Nashville,
he can take America…'
I wondered how many
of the eight-year-olds in the congregation had heard of Larry Flynt
or knew what pornography was.
'There is a living
Devil, and he is after your generation,' Campbell went on,
recounting a story about seven-year-olds being sold into
prostitution in Thailand. 'The Devil knows about your generation. He
wants to steal from you and kill you. But God knows about you, too.'
Then she called a
boy named Jordan to the stage and told him that she had been praying
for him and had had a vision that he would become 'a leader for his
generation. I could see you standing in front of crowds of people
and leading many, many to righteousness.' The audience whooped their
approval, as Jordan blushed and returned to his seat.
At the end of her
talk there was a prayer session. Campbell knelt beside a young girl
who was praying with her eyes tightly closed, and whispered in her
ear. 'I see that God is going to start talking to you in dreams.'
She moved to another
child. 'Nolan,' she asked him, 'do you ever hear God talk to you?' A
mixture of confusion and alarm flickered in Nolan's eyes until, at
length, he shook his head. 'No.'
That afternoon, the
children divided into groups for lessons in 'prophetic' painting,
music and dance. The dance class was conducted in the main hall by
Carol Koch, one of the pastors of Christ Triumphant, and afterwards
people began to gather there for Fischer's talk on interpreting
prophetic symbols and colours.
They were greeted by
the sight of a small child lying on the floor, twitching and
groaning. It was Ruth, the eight-year-old whom I had noticed
prophesying the day before.
'Don't worry about
her,' Fischer said. 'They had a really sweet moment in the dance
class today and she was touched by God.'
She carefully
stepped around the prostrate body and attempted to press on with her
talk, then gestured to Koch. 'She's kind of distracting.' Ruth's
father came out of the audience, picked up his child and carried her
off to a side room.
Fischer was talking
about interpreting prophetic visions of animals. Bat: witchcraft –
bad. Beaver: industrious, diligent – good. The children were told to
'let God speak to you', and then invited to give prophecy. Ruth had
apparently recovered and now came forward and pointed to another
girl in the audience: 'I saw a deer, lying down. I think it means
you're nice and loyal.'
A boy of about nine
stepped off the stage and walked directly to a girl in the audience
and pointed at her: 'God has told me that if you keep on praying
every day, you will blow people's brains out.' There was a moment's
hesitation – could he mean? No, surely not – and then a thunderous
round of applause.
The more I watched
the children giving prophecy, the more I wondered about what it
could mean. Some of the messages seemed unerring in their
specificity; some so vague they could have meant anything, to
anybody; and some, simply the first things that came into the
children's heads. For Fischer and Koch it was 'the word of God'.
Others might have
called it simply intuition, or perhaps, if you had a mind for such
things, the cultivation of nascent clairvoyant gifts.
Others still, of
course, would have dismissed the pronouncements as figments of the
imagination, the fruits of expectation placed on the children by
what psychologists would call the 'set and setting' – the music, the
prayers, the emotional catharsis, the dangling carrot of approval
and applause when a message or pronouncement seemed to hit home.
Koch was alive to
the possibility that some of the children at least might have been
simply making it up. 'You'll get a few, when they share something,
they're saying it to get attention,' she told me, 'because they do
get a lot of attention when they say something; people are… wow!
But one thing I like
about kids is that, for the most part, their response is genuine. I
always tell them, you don't have to say anything, and don't say ever
anything that's not true. I tell my own daughter, I'm more proud of
you for not giving prophecy when you don't feel anything, than when
you give one because you feel like you have to.'
These were early
days, Fischer said. Eighty per cent of children's prophecy was
comprised of what I had been watching unfold over the last two days:
messages of comfort, inspiration and uplift. 'But if these children
continue this as they grow into their twenties and thirties, they
will begin to prophesy at very high levels.
At that point they
will prophesy national events, international events, things for
their church, speaking to political issues. I know of people who are
known among prophetic circles for their accuracy in prophecy for
world events who have private audiences with the President.'
For some reason, I
did not find this reassuring.
On her website,
Fischer publishes what she claims is prophecy from children,
speaking spontaneously during prayer at a church in Tulsa, Oklahama,
in 1998, supposedly foretelling the events of September 11, 2001, a
full three years before they occurred.
