Media Insight Series: Jurassic World—Camp Cretaceous

Slowly, over the last decade, an alarm began to sound, quietly at first and then in an unignorable fashion. It began with conversations about what bathrooms certain people could use, and it continued into a conversation about whether boys could play on girls’ teams in sports. These conversations seemed isolated at first. Then, our children came home speaking a different language. Words were being given new meanings, and basic truths were being challenged. What is a boy? What is a girl? What is true? Unfortunately, the shelter offered from a rural upbringing no longer protects our children from the secularism that is more prominent in highly urbanized and settled areas. In the information age, those ideas that radicalize the students at Berkley, Harvard, and Yale are at the fingertips of your twelve-year-old. I know I ran into this during my tenure as a youth director. It is shocking to have conversations about gender theory, Marxism, and atheism with those so young.

At a time when fertility rates are at an all-time low, the goal of the secular world isn’t to make more children but instead to steal yours. No, they aren’t going to kick your door down and take your son or daughter by force(yet), but rather through a more subtle approach. They want their hearts and minds, and with modern technology, they have easy access to our children’s eyes and ears. This isn’t new and these same people have been doing this for a long time. They are instilling values and confusing the youth of the church with ideas that conflict with what they have been taught all their life. The result is a confused teen in a confused world. Where did this come from and what can we do about it?

For years, the content that we have consumed has had a pattern. Whether it was books that were being read or shows being watched, it was obvious that a particular agenda was being aggressively shoved down our metaphoric throats. These ideas challenged what the Church has held as the standard for millennia. It was an attack on the family unit targeting the most vulnerable element of that unit the Children. This “conspiracy theory” can easily be verified by looking at the leaked Disney corporate videos where the producers were bragging about their not-so-secret “gay” agenda. Now more than ever, we must wake up and address this alarm. We have hit the snooze button for a long enough time.

There was once a time when children could sit in front of a TV or pick up a book from the school library without worrying about the content’s appropriateness. Children’s content was uncontroversial, wholesome even. Those days of a bygone era, and the complacent parent will find their children exposed to a myriad of potentially dangerous content. It is our responsibility to protect and prepare our children for a world that they will inherit, and so today, special attention is required to navigate a minefield of anti-Christian material.

Growing up, I was a great lover of all things fiction. Authors such as Lewis and Tolkien won a special place in my heart with their great literary works that were grounded in a Christian worldview. As a father, I now see the category of children’s content from a different perspective. Looking back, I have experienced many books and shows that targeted children and, for the most part, were harmless imaginative journeys that are safe to be enjoyed by an age-appropriate audience; however, in hindsight, some of this content should be approached with some caution, especially in light of the LGBT movement which has lobbyist desiring to normalize activities that Christians are taught to abstain from. A common tactic of many of these shows and books is slowly easing the audience into these controversial topics.

Camp Cretaceous is a great example of this very tactic. Camp Cretaceous is a Jurassic Park spin-off on Netflix that was made for younger audiences. This might sound a little strange because the typical Jurassic Park movie is not known for its focus on child audiences. Still, this strange combination does a wonderful job balancing themes of suspense and fear all the while keeping the show kid-friendly in the violence category. The show lacks strong language and does a good job with conflict and drama. All in all, the show managed to capture the feel of Jurassic Park in a way that wouldn’t lead to nightmares for the young viewers. The young campers band together and overcome their foibles to survive against all odds. One minor critique of the early season of the show was that it portrayed the adults as incompetent, corrupt, or absent. This is a common pattern in modern television, most commonly embodied by the father in family sitcoms or animated comedies such as The Simpsons or Family Guy. This cliché was present to a lesser degree in Camp Cretaceous and, for the most part, was my main issue—at least until season five.

After four seasons of building these very relatable character arcs and a relatively exciting plot, Camp Cretaceous introduced sexuality into the show in the form of a same-sex relationship between girls who were nothing but friends previously. Tucked away in the final episodes of the final season of this show was the highly controversial content. Romance had not been a theme for most of the show, neither in the form of the adults or the children on the island; however, in this season, that was no longer the case, and budding romances were, apparently, a new element they wished to add at the very end.

A parent who did their due diligence by watching the show’s first few episodes would have no clue that this was coming. They would have seen what I did. It was a charming and well-put-together show based on a cherished IP that seemed family-friendly. This is only one of many such experiences that I have seen with modern novels and shows. If these methods are going to be used to indoctrinate the Children of the Church, then it will take another level of vigilance to combat such tactics. That is one of the reasons why I am writing this. Each article will review a different series and give important insight that Christian parents will find relevant.

Ultimately, it will be up to the parent to determine what content their children can or cannot consume. The goal of Media Insight Series is not to create a list of rejections or endorsements but to inform the reader so that they will have the tools necessary to make those decisions themselves. I hope you enjoy this knowledge and look forward to the next entry as I read, watch, and review children’s content so that your kids don’t have to.

James Wiggins is a University of Mount Olive graduate with a BS in Religion. Originally from La Grange, NC, James resides in Winterville, NC with his family. With more than five years of experience in youth ministry, this father of two wants to prepare the next generation and their parents for the spiritual challenges ahead.