Review – Deborah 13: Servant of God
Last night’s, ‘Deborah 13: Servant of God’ was a very strange and disturbing film about a “devout evangelical teenager” which began with a commentary that revealed just how ’sheltered’ Deborah and her siblings are from the world.
For instance, Deborah had no clue who Victoria Beckham was and she very courteously asked what Britney’s surname was…
And what began as a nice chat with this innocent and uber-sheltered teenager soon became a very freaky exchange of ‘words’ with the director of the film who she accused of being, “a lying, thieving blasphemer” who was undoubtedly damned to an eternity in hell. Yikes….
Deborah was home-schooled in Dorset on a remote farm and therefore has had little contact with other kids her age – or other kids, period – and maybe that in itself isn’t the worst thing in the world – after all, many kids go horribly wrong due entirely to peer pressure – and not knowing who Posh Spice is likewise isn’t going to affect her adversely, but what I think does and will is her lack of knowledge about anything that doesn’t directly relate to her, her family and her all encompassing, non-questioning ‘faith’.
One of the most awkward – but I have to admit slightly amusing moments – of the film was when Deborah went on a night out with her brother in Buxton in Derbyshire and a drunken girl staggered up to them and asked, “Does someone want to write on my boobs?”
The sheer horror and incredulity she experienced was indicative of Deborah’s isolation – and total ignorance of – the world at large. She was literally a fish out of water.
Deborah is “a fundamentalist Christian” and Linda Bruscasco’s film explained that she is one of ten children born to parents who don’t offer choices, don’t allow freedom of speech even and certainly don’t offer anything to their children other than their own incredibly narrow and strict religious beliefs.
When these kids were shown a copy of ‘Closer’ magazine, you would have thought they were in fact being shown footage of life on another planet… in fact, I’m very surprised that their parents allowed this film to be made at all, given that it exposed their children to the very things they’ve expended a huge amount of energy in ‘protecting’ them from.
This inordinate ‘protection’ has left Deborah incapable of seeing anything from any perspective other than her own and those of her family’s. She’s an intelligent and articulate young lady but she came across also as being positively arrogant in her view that the world should live as she and her family do and anything less than the total religious vigilance that they live by meant that those people were probably not worth bothering about.
For Deborah, lies are evil, no matter how ‘white’ they might be and she’s utterly convinced that anyone who is less than totally devoted to God in every word, action and deed is bound for hell. And she talked a lot about hell and the multitude of folks headed there with a one way ticket for things so innocuous, the majority of us wouldn’t even give them a second thought.
And not only is she personally fervently devout, she wants to make sure as many people as possible are too, so she takes the “word of God” out on to the apparently evil streets of Buxton and tries her best to turn hell-bound folk into God loving/fearing citizens such as herself and her family.
The trouble with this was, Deborah isn’t entirely versed in the art of selling and rather than approach her potential new devotees with words of endearment, she just plain insulted them and promised them a future that consisted of fire, brimstone and poking with devilish sticks… not the best way to convince a group of teenagers that drinking, smoking and wearing make-up isn’t the way to salvation.
Nonetheless, those who she subjected to these ‘tirades’ and ‘rants’ were consistently polite in the face of what I personally would’ve taken as an insult. However, I live in this area and the fact is, young people in Derbyshire are not the typical young people portrayed in soaps and the like; they’re actually extremely nice, decent people.
If an old lady fell down, they’d help her up instead of booting her in the head and nicking her purse, so from that point of view, Deborah’s lucky she lives in Buxton and not somewhere where violence and intolerance are commonplace.
Sadly, Deborah’s single minded determination and unbelievably restricted world view meant that she did not return the favour of their politeness, and in my opinion, was downright rude. Not that that bothered her in the slightest…
“I don’t mind offending someone if they’re saved for eternity,” she said. Well Deborah, I mind… I mind a great deal that you think in order to save someone’s ‘soul’ you have to be insulting and rude. If Christian fundamentalism demands such behaviour, shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.
