If you prefer to listen, here’s the audio version of this week’s Ex Voto essay.
This essay connects three moments separated by nearly two decades—a 2006 documentary called Jesus Camp, a children’s Civil War reenactment I fought in my own community, and this summer’s disturbing Vacation Bible School skit in Kentucky—to explore how adults shape children’s moral imaginations through stories of violence, warfare, and death.
If you’d like to read the essay instead (or share it with someone), you can find the full text here:
📖 Read the essay: Link
For those listening to the audio, I’ve also included below the two videos discussed in the essay: the Vacation Bible School “Commandos for Christ” skit from Mt. Olivet Baptist Church and Pastor DeWayne Walker’s response to the controversy. They’re embedded in the written version as well, but I wanted to make them easy to access here, too.
Thank you, as always, for reading, listening, and sharing Ex Voto. I’m grateful you’re here.
