Movies

Jesus C amp Review

I finally got around to watching Jesus Camp and my first impression is that movie can easily be a Rorschach test for one’s views on the topic of the role of religion in politics. Because while the doc mainly focuses around three kids and the organiser of the Kids on Fire (Becky Fisher) camp from which the doc gets its name, the movie does have political overtones as well.

But first off, I’d like to say that the filmmakers do an excellent job of trying to be as even handed as humanly possible about the people in their movie because the subject matter is easily and almost instantly polarizing. Part of that is because the pastor and the kids are of the Pentecostal denomination; a denomination that believes that the Holy Spirit can cause people to speak in tongues and go into convulsions. This is the kind of thing that even people like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson think is messed up. And it is easy to see why. In one of the movie’s first scenes where the pastor and a bunch of kids are praying what seems like a normal revival meeting, until they start praying in tongues which will likely weird everyone right out. But apart from those instances, the only people who speak in the movie are the subjects themselves; you will never hear the filmmakers.

And that fact is what makes the movie so engrossing. Fischer can be at one moment a completely sympathetic person just trying to do her part for her faith, but on other occasions she becomes positively scary (for want of a better word) as she begins to talk about spiritual warfare and, for example, about how Harry Potter deserves to die (were he real) for his practicing witchcraft. Either way, she nevertheless comes off as being incredibly committed and passionate about what she does.

However, as equally interesting are the three kids the moviemakers follow around as well. The boy and two girls (aged 12, 9, and 9 respectively) are captivating because even at such a young age they are not unlike Becky Fischer in their zeal for their faith. And it’s through them, that I feel, the movie becomes as engaging as it does because what these kids experience at the camp is, like Fischer says in the beginning of the movie, not unlike what their Palestinian counterparts are exposed to because of Hamas and Hezbollah. But, instead of learning about anti-Israel hate, the kids in this movie learn about the evils of abortion and how Satan uses evolution as one of his many weapons in his arsenal to take them off of the path of righteousness.

And it’s at about this point in the movie (when they’re at the camp) when it becomes the Rorschach test I mentioned before because it becomes obvious that alongside their religious entrenchment/indoctrination (depending on your point of view) comes political mobilisation especially in regards to abortion. While that in and of itself isn’t necessarily that bad, what complicated thing is the fact that the people at the camp earnestly believe in an alternate history of the US where it was founded as a Christian nation under God’s protection (and blessing) and needs to be returned to that state. Furthermore, there is a scene where on of the kids’ families says the Pledge of Allegiance…to the Christian nation complete with its own flag.

In short, I would highly recommend this movie mainly because it is so thought-provoking and incredibly engrossing at the same time. It’s an eye-opening look into a branch of Christianity that doesn’t get a lot of attention. Plus it has an incredibly ironic scene with Ted Haggard who has recently been outed as a homosexual yet in the movie preaches against.