However, none of this is Deborah’s fault and I don’t actually feel any animosity towards her personally; the fact is, it’s all she knows and it’s how she’s been raised. Bigotry, intolerance and an unforgiving doctrine seem to go hand in hand with any fanatical religion and no adjective I can come up with is more appropriate than ‘fanatical’ for this particular religion.
And as with similar fanatical fundamentalist religions, they try to get ‘em young, and to that end, the family often performs a “Bible-themed puppet show” at a local holiday camp.
“Puppets are useful” said Deborah’s Mum as she described how the use of them can put across otherwise incomprehensible points to little kids… such as how they’ll go to hell if they tell a white lie.
This explanation of the implementation of puppeteering didn’t go down well with one outraged mother however who, quite rightly in my opinion, was not chuffed that her kids had just been subjected to what amounted to zealous brainwashing via fluffy puppets.
So as the programme ended, I was again asking myself, “Why are these people allowing blaspheming camera wielding devil fodder into their lives?” and the answer I had to come up with was this – cold hard cash.
The acquisition of which – it would seem – is just tickety boo with their God… how convenient.
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Actually I liked the show. She doesnt know who victoria Beckham is shock horror she MUST be weird. Its like the producers of this show want every teenage girl to smoke, drink, wear makeup and care nothing more than what soap star is doing what. As a Derbyshire youthworker I constantly see the results of young people not having a clue who they are , if their parents love them (if they even have parents living with them,)constant pressure from school to succeed and with no parental boundaries. Deborah might not be a typical teen but she knows who she is and what she wants, she is confident in who she is and im sure without a doubt she knows she is loved.
Yes Ruth, she’s confident in who she is. She’s also intolerant of others, obsessed with death, and so certain she’s a “wicked” person who’s destined for hell that she burst into tears. She may get into less trouble than other teenagers her age, but you’d be hard pressed to argue that she’s happier.
I think you do have to remember that Deborah is only 13 years old – she is still a child. Obviously, she’s had a sheltered life, but most 13 year olds have some pretty wierd ideas, until life experience teaches them the lessons that books can’t teach.
I’m not sure if I would be happy about my own child being documented in this way – it seems very intrusive.
It has become very fashionable to sneer and criticise Christianity these days, which is a shame. I don’t really think it was a good idea for this young girl to be portrayed in this documentary at all. She is going to get a lot of criticism now, which she may not be able to cope with.
When I was 13, I believed that anyone who did not have long hair and jeans was an out of touch idiot. Young people don’t always see the wood for the trees – they are still growing and forming opinions, based on experience.
I hope people will cut this young lady some slack. She’s got a good heart, but she’s lacking patience with other people – what a common trait impatience is in young people – surely people would not want to pull her apart for that? As for her obsession about death – well, that’s typical teenager stuff – look at the Goth kids, and no-one bats an eyelid over them these days. 13 is about the age most kids start to think about deep stuff, like death, and the meaning of life.
Dear Amy, just a couple of points; You said that Deborah is intolerant of others. I assure you she is not. She clearly loves other people so much that she is willing to go to them, wherever they are to talk to them about Jesus. Why? because she doesn’t want them to waste their lives and be doomed for eternity. You may not believe in heaven and hell, but Jesus did and so do around a billion people world-wide. Deborah cares for others so much that she is willing to risk ridicule and social exclusion to bring a message of salvation to people who are heading for destruction. How calous would you have to be to know that someone was standing in the path of a truck and do nothing because you might offend them, surely there comes a point when you tackle them, no?
On the final point, Deborah was crying tears of sadness and joy, not at her own wretchedness but that her perfect God, Jesus Christ died in her place to save her from judgement. As we watched my wife and I cried with her. We know what it feels like to know God in that way too.
“Amazing grace, so sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”
Our prayer is that more people, young and old would be freed from their self-destructive, rebellious path and accept the hand of frindship from God, He loves us more than we know.
May He bless you richly,
Andrew Thompson
Im not sure he loves me at the moment!
Still, maybe im at the end of the line.
The worst aspect of Christian fundamentalism, apart from its division of the whole world into “sheep” and “goats”, is it’s appalling attitude towards the sciences.
