Jesus Camp
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Movie Reviews of Jesus Camp
Movie Review: Apt Depiction of the Wretched Soul-Snatchers Expertly Applying Their Sinister Craft on the Supple Minds of the Young
Summary: 5 Stars
Yes, yes, yes. Finally the mask is torn off these hideous beasts, and they are exposed in all their sloven splendor. This doc hits close to home, as I have a kind, well-meaning sister who was steered off the cliff and into the abyss of self-imposed psychosis, through the guilt heaped upon her while growing up by these moral zealots. She took up her "calling" with an unparrelleled fervor, causing her soul to ache and her mind to be twisted and tormented by the helplessness of not being able to convert all of mankind under heaven to her handed-down, often distorted, beliefs.
Altho I have always held a healthy disdain for this new breed of "Christianity", (I use the term loosely) I was co-erced into attending a few of these events during my youth, towards the beginning of the movement's inception, during the formative Reagan years and on into the glory days of George H. Sherf II, (known to the blinded masses as the awful cur Bush, Sr.) where I could enivitably hear the bleating of these sheep and the gnashing of young teeth. They were known as "rallies", "youth crusades" and other such wretched analogies. They consisted of some horrible, smiling, sweating, shouting, son of the devil exciting the young souls into a fevered pitch of spiritual exuberance, then meticulously breaking them down with an unbearable weight of guilt and shame, followed by the "Altar Call", whereby these sobbing zombies could head on down to the altar for a little of what I calls "Man-Made Salvation". These same despicable beasts could then tout their impressive "saved soul counts" to the other arms of the "ministry" as proof of the overwhelming good they were accomplishing "in Jesus' name."
What is so comical about this extremist approach, is that it attempts to keep up with and mirror the various fundmentalist movements from other parts of the world which it is clearly in direct opposition to.
It is a poor show to have these same lunatics hovering over "The Button" in these tumultuous times. (Altho, I do strongly suspect that those in real power, who milk these mindless zealots for contributions and votes, have little regard at all for the faith they supposedly profess. This comes as a startling realization, I know.) One little error in "faith-based voting" is that in the nearly 35 years since the inception of Roe -vs.- Wade, two-thirds of that time will have been spent under Republican "leadership" and still no overturned results. Kinda makes you wonder if we're just being duped, eh? Ahhhahhahhahuurrrghhhhh <snort> <chortle> <sob> Well, here's the goods, served up fresh; ehhh... Roe v Wade ain't neva, eva gonna get overturned my brothers and sistahs! That's right! Nevah!! How else are the global elite gonna keep the menace of a nation teeming with poor malcontents under control? You think they want all of us po' folk to be out reproducing like vermin and posing threat to their well-formulated masterplan. No. They will keep enough of us as necessary in order to keep the gears turning in this depraved system, but they need to trim off some of the dead weight, the underperforming dregs, as it were.
I would caution anyone who thinks that incidents like those depicted here are isolated, inconsequencial scenarios, to examine the evangelical/prosperity/doomsday movements closer, (as this documentary so aptly does) and recognize the imminent peril all of that entails. Then take a deep breath, shake your head, and recognize that there ain't much left to do but hang on with both hands and enjoy the ride ahead. It'll get a lot worse before it gets any better is the prediction I feel safest with.
Extremely well-done and low-key, this documentary is made in the same appealing, old-school manner as such greats as "Hearts and Minds", "Salesman", and "Harlan County, U.S.A.", whereby the filmmakers present a compelling, yet virtually un-opinionated picture and the forces of evil are given enough rope to hang themselves. Therein lies the mastery of a great documentary. Let your audience think for themselves, and they will get more out of it.
Movie Review: exactly what it was like
Summary: 5 Stars
I watched "Jesus Camp" with a friend of mine who was raised in this exact culture. She was so filled with rage throughout the movie. She kept saying "That's exactly what it was like." Interestingly, she too used to break down in tears as the children do in the movie. The reason she did was because, after the damning sermons, she always felt completely worthless and pathetic. Jesus loves ya, baby.
The problem is that there is an extraordinary amount of wisdom to be gleaned from Christ - not the worship-demanding, fear-mongering Christ that has been imagined by Christian authorities, but the Christ that preached and manifested love, that rebelled against and was supposedly murdered by an empire not unlike the one these "good" Christians are supporting.
The question we as a society have to ask is how do we allow these adults their own journeys through a very childlike spiritual understanding (relative to, say, the wisdom manifested by shamans and yogis, for example) while keeping them from using words of love and Christ to mentally and verbally abuse children.
There is no rational argument that will stop such church leaders. Their well-intentioned indoctrination of children borders on, if not surpasses, child abuse in only such a way the DC sniper was able to manipulate his 17 year old companion and North Korea's government is able to brainwash or ostracize in prison camps its entire population. These church leaders know what they're doing and proudly defend it. I have known several. They create a God that needs worship because, subconsciously, they need to be worshipped. Becky screams "war!" at the top of her lungs and believes to her core she is in a war for an America fundamentalists have absurdly re-imagined to be founded as a Christian nation, despite blatant statements by several founding fathers who struggled even in their day to keep the radical Christian sects at bay. Their search for truth is over. The only thing left is sectarian violence - be it with guns or words doesn't really matter.
