Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

When I sat down to view this, I was half-expecting something that I have typically seen before that ends up being anti-Christian.  Lately, it's hard to be a moderate Christian (or "liberal" by some people’s standards).  It seems you are either classified as a right-wing Fundamentalist or an atheist. There are some of us out there who are believers and who don't believe gay people are automatically going to hell.  We don't believe you have to be "saved" to go to heaven.

Jesus Camp opens with scenes from Missouri where God Bless America adorns signs while a background of right-wing fundamentalist radio broadcasts are heard.

This contrasts with a more liberal or centrist broadcast of Mike Papantonio.  I've listened to him off and on through the years.  In the broadcast shown in the film, both he and his callers observe that although the Fundamentalists claim they do everything in the name of God, it's actually the antithesis of what Christianity is.  They come across as very authoritarian and completely lacking the compassion advocated by Jesus, particularly in his Sermon on the Mount.

The movie begins with a Sunday School scene that seems rather innocuous.  Children participate in religious dance productions and listen to a woman encourage them in their faith.  However, looking a bit deeper, it's something quite different.  The look of the children and the production is actually quite militaristic.  Soon the children are speaking in tongues.

The focus of the remainder of the film is on Becky Fischer, who is a Pentecostal children's minister who runs the annual summer camp at the center of the film and is leading this Sunday School class.  She uses the argument that "our enemies" are indoctrinating the children to hate us as justification for her camp where essentially the same thing is done in the name of Christ and the United States.  Well, to be clear, it's her version of Christ and a Dubya-Bush led United States.  I'd love to have a camera on the inside of her camp right now and see what she's saying about the leadership of the United States now.  It seems obviously to me that blind faith in your leaders is only advocated when those leaders have that "R" after their name.

Leading up to the time at camp, the families who are sending their children are shown in their home environments.  Most of them home-school.  The home-schooling is scary if only for the distortions these children are being fed at a time when they are most vulnerable.  I can see the argument being made that some of what is taught in school is just brainwashing of a certain belief system.  However, when they are teaching the children that a .6 degree increase over a number of years is no big deal in terms of global warming, those just aren't the facts.  A six degree difference in the average temperature of the world is the difference between where I am sitting now and a mile of ice above me.

The parents advocate for Christianity in the schools, but to be clear, it's their version of Christianity.  They wouldn't want Roman Catholic priests coming in there and teaching the children about the rosary - that much is clear.  Their feeling is it's okay for them to come in and indoctrinate everyone else's children in their version of Christianity and the hell with what everyone else thinks or feels.  It’s only the right to free speech and the right to religious expression when they are talking about their version of the faith.

I am a Christian.  I attend church just about every Sunday and my children attend Sunday School.  My children attend a faith-based summer camp.  I worked for churches and non-profits for 10 years including our local Synod.  You know what, I wouldn't want these "Christians" and their beliefs anywhere near my child.  I have a cousin who is a Pentecostal and I haven’t spoken to her in about ten years and have no desire to after our last meeting.

At the same time they are espousing all of these Christian beliefs, I am amazed at the consumerism.  These kids have rooms the size of my living room packed with toys.  Where is the Christianity and helping the poor there?  At another point, a boy is wearing what I thought was a "Reese's" t-shirt.  It turns out the shirt is just based on their logo and says Jesus.  I am pretty sure Reese's didn't agree to that - so it's okay to steal a corporation's design without their permission?  The contradictions and hypocrisy that I saw throughout the film astounded me more than anything else.

The film travels to North Dakota where the actual camp takes place.  They pray for the equipment, including the Powerpoint system.  Beck Fischer states flat out during the prayer that if anything malfunctions, it's the devil playing with the equipment.  No, it's called stuff happens.  It’s called Microsoft could use some better programming.

Once the kids are in the audience, it's a war on anything labeled "sin" and she states that Harry Potter should be put to death.  About that time, any doubts I had about tem being off the deep-end vanished.

The children are even taught that other churches are "dead" and that God doesn't go to those churches.  He only goes to churches that are "alive" which conveniently includes theirs.  Another boy proclaims that there's something "not right" with non-Christians and that they are trash and sick. 

I see children who want to be what these adults want them to be so badly that they force things to happen or fake it because they want the approval of the adults around them.  Some of the children don't care, such as the boy who coyly admits that while his mother has banned Harry Potter, he watches it at his father's house.

Old ferret-face, er... George W. Bush is brought in as a cut-out standing up and the children touch him and pray to him as if he was the messiah.  So much for those who wanted to point a finger at the left in this last election for allegedly acting like Barack Obama was the messiah.  Somehow I don't think there's any cut-outs of him that people are touching to and praying while speaking in tongues.

The footage of Pastor Ted Haggard is laughable in light of what's happened since the movie was made, except for the fact that this hypocrite was talking to President Bush and his advisors once a week.