Even if you have doubts about the theory of evolution as it currently stands, the geological and cosmological evidence for an ancient earth and universe is beyond dispute. One thing I have noticed about young-earth creationists is that they have no ability to distinguish between different scientific disciplines – if you don’t believe in a young earth you must be an atheistic evolutionist. To them, only evolutionists believe in a long earth history.
Someone, sometime will need to bring this to Deborah’s attention. The people she listens to, like Hovind and Ham, are frauds, who tell lies about science repeatedly and expect their listeners to accept their outrageous ideas, which have no shred of evidence to support them. There is plenty of evidence for the big bang!
i just scanned over this article, i didn’t want to waste time reading it as the author wasn’t objective and obviously has issues of their own to deal with. I just saw the Deborah doc and felt really inspired by such a young and passionate lady fighting for what she believes in. This is not often witnessed so its a breath of fresh air. We all fall into the trap of consumerism, celebrity culture etc…and anyone who thinks they are perfect is weird…we’ve all lied for a start cos we’re human! I think it’s cool that Deborah wants to save people from hell, what’s wrong with that? It’s going to hurt us to hear that we are rubbish, but we are, if you think you’re fabulous then your either Paris Hilton and you have a screw lose or you’ve got an ego issue. I admire humility in a person, Deborah didn’t put herself above anyone else, she knew she is just as bad.
THE RELIGOUS LITTLE FREAK.
the girl is obnoxious and to busy preaching or “WITNESSING” that she misses every opportunity to effect people. because she doesn’t allow herself to be accepted by anybody.
her parents are clearly nuts. undereducated uber-sheeple
however the strangest of the character in the show was her brother “im not going to dance to this song cause i disagree with it”
cue “i kissed a girl and i liked it”
tho to call him a character is a major stretch
how he managed to find roommates is a mystery to me
his reaction with his sister at the size of a shop seemed somewhat bizzare considering they shop in a supermarket back at home
unfortunately at the end of the film i felt nothing for the girl. or her family. they were just very unappealing and preachy
im on the side of the holiday camp mother
x
id be interested to see what theyre like in 7 years time
I agree with the point that what she was actually doing was out of kindness. Even if you believe she is deluded, from her perspective to warn people of danger is an act of kindness and to do nothing the opposite, no one would think that to tell a blind man he was walking towards a cliff edge was unkind.
The other thing to remember is that this has undoubtedly been edited in such a way that portrays her life as being indoctrinated with a belief system, lacking in joy, and that she is obsessed with telling people they are going to hell. I think she is quite an independent thinking young lady, and has a different approach to her brother, she seems to be very secure and enjoys life. I suspect that when she tells people they deserve to go to hell that she follows it with the complete gospel message that even though we deserve it, through Jesus Christ we can be saved, gospel stands for ‘good news’, but the BBC probably kindly cut that bit out. The BBC can no longer be seen as unbiased and wanting only the truth, remember all the controversy that has surrounded them and there editing that seemed to show the queen storming out of a sitting with a photographer when she was indeed going into it.
Very intelligent young lady,but yet to realise the lies of both Religion and the real world
intelligant she jut belivs in stupid god weirdo
It’s the world that lies to us, we’re told that wealth and fame are something to aspire to and then you see what it does to people with examples like Britney Spears, and Amy Winehouse, we’re told that marriage is an out of date institution and pre marital sex is OK and then we see the break down of family, respect for authority, violent crime etc. We’re told that a 24/7 society (no sabbath / day of rest) is good and gives choice and yet we see more and more psychological disorders related to stress and a lack of rest.
We push God out of society more and more and I promise you it will lead to a greater breakdown of society. If you think there’s no link then watch and see.
I watched the programme to the end because I saw a very bright and passionate person who had loads of self belief, loved others and had a high value system.
If we produced less trash for our youth, we would have a better society to benefit from.
Well done Deborah, despite a lot of negative press, I am sure you’ll turn out just fine when you are in your 20’s.