The only hope lies in the children as they grow into adolescence. They may at least understand what this "abortion" thing they've been crying about throughout their non-reproductive years really is, that truly being pro-life requires one to also be anti-war, anti death penalty, pro-environment, and even anti-pesticides / pro-organic in the foods they eat that slowly kill them. That the "righteous judges" they were mindlessly screaming for are just the right wing's name for "activist judges who agree with us", and that global warming really has nothing to do with either creationism or Jesus.
An interesting side note on global warming - scientists have long known that only 1 degree of average temperature change across the globe will have catastrophic impacts on our ecology. If, as Levi states in the movie, the temperature has increased 0.6 degrees, then we are already 60% of the way there. Far from the small amount the mother naively brainwashes her child to believe it is.
One frequent commentor on this site keeps saying that the deleted scenes show balance. They just reinforce what the movie lays out. There is one in which the parents explain that their children are not "forced" into this way of thinking, yet every single film they watch, book they read, and activity they do is laden with the propaganda of the radical right wing.
I think it would be interesting for the directors to make a "Jesus Camp: 10 years later" follow-up. If I were a betting man, I'd say Levi would be more committed than ever. He seems to thrive on that structure and attention. I would think Rachael might pull away, sitting with her head buried in shame and possibly rage at what she was conditioned to say as a 9 year old. Smart, independent young adults - as she no doubt will become - can break away.
Yeah, I know - bad review. But read between the lines - it got me thinking which is exactly what a movie like this intends to do.
Movie Review: Important & Enlightening, A Very Good Documentary
Summary: 5 Stars
This 2006 documentary by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady which takes us to Kansas City, Missouri to meet Becky Fischer who runs an Evangelical church camp for young children caused quite a stir upon its release. This is a hard film to critique without personal and/or religious bias, but I'll try my best although I can tell you with no bias that this is a terrific documentary.
Becky Fischer is an evangelical pastor who founded the "Kids on Fire School of Ministry," located in Devil's Lake, North Dakota (and I'm the only one who finds this amusing apparently). Fischer says she wants America's youth to be as radical and dedicated to the Gospel as Muslim children are to Islam. Initially, I felt Fischer was a genuine, dedicated woman with extremely misguided views but as the film progresses she seems more like a middle-American version of Adolph Hitler. The documentary focuses on Fischer and three of the kids who attend her camp.
The town that makes up the film's setting is populated with Bush-loving; Evangelical Christians who believe Creationism is the only explanation for the world. Jesus Camp does not intend to be a definitive document of Evangelical Christianity, but rather these particular believers and how they indoctrinate their youth with their beliefs. One of the three kids who's given special attention in the film is Levi, a 12-year-old aspiring pastor whose mother makes some of the most infuriating, controversial comments in the film about her belief in Creationism and her disdain for the public school system.
Like almost everyone who watches it, I found Jesus Camp more disturbing than many horror films. What makes Jesus Camp disturbing is that these (rather extremist) beliefs are being force-fed to children this young and, while some may disagree, I thought the children in this film seemed like brainwashed zombies. Due to their young age, they can hardly be called "free-thinking individuals," but these are children who express very definite, concrete beliefs in their religion yet their thoughts sound robotic and scripted. The camp's cult-like, persuasive atmosphere which attempts to indoctrinate these children while they're still young and naïve is a frightening thing by itself, but the image of young, prepubescent children chanting in tongues is more than just a little disturbing.
I don't see the actions of Becky Fischer and the parents as simply passing on their own religious beliefs to the children, as most people do that. What they're doing to the children in this film is mind-control and is completely inappropriate with the ages of these kid's factored in. Fischer is involved in a debate toward the end of the film with Mike Papantonio, a radio talk-show host where she explains that she doesn't believe that people can choose their belief system once they pass childhood. This is the statement that changed any opinions I had about Fischer, because that statement is a thinly veiled way of saying "they can't be manipulated into believing what I want them to believe after they pass childhood." While not everyone will agree with my opinion about Fischer's ministry indoctrinating children with their propaganda, few would argue my belief that it's inappropriate to preach about the evils of abortion to children this young.
It's essential for me to add that Ted Haggard's appearance in this film (prior to his controversy) adds a whole new undertone to the content of the movie. Now, the director's give a fair, even-handed view of Fischer's church but you can't ignore the bias that sometimes slips through the cracks in the way a shot is framed or presented in the context of the movie. Watching the people in this film, I found it hard to judge the filmmaker's for any bias they may or may not have had. In conclusion, Jesus Camp is an important, disturbing, and eye-opening documentary that will evoke a wide-range of emotions from its viewers.
GRADE: A
Movie Review: Truly disturbing
Summary: 5 Stars
When I was a child I often went to visit my cousins in VA., one of whom had been partially raised by my grandmother and was at the time a devout christian. She went to christian camp every summer for years and when we went to pick her up, she was always happy, well rested and upbeat. These trips really seemed to center her, to make her feel uplifted.
