Friday, December 1, 2006
Movie
Jesus Camp ***
Polarizing subject matter is treated with relative detachment in "Jesus Camp," a documentary about the indoctrination of children at an evangelical Christian summer camp. A diatribe a la Michael Moore could have been an easy outcome of this project, but instead the cameras are more or less simply turned on people who are proud of their beliefs and quite happy to talk openly about them.
Your reaction to this thought-provoking documentary about an evangelical Christian summer camp for kids lies not only in your religious beliefs but also in your convictions on the separation of church and state. But it doesn't matter on which side of the fence you reside. It's almost impossible not to respond emotionally to this fascinating, sobering and all-too-brief exploration of the politicized religious right and its hopes, dreams and power.
Filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady bookend "Jesus Camp" with radio reports on Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement from the Supreme Court and the announcement of Samuel Alito's nomination to replace her. In between, they follow a group of Lee's Summit, Mo., kids who attend the Kids on Fire camp in Devil's Lake, N.D., where they sing, praise God and President Bush and even get a chance to preach.
They are led by energetic Pentecostal youth minister Becky Fischer, whom audiences will view either as a dedicated servant of God or a nightmarish, narrow-minded scourge of freedom. Despite the fact that its creators try to present the material dispassionately, "Jesus Camp" is not a movie that inspires temperate emotion, and plenty of Christians will be offended by some of Fischer's soundbites.
Acting as a secular chorus throughout the film is talk-show host Mike Papantonio, whose "Ring of Fire" show airs on Air America. Papantonio identifies himself as a Christian - he is in fact a liberal Methodist - but he fears what he sees as the indoctrination of children into beliefs that challenge a fundamental and necessary political tradition.
Magnolia Pictures Photo
A Lee's Summit, Mo., youngster responds to the words of a Pentacostal youth minister in a scene from the documentary "Jesus Camp."
The first documentary from Ewing and Grady, "The Boys of Baraka," followed African American boys who left their Baltimore neighborhood to attend a boarding school in Kenya. Now, again, the filmmakers display their skills at getting kids to open up while keeping themselves firmly out of the picture. We meet a girl who admits her dancing is not always for the spirit but occasionally "for the flesh"; a 9-year-old who fearlessly approaches a stranger to talk about God at a bowling alley; a fascinating, articulate 12-year-old who sports an extreme mullet, aspires to be a preacher and says, in one unintentionally hilarious moment, that at 5 he realized he wanted "more out of life" and so became a Christian.
Magnolia Pictures Photo
Children who attend the Kids on Fire camp in Devil's Lake, N.D., praise God and a cardboard cutout of President Bush in the documentary "Jesus Camp."
Statements like that lend credence to the theory that the camp's adults are performing an unsavory indoctrination, especially when the kids are handed plastic fetuses and told to pray to a cardboard cutout of President Bush to nominate an anti-abortion judge. Fischer chortles about her young charges, "They're so usable." Equally disturbing is her inability to see the irony in fretting about young suicide bombers in Palestine, then joyously proclaiming that she wants to see these children "laying down their lives for the gospel."
But for the most part, Ewing and Grady wisely leave interpretations to the viewers, who are going to enter the theater with prejudices anyway. "Jesus Camp" may be stirring controversy, but the conversations it has spurred are worth having. And anyone shocked by what goes on at Devil's Lake just hasn't been paying attention.
More like this
- For the love of 'Jesus' 2 comments / December 1, 2006
- Fashionable faith April 2, 2005
- Happy campers July 18, 2001
- Jesus Rocks 7 comments / February 20, 2006
- TCM features Cecil B. DeMille's wild style April 5, 2004
Comments
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bankboy119 (anonymous) says...
Sounds like they've got more people who have twisted the Gospel, what else is new?
I would like to say one thing though, "laying down their lives for the Gospel" is completely different than a terrorist blowing themselves up in the middle of marketplaces to get 7 or 70 or 77 virgins in the afterlife. When the Bible talks about laying down your life for the Gospel it was because (and still is in some places of the world) those proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ would be persecuted by the people they were trying to preach to. It was not because they were changing themselves into a walking bomb.