The most hilarious moment occurs during the credits when the children go up to some African-Americans in Washington DC and ask them if they died right now do they know where they would go.  When a man responds "heaven", a girl asks if he's sure.  As the children walk away, she then comments "I think they were Muslim."  This is how skewed their thinking is - if you don't think the exact way they do, then you must be of a religious belief that they are fighting against.

The makers of the film, Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, worked very hard to try to make the film as unbiased as possible.  In that respect, I think they succeeded.  There’s no narration trying to tell the viewer what to think.  The material is simply presented for the viewer to take away from it what they want.  I think those who are Fundamentalists and particularly Pentecostals will feel fine with what they see on the screen.  The initial cut was almost entirely focused on the camp, and to balance it they added Mike Papantonio’s radio show.  This ties together with the events at the camp at the end of the film when Papantonio takes a phone call from Becky Fischer and does an interview.

I don't find fault with praying.  I don't find fault with praying for our leaders.  I don't find fault with praying for our leaders to make the right decisions.  What I do find fault with is the underlying tone that the only "right" answer to the prayers is for the leaders to decide exactly what they believe and anything outside of that is the devil's work.  In the DVD extras there is a scene where a group of kids is being led on a prayer walk around the city and they are "praying for revival."  They want everyone to believe the same thing as them - there's no room for a variation of beliefs in Christianity.

The scene of the father who joined the Army to go to Iraq - he states it's "an all-expenses paid missionary trip".  And people wonder why people in the Middle East who want to be free to believe what they want to are angry when they see and hear things like this.  How would these same people react to radical Muslims coming in and doing the same thing here?

Becky Fischer states that "extreme liberals" will view this and start shaking in their boots.  I may or may not fit that category in her eyes, but what I feel more than anything is pity.  I pity that these kids probably won't see through these adults who are corrupting them and using them every bit as much as those they claim to be against.  Or perhaps it is the adults I should feel sorry for.  Once some of these children do experience life outside of the cocoon the parents and religious leaders have kept them in, what will their reaction be?  I have been wondering since seeing this film about the father who went to Iraq.  Once he found out this wasn’t the “all-expenses paid missionary trip” he thought it would be, what was his reaction?  What was his reaction to the fact that even many of his fellow soldiers wouldn’t be interested in his proselytizing?

The film is very easy to watch and paced very well.  It sets the stage for the camp with depicting middle America and that these people are perhaps as average as any of the neighbors who live near us.  The editing could be a bit tighter, I think, but the filmmakers went a long way to making a production where the people revealed their character, rather than having a narrator telling the viewer about something.  This could make some scenes a bit long, but I think it was worth it for the overall tone of the film and its credibility.

The DVD release has commentary, which I found worth listening to.  The filmmakers very obviously felt endeared to these kids and were quite fond of them.  That’s important to think about as I wondered if the kids were exploited in any way.  I don’t think they would have shown footage that truly exploited them.  I wish there was a featurette about the making of the film and what agreements the filmmakers entered into to be able to film these children and film at the camp itself.  The deleted scenes were very valuable, and I found myself wishing they had been included in the film.

The society I want to see is one where we are all free to make decisions that are right for us.  It’s quite apparent that the people depicted here believe they have all the answers and if we would just believe what they believe and follow the leaders they select, the world would be a perfect place.  The power this religious faction holds or at least believes it does is scary.  Watch this and decide for yourself if you really want to allow these people to decide the future you and your children and grandchildren will be living in.  It would seem that they have lost some of the power they held or believe they held, and for that I am thankful.  I don’t want to change them - they are free to believe whatever they want.  Just don’t try to legislate your moral beliefs to be the decisions I and my family should make.


SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Commentary with co-Directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
• Deleted Scenes


Other "political" movie reviews:
 
An Inconvenient Truth ~ The Big One ~ Blue Gold: World Water Wars ~ Born on the Fourth of July ~ Bowling For Columbine ~ Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy ~ A Crude Awakening ~ Democracy University: Volume One ~ The End of Suburbia ~ Fahrenheit 9/11 ~ Farmingville ~ FLOW: For Love of Water ~ The Ground Truth ~ Giuliani Time ~ Hacking Democracy ~ Howard Zinn: You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train ~ The Hunting of the President ~ The Insider ~ Iraq For Sale ~ J.F.K. ~ JFK: The Case for Conspiracy ~ Lake of Fire ~ The Laramie Project ~ The Murder of JFK ~ No End In Sight ~ Outfoxed ~ Outrage ~ Religulous ~ Roger and Me ~ Senator Obama Goes to Africa ~ Teddy Roosevelt: An American Lion ~ Terrorstorm ~ This Divided State ~ Truman ~ Truman: The 33rd President ~ The Unforeseen ~ War Feels Like War ~ War Made Easy ~ What Would Jesus Buy? ~ With God On Our Side



© 2009 Patti Aliventi

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD