Jesus Camp
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Movie Reviews of Jesus Camp
Movie Review: Fair and balanced
Summary: 5 Stars
The so-called Children's Pastor, Becky Fischer, identified at the end of the program that the correct time to teach children is before they are seven, as what they will have learned will be burned indelibly into their minds. This is true, and it demonstrates that what she is doing is no better than brainwashing. She's employing straightforward cult tactics: get them while they're young, berate them constantly by telling them they're worthless (in her case, full of sin), and speak of great loss and suffering if you do not do as you are told (in her case, going to hell if you don't step in line). If you're told something enough, you'll start to believe it.
Last I checked, teachers in public schools aren't employing those tactics when teaching science.
Yet the Bible becomes science to her. Harry Potter would have been put to death if he lived in Old Testament times. She conveniently overlooks how many people *right in front of her* that would be put to death if they lived during Old Testament times. Just one example: touch the skin of a pig...we'd lose every football team in the country.
It frightens me that she, and people like her, are making themselves responsible for the teaching of this next generation - the generation that will apparently usher in the Second Coming. They tell things like this to the children (as well as that America is God's nation) without putting anything into historical context. For example, the kids who are convinced that their generation will see "Salvation," aren't told about the countless times that Christ's second coming has been prophesied, and the countless times that the prophecies, many of which were based on strict biblical interpretation, were wrong. They are fed ONE line, so can believe only ONE thing.
Science doesn't prove anything, they say (although I'll bet their children are vaccinated and given antibiotics when necessary - yes, Virginia, medicine is science). Yet their syllogisms are faulty. Prayer is taken out of school, and the schools fall part - so says a mother convinced that she could home school her kids as well as they could be public schooled. Uh...no, your kid's not going to get a good education. Not if that's the kind of logic you employ.
I thought to myself while watching this that "The Exorcist" was no longer my scariest movie. This has usurped it. I saw dozens of children speaking in tongues, later sobbing because they were told that they were dirty sinners.
Possibly the most disturbing scene involved the cardboard cutout of George Bush. It was treated as a) a real person; and b) like a messiah. I hope George didn't see that; his messianic complex is considerable enough as is.
I have great respect for the filmmakers. Their ability to gain access to these places and people, and present everything as fairly as they did was remarkable.
Movie Review: Disturbing Glimpse Into a Growing Movement
Summary: 5 Stars
"Jesus Camp" is a genuinely frightening documentary about an evangelical summer camp in North Dakota. Shocking scenes abound amid constant talk of "washing oneself in the blood of Christ" (this familiar lingo is why I call this brand of evangelicalism a "blood cult"). The children are spurred on into an emotional frenzy of tears, flailing, and speaking in tongues; they're made up in camouflage clothing and face paint, and in a chilling testament to the militancy of the "Christian soldier" credo, brandish spears in an eerie dance to a song that cries for war. Becky Fischer, the camp's leader, speaks candidly about the need to train Christian children to be as intensely committed as Palestinian kids who gladly go to their deaths for Islam. And watching this footage, it's not difficult to imagine her vision becoming a reality. One has to acknowledge that this particular group represents fundamentalist Christianity pushed to some of its furthest extremes, beyond what you'd find with most evangelical churches. Yet it's not a very far stretch. The militancy and the genuine brainwashing that the movie depicts are very real, and more common than many people realize.
It isn't the camp's right-wing ideology that makes the film disturbing; it's the fact that this is a movement that seeks out the most vulnerable among us. As the movie shows, it is a movement that zeroes in on children, because they're vulnerable. It's not that kids are stupid; it's that they have a far greater capacity to blur the line between reality and imagination, and thus to get "into" things in a way adults can do only with painstaking indoctrination. This is why kids make such especially fearless and cruel soldiers, as demonstrated by the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. In "Jesus Camp," the kids are sent out to use their disarming cuteness in recruiting new members and staging political demonstrations against abortion. They stand in front of the White House, mouths taped with the word "LIFE." As young children, they can't be expressing their own well-formed opinions; they're simply being exploited.
Adding to the tragedy of such exploitation is the fact that several of the kids are clearly talented and perceptive for their age, so it seems an even greater shame that they're being indoctrinated instead of nourished as critical thinkers. Levi, a 12-year-old, has an extraordinary talent for public speaking; Rachael, who's nine, is unusually perceptive about people and has an intuitive understanding of psychology. Even Becky, the leader, is obviously an excellent teacher, or would be if she weren't crazy.
As someone who's researched Christian Zionism, I was interested to note one scene where some of the kids recite the Pledge of Allegiance before three flags: an American flag, a Christian flag emblazoned with a cross, and an Israeli flag.
Movie Review: The road to hell
Summary: 5 Stars
Do you remember just what the road to hell is paved with?
This excellent, painful, scary, honest, and complex documentary shows just how dangerous a politically active evangelical movement can be. I have nothing but respect for the morality, character, awareness, and honesty of believing Christians. (I am NOT one.) I have, however, no respect, for the twisted history, cult pseudo-science, proudly professed brainwashing, and the avowed intention of transforming the world, or at least the United States, into more of the same, as clearly demonstrated by many of the adults in this documentary.
