Friday, December 1, 2006
Preteen Christian warriors wearing camouflage make-up and dressed in combat fatigues brandish swords in a bizarre choreographed dance. A 10-year-old girl weeps in a trance-like spiritual bliss, looking up to the sky. A 12-year-old boy speaks in tongues. Children touch a cardboard effigy of President Bush while a massive church prays to guide his righteous political decisions. Children's pastor Becky Fischer leads an enraptured congregation in a chant: "This means war! This means war!"
It might sound like a parody of religious zealots-something out of an over-the-top episode of "South Park." But it's not.
It's for real-they're scenes from "Jesus Camp," a documentary about a segment of evangelical Christians that recruit young, enthusiastic prodigies for a war against eroding cultural values.
Fischer leads dozens of kids annually at the "Kids on Fire" summer camp in Devil's Lake in North Dakota. Fischer is unapologetic in her drive to indoctrinate the children to be future leaders, although she says her motives are not political.
The film also follows a born again 12-year-old named Levi who is a budding young preacher. His mother-who doesn't believe in the separation of church and state-homeschools him in fundamentalist ideology mixed with political beliefs, such as why global warming is not a problem. Levi's journey in the film eventually takes him to a Wal-Mart-sized megachurch, where he sits down with Ted Haggard, an evangelical lobbyist who confers weekly with President Bush.
There are numerous fly-on-the-wall moments in "Jesus Camp" and it's during these seemingly candid moments that the film is at its best. The lack of narration yields a predominantly even-handed film, allowing viewers to make up their own minds: Are these kids being brainwashed or do they simply have an uncommonly fervent bond with God?
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.
But directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady do not fully commit to a cinema verite style. Presumably to balance the gung-ho religiosity and conservative point of views, the filmmakers intermittently introduce Air America talk radio DJ Mike Papantonio. He is addressing political issues directly, and it undermines the effect of the rest of the movie. And it's not the strongest visual choice to watch a guy with a face for radio sitting in front of a microphone.
Also, an ill-advised score adds menace to some scenes where it is unwarranted. When the documentary has actual footage of an adult comparing her recruitment of young fundamentalist kids to Palestinian children who are turned into holy war terrorists, no ominous music is necessary. Fischer's own words can stand on their own: "I want to see them as radically laying down their lives for the gospel."
Other times, the camera's presence is more intrusive, serving to make an uncomfortable situation even more uncomfortable-for example, when a precocious 10-year-old forces herself, out of duty to God, to hand out religious tracts to annoyed strangers. No fictionalized scene could ever capture the sad mix of purposefulness and bewilderment in that poor young girl.
"Jesus Camp" takes place during conservative Judge Samuel Alito's nomination and eventual confirmation to the Supreme Court last winter. This places the story firmly in the context of a seemingly unstoppable, sweeping conservative atmosphere. Given the changes brought on by recent midterm election results, there is the side effect of making the movie seem a little like yesterday's news. One thing is for certain, though-the evangelical warriors in "Jesus Camp" aren't giving up on their holy mission anytime soon.
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Eric_Melin (Eric Melin) says…
On November 3, 2006, Ted Haggard resigned his leadership of the National Association of Evangelicals[1] and stepped aside as pastor of his church because of allegations by a former male prostitute[2] and masseur Mike Jones that Haggard engaged in anal sex with him for three years and used crystal methamphetamine. Jones said he had only recently learned of Haggard's true identity and explained his reasons for coming forward by saying, "It made me angry that here's someone preaching about gay marriage and going behind the scenes having gay sex." Haggard at first claimed he had never met his accuser and in a television interview said "I am steady with my wife. I'm faithful to my wife."[3] But on November 5, in a statement Haggard said, "The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality...There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I've been warring against it all of my adult life."[4]
Eric_Melin (Eric Melin) says…
Pastor will shut down controversial kids camp
By Religion News Service and The Associated Press
In the film "Jesus Camp," the Rev. Ted Haggard is shown preaching. Haggard was fired by a Colorado church amid allegations of gay sex and drug use.
The summer camp featured in the documentary "Jesus Camp," which includes scenes with disgraced preacher Ted Haggard, will shut down for at least several years because of negative reaction sparked by the film, according to the camp's director.
"Right now we're just not a safe ministry," Becky Fischer, the fiery Pentecostal pastor featured in "Jesus Camp," said Tuesday.
The documentary, which hit select U.S. theaters during the summer, portrays Fischer, 55, as drill instructor to a group of young evangelical children steeling themselves for spiritual and political warfare.
Led by Fischer, the children pray in tongues, as is common in charismatic strains of Pentecostalism; tearfully beg God to end abortion; and bless President Bush at a weeklong camp in Devils Lake, N.D.
Fischer has drawn fire from some corners for "brainwashing" the children. After vandals damaged the campground last month and critics besieged Fischer with negative e-mails, phone calls and letters, the pastor said she's shutting down the camp for at least several years.
"I don't think we'll be doing it for a while," she said.
Fischer lives in Bismarck, N.D., and is chief pastor at The Fire Center, a church devoted to children's ministry there. She has run the weeklong "Kids on Fire" summer camp, which is featured in the film, since 2002, with 75 to 100 children attending each year.
The documentary also includes scenes of Haggard, the evangelical leader accused of gay sex and drug use.
In one scene, directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady visit Haggard's 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo. He tells the vast audience, "We don't have to debate about what we should think about homosexual activity. It's written in the Bible."
Then Haggard looks into the camera and says kiddingly: "I think I know what you did last night," drawing laughs from the crowd. "If you send me a thousand dollars, I won't tell your wife."
Later, another joke for the filmmakers: "If you use any of this, I'll sue you."
The married, 50-year-old father of five admitted in a letter read Sunday to his followers that he was "guilty of sexual immorality." He has yet to address specific claims by a male escort that Haggard paid him for sex over the past three years.
Haggard also leads the audience in praying for President Bush to select a Supreme Court nominee who supports their beliefs (it would end up being Samuel Alito) and later brags about the rapid expansion of evangelicalism.
"It's got enough growth to essentially sway every election," Haggard says with a smile. "If the evangelicals vote, they determine the election."