December 2, 2006 at 9:41 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
MadAnthony (anonymous) says...
BB, SO you cannot lay your life down for the Lord unless you risk martyrdom? How about putting others and the WIll of God before yourself every minute of every day...... that hit's closer to home, and is what we are all called to....No?
December 2, 2006 at 5:23 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
scary_manilow (anonymous) says...
Doesn't matter anyway... "Jesus Camp" closed down soon after the Haggard scandal broke. Where is your god now, kids?
December 2, 2006 at 11:07 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
chungasrevenge (anonymous) says...
All religions are anxious to proselytise the young. Society seems not to see either the absurdity or the danger in the fact that pupils in one school are taught, as truths of history, that the Normans conquered England in 1066 and that Jesus is the son of God, in another that the Normans conquered England in 1066 Jesus is not the son of God but that Mohammed received the definitive divine revelation, in a third that the Normans conquered England in 1066 and that neither Jesus nor Mohammed is of any significance besides Guru Dev - and in a fourth that the Normans conquered England in 1066 and all three of Jesus, Mohammed and Guru Dev are false distractions, attention to whom is likely to provoke God's jealous wrath.
Yet in schools all over the country these antipathetic 'truths' are being force-fed to different groups of pupils, none of whom is in a position to assess their credibility or worth. This is a serious form of child abuse. It sows the seeds of apartheids capable of resulting, in their logical conclusion, in murder and war, as history sickeningly and ceaselessly proves.
December 2, 2006 at 11:59 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
ronwell_dobbs (anonymous) says...
Having grown up and been forced to attend events similar to the one described in Bible Camp I think I am in a position to say that the adults perform an utter disservice to these children by creating a hypnotic state of emotion, urged along mostly by fear -- preachers telling of the horrible penalties of sin in eternal separation from God in a burning lake of fire, and how sins of these children physically punished Jesus, puncturing his hands and feet on the cross or the Roman soldier's spear in Jesus side. This, of course, results in children breaking down into tears, at which point the adults claim that the Holy Spirit has entered their presence and begin singing, "speaking in tongues", prophesying, etc.
Of course the children "feel" something. These children are, of course, completely oblivious to the fact that this heightened community state of emotion is a perfectly human response to incitement -- Hitler used it masterfully for disasterous results. At this tender, heightened state of emotion the children are then told things that stay with them for the rest of their lives, things that are utterly false and psychologically damaging.
For example, they tell the children that they are a "peculiar people" (a Biblical quote) and that the world hates them and they should keep separate from worldly people. I was devastated to find out that I had missed the friendship and understanding of the "worldly" people who not only didn't hate me, but readily accepted me as a member of the community at large once I got out from under the influence of my uber-religious parents and their fundamentalist church.
I believe I can speak for these children in saying that one's personal approach to adopting or not adopting religion (I am somewhere between an agnostic and a don't-even-care-if-I-burn-in-hell ignorist) should be introduced FIRST on an intellectual level, stressing the framework of the belief system rather than preying on tender emotions, attempting to force lifelong behaviour and teaching the child to speak with words and phrases that the child clearly does not understand.
The phrasings are so divisive and rob the child of any ability to see multiple sides of an issue - no sane, competent parent can tell me that is is a good thing for a child.
December 3, 2006 at 8:53 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
HMcMellon (anonymous) says...
God bless you, ronwell_dobbs. Thank you for sharing your testimony. God works through all of us. Regardless of race or religion, we are all His children. God loves each of us equally.
Trying to separate oneself from the rest of humanity based on an absurd belief in a inerrant Bible is in itself the greatest of sins. From such separation and arrogance, all other sin flows.
It doesn't take a "Bible Scholar" to read the teachings attributed directly to Jesus to understand His message of love, compassion and humility.
Those whose cherish those values recognize that Jesus' message was the opposite of the hate, intolerance and arrogance that comes from some of those who claim to speak in His name.