As a personal religion, Christianity is not a problem, and I'm sure it has transformed many individual lives at least in part for the better. When it acts as an active social, educational, and political movement dedicated to capturing the minds, hearts, and souls of everybody else, it is dangerous, and as far from any true spirit of democracy as anything the old communist totalitarians could devise.
In Jesus Camp we see the conscious indoctrination of children by indoctrinated adults. We see sometimes prescient young people who have incorporated many of the more mature tools of adult self-awareness in the service of their emotionally powerful religion. And we see many of the classic forms of cult mind control used by at least some of the seeming "normal average middle class mainstream Christian Americans" of our society.
For these kids at Jesus Camp there is immediate intimacy, emotional support, adult and peer recognition, love, acceptance, joy, fun, and the seeming certainty that the creator of the universe cares about them, that they are special, that their lives have meaning, direction and purpose, that they are loved and matter. That they are not alone.
Its a hell of an attractive brew. If only you can somehow turn your mind off to the accumulated human wisdom and scientific knowledge of the last thousand years, if only you can accept a literal interpretation of a single ancient book, if only you can accept without question, well, a million endless things...sigh...
They are real, they are honest, they are committed, and they receive tremendous value, energy, and personal power in their lives from their beliefs..and they are not to be trusted with our democratic liberties and our blessed constitution. (You do have to wonder, do all those people who claim this to be a Christian Nation ever ask themselves why the U.S Constitution, the fundamental FACT of our society since 1787, never mentions the words, Jesus, Christ, or Christian?)
Okay, see Jesus Camp, and learn how seductive are those good intentions that the road to hell is paved with.
Movie Review: Mixed feelings about this film
Summary: 5 Stars
I was a bit shocked by this film, as were others. I won't go into it all here, because others have said it better than I probably could.
Here are some things I found a bit irritating about this movie:
- The Alito nomination. They kept doing a voiceover of radio news about Alito being nominated to the Supreme Court. Although I do find Alito a bit socially conservative, I hardly think his nomination has much to do with the people in the movie. Alito is for instance I think Roman Catholic, and thus, probably would not see eye-to-ey with the people in the film (Ted Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi are Catholic, and they have power, should I fear them ?). This part of the film fell totally flat for me.
- Saying "take back America for Christ". To some, that might sound scary (I am a non-believer, BTW). But really what does that mean ? I bet Jesse Jackson and John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. used terms like that. Why is it a sign of depth when a Democrat says it, but when a conservative says it, it is "scary" ? Didn't Clinton (not to mention) Gore, pepper his speech and his ideas with religious notions (someone mentioned that Clinton actually used the word "Jesus" and "God' more than Bush.
- The film shows us a snapshot one one tiny community, without really putting it into a bigger context. For instance, are these people representative of evangelicals, or of Christians ? That is left unanswered.
- That liberal Christian radio talkshow host. Where was he again ? I find it a little hard to believe that guy is legit, for some reason. I mean, the radiowaves are not exactly "exploding" with left-leaning Christian talk show hosts. I am not saying he is fake, but I just wanted to know more about him.
I just want to make one final comment. Here in Texas, a lot of the Christian camps have had their negligence with respect to the children politically covered in Austin. What I mean is, the GOP here in Texas legally exempted them from things like abuse. I find that extremely shameful, particularly from a party that talks about "protecting the children".
It was interesting that now-discredited "evangelical leader" Ted Haggard is in the film. The notion that this guy (who lied about his relationship to a gay prostitute) would be teaching kids about morality, is the height of hypocrisy. One main take-away should be, if someone claims to be "holy", run away from him, and lock the kids in the house !
Movie Review: Sure to make people think
Summary: 5 Stars
As a Christian I say this movie sickens me not for how the material is presented but how on the mark most of it is. Every Sunday I sit in church and listen to how Christians and churches in general are under siege. This naturally begs the question under siege from where? Where is this culture war that some Christians are always screaming about?
I don't think such a concept exists but as Adolph's good buddy Joe Gribbles once said "Tell a big lie long enough and everyone will accept it as truth"
The movie focuses on the camp director, some of the children involved in camp and the parents of some of those children. There are a number of quotes that speak to heavy indoctrination if nothing else. These quotes include but are not limited to
Referring to President George W. Bush] He has really brought some real credibility, um, to the Christian faith
Did you get to the part yet where they say that science hasn't proven anything?
And my own personal favorite- Warlocks are the enemies of God! And I don't care what kind of hero they are, they're an enemy of God and had it been in the old testament Harry Potter would have been put to death
And while we are on the subject of quotes here is one of my favorites Faith without reason is blind, and reason without faith is lame
I could sit here and post a long review about what I think of this movie and those people that run it but that would mean ignoring the most important subject the kids.
There are just two belief points I would like to make here
1. while the movie shows us some scary things about the manipulation of children it also shows us that even the most heavily indoctrinated kid can still be a kid (check time index min 38)
2. Using kids to speak up on an issue like abortion is criminal there is no way of knowing if kids that young stood on the steps out of a genuine belief or if they went along with the crowd
Overall-For as many problems as I had with the people portrayed in it the documentary does its job and should be a focal point for discussion between secular Americans and conservative Christians for many years to come. I just pray we never stop talking to each other because then we all lose.