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copyright ©1999-2007 |
Plot synopsis Big, bold Becky Fischer is a children’s Evangelical Christian pastor. Each summer, she runs the Kids on Fire summer camp, gathering together eager little Evangelical Christians and their families in the town of Devil’s Lake, North Dakota. No macaroni arts-and-crafts at this camp: Pastor Becky’s goal is to build an army of young believers, willing and able to transform the direction of America – and the world – in the name of fundamentalist Christianity. They spend their days praying to God and to a cardboard cutout of George W. Bush; they speak in tongues (Pastor Becky’s specific sect is Pentecostal) and practice militaristic, Jesus-centric song-and-dance numbers, clad in camo gear and facepaint; they discuss the evils of abortion, evolution, and Harry Potter. Among these young soldiers of God are earnest twelve-year-old mullet-sporting Levi, who knows he wants to be a preacher one day, perky 10-year-old Tory, who loves dancing to Christian rock, and intense nine-year-old Rachel, who’s already so-engrained with the evangelizing spirit that she approaches strangers in need of “saving” wherever she goes. Review I’ll
readily admit: as an agnostic bordering on atheist, I’ve always had
a hard time viewing Evangelical Christians as anything other than,
well, nuts. Of course, my sole experience with them is through those
cable-broadcast sermons featuring wax-faced preachers shouting about
God and the Devil like some mentally-deranged street-corner bum,
while the hysterical audience members keen back-and-forth, tears
pouring down their faces. It’s hard for me to take all the fire-and-brimstone
histrionics particularly seriously; whenever I read the stats claiming
that something like 10% (or even higher) of Americans surveyed identify
themselves as Evangelicals, I tend to assume the numbers must be
flawed. After all, I don’t know any of these people. (Ah, how small-minded
we humans are.) All of which is to say, I didn’t exactly go into
Jesus Camp unbiased. But to their great credit, filmmakers Heidi
Ewing and Rachel Grady more or less did, presenting the subjects
of their documentary in a straightforward, fly-on-the-wall manner
that lets viewers hear what everyone has to say, and make whatever
judgments they like for themselves. As a result, we’re able to get
a good look into a segment of American society that, by all accounts,
is exercising an increasingly large amount of influence over life
in the United States – without feeling like we’re being manipulated
by the filmmakers. I have no doubt that Pastor Becky sees Jesus
Camp in a completely different light than I do, focusing on how the film
shows how successful her efforts at recruiting children have been:
her group comes off as deeply committed and very organized, effective
at doing exactly what they’re setting out to do. Of course, for those
of us on the opposite end of the religious and political spectrum,
this is precisely what makes it all so deeply, deeply scary. Getting
to know these kids, one can’t help but wonder: what will they be
like when they grow up? The answer to that just may provide a good
hint as to where the US itself is heading. Which is why Jesus
Camp makes
for such riveting, thought-provoking viewing – most especially to
those of us who have long dismissed these sorts of Evangelicals as
a minority-cult freak show.
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