SHE BELIVES IN GOD SHE IS A NERD WHO WANTS OD TO FORGIVE HER FOR EVERTHING.SHES SO STUPID AND UGALY
I live next door to her my house was on the programme, and seriously why should judge her on a programme. Yes, she has been brought up like that but their her views and tbh there probably better than all of ours, im an atheist i go out every weekend i smoke and i drink, but i understand where she is coming from they are her beliefs there is nothing to say that she is wrong. She does have an open mind my sister has been round to their house a couple of times and she is willing to listen to other peoples views, but isn’t it good that in this day and age that someone of 13 is sticking to theit beleifs and will not be peer pressured. Half of the people who have commented on this our single minded unintellectual chavs!!!!
I’m from the USA. I like what I see in Deborah, that is; in what I have seen of the program on youtube. I thank her for standing firm in her believes. So far it looks like she knows what she believes and why she believes it!
“She was literally a fish out of water.” No, she was not. She was out of water, yes… but she is not a fish. Literally does not mean the same things as figuratively. It means the opposite
Wow! you’re a genius.Fish do look a bit different.
Aime.Is she the most famous person in Devon now?
What an appalling thing to do to a child. Poor Deborah is so obsessed with Hell and eternal damnation that it clearly scares her. Tell a little white lie and go to hell with the murderers, rapists and paedophiles? So if one of her younger siblings tells a lie and then gets run over by a bus, then she can think about how her brother/sister is burning in hell while she’s lying in bed. Or her older brother who she adores, who is gradually relaxing his attitudes (and dancing in clubs – shock horror), could well be on his was to join Lucifer and Co.
You can’t take the Bible literally – read Genesis chapter 1, then chapter 2, and ask yourself why there are TWO creation stories. Ask why Abraham twice offered his wife to the hareems of kings, why agreeing to sacrifice your child is a GOOD thing, why drowning men, women and children (as well as countless and supposedly blameless animals) is a charming story of hope, why Lot was a good man to offer up his two daughters for rape, and why his daughters chose to have sex with him. In fact have a good old rummage through Exodus, Judges et al and then ask yourself how anyone can base their life on a book so weird, so horrible, and so shocking. A book that advocates genocide and child rape amongst other things.
Oh, and when Jesus (the guy who said if you don’t hate your mother and your father then you can’t be my disciple) said “Love thy neighbour”, what he meant was “Love other Jews”. Jesus’s words should always be read in context – as the words of a Jewish man living in a country under the control of the Roman Empire.
Thought the program was a great insite to an existance of such backward, narrow minded views on “god” that suprising still exist in middle britain. It was like the family hadnt moved on from medievile times.
Although a good 90% of the worlds population believe in higher power and god (of which I do also) it was basically home taught fundermentalism. Which in any religion, as we have seen more so in recent times, is a dangerous thing. The lack of openmindedness and balance professed by the parents is borderline child abuse in my opinion. The line said by the mother with regards to god and her womb frightens the life out of me. These children are being prepared for death not life…..by their own mother and father…
The Bible was written by men (the women who wrote gospels were voted out) NOT by God, whatever he/she is! To the people who quote the Bible, I suggest that they read a number of books written on how it was compiled. If you don’t do this, how can you have an opinion?
I became a christian when I was 17 and before that considered many other religions and of course the arguments of atheistic believers. The reason I am now a christian is something that i feel people missed about the programme last night,despite the girlsaying it about ten times, I AM A SINNER AND JESUS DIED FOR MY SINS. Her aim is not to offend people by saying they are going to hell for their sins. The bible is clear, GODS STANDARD FOR ENTERING HEAVEN IS PERFECTION WHICH IS A STANDARD THAT NONE OF US CAN REACH. And thank God that we don’t have to reach this standard. All we have to do is trust that Jesus has reached that standard for us and all he asks is that we accept that we are not perfect and need Jesus to save us. I am sure that many people will read my comments as “preachy” and “intolerant” but just like Deborah, I really don’t care, because seeing people saved by Jesus is better than trying to please peoples ego’s and pride and subsequently letting people face God on judgment day with no saviour.