One example reads:
'Islamic group, the chief guy in the Islamic group of terrorist, not
pacifists but destroyers, CIA reveal, Islamic group, blinders
remove, CIA, you see, reveal, borders, border patrols, Canada,
raids, search, all USA borders, patrol, search, get ready, see,
reveal, American 757/767, get off, back to the gate, you're
grounded… Sadaam, underground in Babylon, blueprints, drawings,
plans, plagues, viruses, God disgusted by terrorists, but His Hands
are tied, it's up to us to pray, wake up from your slumber, you'll
be held accountable…'
Even more unsettling
to the outsider was the mood of high emotion in which the prayer
sessions invariably ended – the weeping and sobbing, the young
bodies littering the floor, 'slain in the spirit', the mood of
abandon and catharsis.
When I asked one
young girl why she had been crying she replied that it was 'because
I was happy to be in the presence of God'. And what did it feel
like, I asked, to be in the presence of God? 'It feels awesome,' she
said. 'God,' a boy standing next to her said, 'is so powerful it's
hard not to cry.'
Kids in Ministry has
outreach programmes in Africa and India, but not yet in Britain.
However, the idea of instructing children 'in the prophetic' has a
growing currency among the Charismatic community in this country.
Heather Thompson is
the director of Powerpack Ministries, which produces teaching
resources and advises Charismatic churches on ministering to
children, and runs child-ren's groups at large evangelical events
such as Spring Harvest and Faith Camp.
'We are seeing
children filled with the Holy Spirit, praying for one another, and
giving word of knowledge,' Thompson told me. 'We wouldn't feel we'd
done a good job unless we were seeing these things happening.'
Graham Richardson,
an associate pastor at the Hemel Hempstead Community Church in
Hertfordshire, told me that children among his congregation were
encouraged to talk about any prophetic experiences they might feel
during prayers.
'To me, it's what I
call low-key prophecy. It's encouragement, edification. But we
believe that children have just as much access to hear from the Lord
as we do.'
The Rev Chris Hand
is an authority on the Charismatic movement. The pastor of a Baptist
church in Derbyshire and editor of the Christian magazine Today's
Contender, Hand is a former Charismatic who left the movement some
12 years ago, unable to find any Biblical justification for its
prophetic claims.
'My feeling is these
things are not from God,' he told me. 'It's more the grey area of
psychic activity that the Bible calls mediumship and forbids.'
The emotional
hysteria generated in Charismatic gatherings was also, Hand told me,
'alien to the Christian faith'; and, he thought, 'particularly
questionable and at times dangerous' where children were involved.
'These kinds of experiences have immense potential to deceive both
the children themselves and the adults who encourage them. For most
of these children, they'll look back in 10 years' time and wonder
what on earth it was all about.'
Hand is the father
of two children, aged five and eight, whom he is trying to raise in
the Christian faith, he told me, 'and I would not let them come
within a million miles of Kids in Ministry'.
I had recognised
Levi from the Jesus Camp film and was not surprised to see him at
Lee's Summit. Tall, skinny and bright-eyed, he wore his hair cropped
with a long ponytail at the back. Every T-shirt he wore was branded
with the name of Jesus. Of all the children, Levi had a particular
air of maturity and authority.
Whenever Fischer
called for those who had the word of God upon them, Levi would be
among the first to step forward – a preacher in the making, with a
commanding style of address that made people sit up and pay
attention. Earlier that day, Levi had taken to the stage with the
message that God had told him there were people here who were,
'like, really depressed, and God said be released today! When you go
home, it'll be different! You'll be getting phone calls from family
members telling you they're sorry, and your life is going to be
changed! Your financial problems are going to be released… Stand up
if that's you!'
A number of people
rose from their seats, their hands in the air.
'Pray over them,
Levi!' Fischer called.
Levi's voice rose in
an excited incantation. 'I release this on them, God, that the
oppression that Satan has put on them to keep them from your
calling, just take it off of them now. And when you get home
there'll be some phone calls on your answering-machines.'
Levi is 13, and had
come to the conference with his younger brother, Luke, and his
mother, Tracey. They were members of a Charismatic church in St
Robert, Missouri, which taught the prophetic.
Attending the
conference, Tracey said, was a way to encourage Luke and Levi in the
practice. 'And it's like an encouragement to them to see other
children doing this and realise it's not some weird fringe thing
that our church does, that it's a normal part of the culture.'
Levi, she told me,
was 'just an open vessel that God can work through. The spirit of
the Lord has found a home in him, I think.'
I asked Levi, how
did he hear the voice of God? God, he said, 'doesn't really speak to
me in a voice. I hear Him as a thought.'