Watching 'Jesus Camp' I saw none of that. These children were 'on fire' when they went in, then subjected to several days of psychological and spiritual abuse. The adults who ran the camp seemed to think that they were dealing with other adults rather than impressionable children, and some of the imagery used to reach these children was rather frightening.
What we see in the film:
* Children in camouflage face paint doing drills and talking about 'spiritual warfare'.
* Children reduced to tears because they behaved differently at school than at church - they were told they were hypocrites and liars and their behavior was 'not of god'.
* At night the children were in their bunks passing around a flashlight and telling ghost stories, and having a great time until an adult came in and scolded them and told them they needed to reconsider telling ghost stories because they were ungodly.
* Some of the more disturbing scenes involved a little blonde haired boy who was obviously struggling to make himself believe. He simply could not do it, and it was truly painful to watch him try so hard to take it all in and force himself to buy into it all when his heart just wasn't into it. He couldn't have been more than eight or nine years old and already he felt like a failure. After his initial appearance, in which he explained his spiritual issues, we see glimpses of him here and there mainly just going through the motions. He raised his arms up and tried to take on the characteristic enraptured look, but ended up dropping them with a sigh that seemed to say 'what's the use?'.
I used to teach Sunday school and VBS and I never saw anything like the 'Jesus Camp' crowd. There was the occasional babble and twitch but this came from the adults during the closing ceremonies. The fact that they had small children in Jesus Camp twitching on the floor, speaking gibberish and in tears constantly implies child abuse more than the joy of the spirit.
The film actually ended up being quite objective, despite many arguments to the contrary here on Amazon. People from both sides were interviewed and heard, which made the presentation both fair and balanced. The beliefs of the christians reviewed and the non-christians were both fairly represented.
I watched this with my oldest son and at the end we had a long discussion about what we had just seen. The conclusions we reached were that these people are hardcore disturbed, and projecting their own feelings of failure, ungodliness and dissatisfaction upon their innocent children. There was no enjoyment to be had at Jesus Camp; indeed every time the children began to relax and smile a little they were hit from all sides by a combative message, told they were liars, hypocrites and failures and made to cry. They prayed in terror of judgment for their perceived spiritual failings, then were set loose to proselytize to complete strangers.
The entire situation is sick and disturbing and abusive. The film shows all of this unflinchingly, at times painfully, and makes me profoundly grateful that Becky Fischer is no longer in a position of authority over innocent children.
Movie Review: Theocracy Vs. Oligarchy
Summary: 5 Stars
`Jesus Camp' is a revealing document of the right-wing evangelical movement. Like many people of any political or religious group, the old addage, "God is on our side," is worn on most players' sleeves. In the crossfire is Becky Fischer, Pentecostal evangelical children's minister and Mike Papantonio, radio host of the "Ring of Fire" program. They are both at the heart of the left/right, red/blue, theocracy vs. oligarchy divide in our nation. At the time of the filming, Sandra Day O'Connor retired and was about to be replaced on the Supreme Court by Samuel Alito. The event anchors the focus of the documentary. Not simply showing a series of observations, there are points that do come full circle. One of the best scenes in the movie is when Fischer and Papartonio square off on his radio program. Here he grills her about the difference between children learning and being indoctrinated. He believes they've been brainwashed. She asserts they need to be indoctrinated by her beliefs; otherwise, someone else will. The developments that come before this confrontation give ample reasons to view this movie.
There's a zealousness in the children that is pervasive throughout the DVD. Showing great emotional trajectory, the children are seen raising their hands, crying, and speaking in tongues. One articulate girl says that the quiet churches are dead churches, and the living churches are the ones that are active and lively. (No one has shown her places where true believers pray quietly.) In another scene, Fischer brings out a cardboard figure of President Bush that is nearly actual size. She invokes all the young faithful to pray for their President. (My mind kept going to churches where saints and medallions are blessed, and people are accused of idolatry.) It is from the pulpit the children get fire and brimstone sermons that seethe at the secular culture and a war between Satan and Jesus. The children are invoked to be key participants in this crusade. They at first establish self-worth when quoting scripture, "You were knit in your mother's womb;" then they pass around plastic replicas of fetuses at different stages of development. In passion they start to inflame the children. One scene that particularly smacked of emotions is when a young girl evangelizing people goes to a park and asks one African-American man where he thought he'd go after he dies. The man replies, "To heaven." She then insists, "Are you sure?" He replies affirmative. She leaves, only to be heard saying, "I think that man's a Muslim," in disparaging tones.
`Jesus Camp' has many sharp observations. However, its import can give us much to ponder. If Becky Fischer had her way, what would happen? How many freedoms would people have? Would we have to publically confess our sins and have policemen at our front doorstep, like the "God Squad" on patrol? On the other hand, if Mike Papantonio had his way, would evangelicals be able to vote, run for office, or take part in the political process? Would his vision of division of church and state be one where atheists are the only ones objective enough to make decisions and define morality? I for one am almost glad for the divide, for it is better than having either alternative in the driver's seat.