I feel very sorry for those children. The adult's use of fear and brain-washing tactics is akin to the manipulations of pedophilies.
December 3, 2006 at 2:23 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
jimincountry (anonymous) says...
Sounds like hate christians stuff to me...........but haven't and won't see it.
Only arrived at this comment site because I read where "The Nativity Story" 16yr-old portraying Mary was pregnant and drilling thru blogs somehow led me here.
Has Hollywierd been subverted to islam/muslim/koran/whatever?
Looks like anti-christian propagandists at work to me.
December 3, 2006 at 4:14 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
chungasrevenge (anonymous) says...
Well said 'Scary' and 'Ronwell'
Jim - I don't think that this is an 'anti-christian' work. The film shows an example of what religion does to children. All religions are the same......intolerant, it is absolutely impossible for a religion to teach tolerance, for if it were to do so it would give freedom to its followers to think for themselves. Almost every person that follows a particular religious thought does so because it was seared into their impressionable minds at a very early age. This is a travesty and should be stopped at all costs, few of us can escape this and begin to question the 'truths' in adulthood.
December 3, 2006 at 6:29 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
alm77 (anonymous) says...
Chunga: Got an axe to grind or what?
"All religions are the same......intolerant, it is absolutely impossible for a religion to teach tolerance, for if it were to do so it would give freedom to its followers to think for themselves. Almost every person that follows a particular religious thought does so because it was seared into their impressionable minds at a very early age."
I'd like to see some facts to back that up. Not to mention, your accusations don't sound very *tolerant* to me.
December 3, 2006 at 7:30 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
PotSmokinRepublican (anonymous) says...
I think it is a shame that only the extremes of all religions get publicity. So often are the good things overlooked. Regardless of whether you agree with the views of religious people, you can't ignore the fact that religion accounts for a tremendous amount of charity in our society, and are mostly very compassionate people.
December 3, 2006 at 8:41 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
chungasrevenge (anonymous) says...
alm77, I'm not sure what kind of 'facts' you expect but I guess 'Genesis' from the bible is as good as any to start with.
Genesis
# God gives Abraham and his descendants all of the land of Canaan "forever". This promise is still used to justify the unending battles over the land in the Middle East. 13:14-15, 17:8
# An uncircumcised boy is to be abandoned by his parents and community. 17:14
# God kills everyone (men, women, children, infants, newborns) in Sodom and Gomorrah by raining "fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven." Well, almost everyone -- he spares the "just and righteous" Lot and his family.19:24
# Lot's nameless wife looks back, and God turns her into a pillar of salt. 19:26
# Abraham makes his servant swear that he won't let Isaac marry a Canaanite. 24:3
# Isaac tells Jacob not to marry a Canaanite. 28:1
# Jacob's sons can't stand the idea of their sister marrying someone who is uncircumcised. 34:14
# "And Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord slew him." What did Er do to elicit God's wrath? The Bible doesn't say. Maybe he picked up some sticks on Saturday. 38:7
# After God killed Er, Judah tells Onan to "go in unto they brother's wife." But "Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and ... when he went in unto his brother's wife ... he spilled it on the ground.... And the thing which he did displeased the Lord; wherefore he slew him also." This lovely Bible story is seldom read in Sunday School, but it is the basis of many Christian doctrines, including the condemnation of both masturbation and birth control. 38:8-10
# After Judah pays Tamar for her services, he is told that she "played the harlot" and "is with child by whoredom." When Judah hears this, he says, "Bring her forth, and let her be burnt." 38:24
These are but a few of the many examples of intolerance in the Bible, there is an endless supply of this stuff. To call out religion, does not imply intolerance. Peoples personal beliefs are their own, but when a religion begins to subject children that lack the ability to even begin to think about religion logically, at that point it is our responsibility to question why.
December 4, 2006 at 12:33 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Speicher (Danny Speicher) says...
First and foremost, I would like to debunk the argument that all religion is intolerant. I think that, ironically, is a very intolerant statement to make. The fact of the matter is the majority, in religion, sadly, is almost always overshadowed by the extremist minority. This movie is a prime example of this phenomenon.