And how did he know
it was God? 'Whenever a thought comes there are three things that
come at you. There's your own mind; then it might be Satan trying to
speak to you – because he doesn't want you to speak these things
from God. But you just know when it's God. You just get this great
feeling – like, yes! That's it!'
When he was 10, Levi
said, God had told him he was going to be a missionary in India.
'But you can't just go to India and say you want to be a missionary.
So I'm going to go there to be a doctor, and then through that I'm
going to tell the people about the Lord.' He planned to attend
college there. 'That way I can be there as quickly as possible.'
Like many of the
children at the conference, Levi and his brother were home-schooled.
In 2001 a US Census Bureau report stated that more than two million
children were home-schooled, the number rising at a rate of between
15 and 20 per cent a year. It is estimated that 75 per cent of them
are from evangelical families.
Tracey told me the
principal reason she and her husband home-schooled their children
was to be able to spend more time with them. It also gave them
control over the curriculum.
'We don't shy away
from any issues. We talk about abortion, homosexual issues, creation
versus evolution, the environment. We try and come at it from every
angle; some people believe that, but we believe this, and this is
why we believe it.'
The belief that God
created the world in six days was not simply an article of faith,
Tracey said. There were 'a lot of facts that supported the
creationist view. In fact Levi did a pretty good study on that, and
it really takes more faith to believe in evolution.'
The more time I
spent with Becky Fischer, the more I liked her. I disagreed with
almost everything she said, but I was in no doubt about her
sincerity and her commitment to the spiritual welfare of the
children.
She had never
married – she had never found a man 'that had a heart after God,
like I wanted. Also I had a very strong personality, and I don't
think men are attracted to that.' And so she had been denied the
blessing of family. 'God wants to keep us from marrying the wrong
person,' she said. 'And if I can raise a generation that will just
marry the right one, I'll have done my job.' I thought I understood
her better after that.
On my last day at
the church, she suggested that some of the children might prophesy
over the photographer, Evan, and me. She thought it might be more
appropriate to do this privately, rather than in front of the
congregation – a small mercy for which I, at least, was grateful.
We adjourned to a
side room with five children whom Fischer deemed the most gifted in
prophecy. Levi was among them.
After a short
prayer, the children closed their eyes, while Evan and I waited.
Then Levi spoke. 'This is for Mick. I saw a big star and it was
blue, and it was right here where your heart would be. The blue
means you're sensitive to things around you. I think the star means
you're shining a light on to things – you can sense it, and you're
shining it out. And that's probably why you're a reporter.'
It would be
unbecoming of me to find this uncannily accurate.
Then Rachel spoke.
She was about 11, the very picture of sweet innocence. 'This is for
you.' She looked me in the eye. 'I saw you as a shark.'
A shark? 'Like,
someone who knows what they want and goes for it.' Fischer attempted
to pour balm: 'So positive, certain in his aims.'
Levi had messages
for Evan – more specific things about crossroads and choices of
direction that Evan said were 'spot-on'. Then Rachel said she had
another vision for both of us. She saw us as mice being approached
by a snake, that was Satan, and having to make a choice about which
way to run. I was still thinking about being a shark. But sharks are
God's creatures too, aren't they?
That night was the
last of the conference, and the children were once again invited on
stage. Chelsea, aged about 12, and wearing a T-shirt saying perfect
angel, stood up.
'I had a vision
about everybody here, and I saw them dressed as angels in white
robes going up to heaven and having a party.' And what do you think
that means, Fischer asked. 'I think it means that everybody here is
going to heaven to have a party.' There was tumultuous applause.
The band started to
play – something sweet and uplifting – and all the children rose
from their seats, came forward and started to dance. Almost
imperceptibly, the mood had changed, as if some un-spoken permission
had been given for abandon. Around me, people began to moan and pray
and speak in tongues. Adults moved among the children, laying on
hands.
Then the music
changed, to something anthemic, tribal. 'We dance! We shout! We lift
up our voices and His kingdom comes down…'
Someone produced
drums, congas, tambourines. Fischer's voice rose above the tumult.
'Stomp on the Devil's head! Stomp on the Devil's head! Tread on
scorpions!'
The children began
to stamp their feet, flinging themselves up and down, screaming to
the heavens in a frenzied intoxication of the senses, until there
was just the drums, the screaming and sobbing, and Fischer's voice,
shouting like a woman possessed. 'Sound the alarm! Sound the alarm!'
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