While i feel Deborah has been protected from many difficult experiences from the world. She is completely ignorrant to the real world and all the people in it. I felt thouroghly sickened when she started crying at the end because she believed her self to be such an awfull person. If a thirteen year old is reduced to tears with self hate, there is something wrong with her parents to allow her to feel so terrible. It is no better than child abuse.
I am only 16 but this documentary really hit home and i really feel for Deborah, she has no idea what diffuculties she is inevitably going to face in life, and it seems her parents are making no attemts to inform her. She never questions her beliefs because she has never witnessed anything else. This programme truely shocked me.
Cerys please understand that her tears were not that of self hate, it is a common response from Christians especially those that have just found faith. It is one of love for a God that gave everything to bring us salvation, imagine a friend of yours giving up their life to save yours. There is a difference between self hate and that of recognising ones sinful nature, we know that even though we are sinners by nature that through faith in Christ we have been saved from the judgement of it, because Christ was judged in our place on the cross and He took the punishment we deserved. We now have a new identity as children of God and love our new identity, you cannot be a true Christian and hate yourself, however, sometimes when we are reminded of what God has done for us, we shed tears of bewilderment and joy, this is what Deborah was doing.
What she was trying to do throughout, perhaps not always very sensitively was making people understand that they are sinners and that there is judgement for it, if you want people to accept salvation through Christ they first need to realise they need saving, then you can bring them the good news that Christ has already paid the price for them if they put their faith in Him.
Also know that the BBC are institutionally anti-Christian and we all know they have been guilty of misleading with strong editing. I would suggest that they missed out the bits where she explained that they didn’t have to go to hell.
God bless.
I understand what you are saying and i really so respect it. I know that, and it is amazing that she feels so strongly about her beliefs and it is to be admired. But she describes herself as a wicked, evil person who should go to hell. She isn’t wicked or evil, she seems to be very good and she cares for others and what she believes is their fate. She doesn’t mind what they think of her, because she believes she could be saving them. That is such an amazing attrubute that she has. She is an amazing person but she doesn’t see herself that way which is awfull, and the fact her parents to impress this fact upon her is terrible. Also, she is going to suffer when she gets into the real world and her parents need to teach her how to cope with the real world, because it is inevitable that one day she will be a part of it. Striving to make it abetter place i’m sure. But she is 13, she should be enjoying herself not worying about morals and fundamental questions to life that many grown adults never come to terms with. She is an inspirational girl but somebody needs to take the terrible weight off her shoulders, she is worrying about the fate of everybody in the world, where she (in my oppinion) does not need to worry. I think her parents need to let her see this.
Deborah is a person bought up on the narrow way talked about in the bible. She has a strong personal faith which would appear strange to a person who has no faith. It is her love for unbelievers that gives her a great zeal to see them changed so that they can also know the peace and forgiveness of God.
I am a 40 yr old mum of 2 teenage daughters who are educated in the school system. Having watched the programme I understand that alot of what Deborah spoke about in regards to Hell and Sin IS in fact actually written in the bible. So regardless of what people think, Deborah was actually speaking God’s word whether we like it or not. Those who do NOT believe in God, believe they are not accountable for there actions and will therefore not like what she said and will speak out against her, when infact they are speaking out against God himself. I believe God gave his Law to us out of LOVE and Concern for mankind. If we followed this lAW THE WORLD WOULD BE IN A FAR BETTER STATE THAN IT IS NOW. However she should have focused more on Gods love and forgiveness than Hell and repentance, but saying that maybe some people need a wake up call as we are living in a time when jesus’s return to the earth is being spoken about.
Deborah didn’t live in buxton…she lived on a farm in dorset. The fact that you didnt notice this makes this review completely pointless, as since this fact escaped you (which wasn’t exactly hidden where did you think they were driving in the car?) more important facts have probably escaped you, thus making your review void.
one of the things she sed was wrong, wen she sed the bible
says dat ur not allowed 2 drink. FALSE! numba 1, Jesus turned
wine, numba 2, the last thing Jesus drank on earth was wine
and numba 3, in the bible, in the book of Ephesians 5:18
it says “Be not drunk with wine, but with the holy spirit”.
So you see, u r allowed 2 drink, the bible just says not
to get drunk.