There are very few churches, thankfully, that place a cardboard cutout of President Bush on their stage and hand out plastic fetuses to hold as they pray (according to the article) "to" him for the appointment of a socially conservative supreme court judge. This... Is sensationalized extremism meant to appeal to the pathos without establishing, first, any kind of ethos and without ever getting to the logos. It is, sadly, an effective... But, thankfully, minority way of persuading those into passionate (albeit, in my experience, short-lived) fervor for Christianity.
What you will see in most churches is a family of believers who are more concerned about the day-to-day lives of their friends that join them in worship every Sunday morning (or whenever they worship together.) Sure, they have their opinions on what ought to be done, governmentally, about the issues they care about. But, rarely will you see the political fervor you hear from the extremists that you see on television.
As for "laying down your life", I think it goes far deeper than the happenchance of martyrdom. I think "laying down your life" for the Gospel goes to Christ's words when He said to His followers, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." When we are called to lay down our lives... We are not called, especially, to die for Christ... We are, instead, called to LIVE for Christ by dying to our own selfish desires. We are called to die to that which comes so natural to be led by that which is divinely supernatural.
Finally, in closing (of a lengthy comment, once again, I apologize)... Let me apologize for the actions of my extremist counterparts in the faith. We, collectively, owe the world and apology. Ronwell, reading through your post literally brought tears to my eyes. A camp that is true to the context and real meaning of the Gospel is not one who brings about fear to children. It is supposed to be a place where the love of Christ is shown.... It is supposed to be a place where foundations are laid for a moral framework later. Yes, the need for grace and salvation is needed later in life... But, what needs to be shown to children is a God who loves them unconditionally and wants a relationship with them. Not a God who will send them to hell if they don't do this or that. I assure you that there are camps out there like that. It's really too bad that you got the "other side".
Here's to learning to be a part of the culture you are in... While not necessarily conforming to the morality (or lack thereof, in some areas) of the age.
--Danny Speicher
December 4, 2006 at 5:03 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Meatwad (anonymous) says...
The tolerant among the religious need to be A LOT LESS TOLERANT of the intolerant. When the TOLERANT stop TOLERATING the INTOLERANT.... I won't think of the religious as intolerant.
This goes for ALL religions.
December 4, 2006 at 7:02 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Meatwad (anonymous) says...
Several months ago, there was a large group from some Baptist church (not in Lawrence) occupying every corner and mid block of downtown Lawrence. They were handing out pamphlets and talking to passersby.
I made a point to say, "Baptists - oh that's what Fred Phelps is!" to my friends but within earshot of the church group people. I want them to understand that people in their own ranks are hurting them more than the sinners (probably everyone in Lawrence in their minds) they are trying to help.
December 4, 2006 at 7:45 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Meatwad (anonymous) says...
i.e. if some of these church groups spent as much time trying to weed out the rotten apples among their own ranks and they do trying to spread their gospel to people who are having a nice, quiet walk in their downtown (well the walk was supposed to be nice and quiet), maybe things would be better for all of us.
December 4, 2006 at 7:48 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
jimincountry (anonymous) says...
How interesting it would be if the movie's sublect was some muslim character like maybe Mohammed!?
December 5, 2006 at 8:24 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
jimincountry (anonymous) says...
Actually, i'm off the mark.....subject like muslim teachings and that religion's extermination of infidels would have been more interesting!
December 5, 2006 at 8:29 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Meatwad (anonymous) says...
I saw it last night. I think it would have been interesting to sit her down with a muslim extremist who also targets children and they could compare notes. Maybe they'd be amazed at what they have in common.
It's sad. There are so many good messages that are taught in religion..... WHY CAN'T TOLERANCE BE TAUGHT TOO???????
Why is YOUR religion and YOUR way the ONLY relgion and no one else is acceptable? (I mean this for any religion that teaches intolerance like the extremists in this movie)
December 6, 2006 at 9:26 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )