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Jesus Camp, 2006
This documentary follows several children as they attend an evangelical summer camp run by Becky Fischer, a woman who sees children as the future army of God. From speaking in tongues to leading prayers, to protesting against abortion, the children are called to action to constantly demonstrate their status as true believers.
Walking a thin line between funny and tragic, the earnestness of the featured children makes this a moving film even in its seemingly absurd moments.
I think that it can be too easy to make fun of someone’s religion, because from an outside perspective a lot of elements of faith---especially in the more literal details--can seem silly if you aren’t part of that world. But unfortunately for the main adult at the center of this film, Miss Fischer, my willingness to extend an open mind to her teachings did not survive the first ten minutes of the movie. In fact, I can tell you the exact moment that my emotional dial turned to contempt, and that would be during an interview where Fischer speaks with an undisguised jealousy of the children (trained by “the enemy”) who grow up to be suicide bombers. Wishing that American children could show such initiative, she refers to the children in her ministry as “usable.” “They are so usable.”
I think that, in some ways, it’s a shame that many of the more memorable moments just make Fischer and her allies seem kooky but not necessarily harmful. The movie got a deep and unexpected laugh out of me when Fischer and her co-workers lay hands on their laptops and ask God to bless their Powerpoints because you know how Satan loves to play tricks by messing up their slideshows. I’ve had tech malfunctions, but I never realized they were the behest of evil powers. Fully aware of her audience--both in person and behind the camera--Fischer announces that she has something to say about Harry Potter, going on to condemn the celebration of Warlocks. “Warlocks are not heroes!!!” she bellows to a seemingly slightly baffled crowd of children.
Those are the moments that make it into the trailer version of this film. These are the easy laughs. But there’s a lot here that really isn’t a laughing matter. I know that abuse is a strong word to use, but that’s honestly how I felt watching Fischer and the other adults put the weight of the world on the tiny shoulders of their charges, letting them know that the guilt of not saving their peers must hang over them, and that God sees and makes note of every little slip up that they make. The kids are rewarded with attention and praise when they denounce themselves as sinners and make a show of confessing. In a moment that is both funny and disturbing, they are asked to speak in tongues to bless a cardboard cutout of President Bush. There is an unsettling awareness that these children are not being taught an inner spirituality, but rather the performance of spirituality. Before going in front of the children to denounce them for their worldly interests, Fischer covers herself in make-up, nail polish, and hairspray, launching the camp by demanding that the whole audience clap for how she looks. The children attend a rousing sermon by Ted Haggard, and if you can’t quite place that name, he’s the evangelist who shortly after this film came out was revealed to have had a sexual relationship with his male massage therapist and purchased some meth from the guy. So.
Then there’s the overtly twisted political nature of what happens at home and at the camp. In one sequence, a very sincere young man named Levi shows just what kind of education he’s been receiving when he tells the camera that he thinks that “Galileo was right to give up science for Christ.” Yeah, that’s . . . not what happened, Levi. Levi’s mother tries to present including Creationism in a science curriculum as some sort of even-handed thing. When she rhetorically asks Levi how he’d feel if he went to a school where people told him that he was stupid and wrong for believing in evolution, Levi answers honestly that he’d love that. “Oh, you’d . . . like that?” his mother stumbles, realizing that she hasn’t yet taught her child the art of false equivalencies as a tactic. We later watch Levi’s mother coach him about how to refute climate change.
I have to say, boy did I love the kids in this film. Levi, Rachel, and little Victoria are really engaging, cool people. They all made me think, in one way or another, of students I’ve had over the years. I don’t think that being intensely religious makes them bad people, but it does turn them into the kind of person who will walk up to a group of old men just trying to enjoy their afternoon and ask them where they think they will go when they die. Religion and how one expresses their religious belief is obviously a highly personal decision, but I hated watching the sincerity and good hearts of these kids being turned to memorizing the fact that the world’s average temperature has gone up by “only” 0.6 of a degree.
The only thing I really didn’t like about this film was a frequent framing device of a radio host who rants against Fischer and generally about evangelism’s intrusion into democracy. It’s an unnecessary counterpoint to what we’re seeing, and would have been better delivered either by having an interviewer raise these points to Fischer or just trusting that the film’s viewers can tell that the ranting against secularization of American society is inherently undemocratic.
An unforgettable glimpse into a particular brand of indoctrination.
Jesus Camp, 2006
This documentary follows several children as they attend an evangelical summer camp run by Becky Fischer, a woman who sees children as the future army of God. From speaking in tongues to leading prayers, to protesting against abortion, the children are called to action to constantly demonstrate their status as true believers.
Walking a thin line between funny and tragic, the earnestness of the featured children makes this a moving film even in its seemingly absurd moments.
I think that it can be too easy to make fun of someone’s religion, because from an outside perspective a lot of elements of faith---especially in the more literal details--can seem silly if you aren’t part of that world. But unfortunately for the main adult at the center of this film, Miss Fischer, my willingness to extend an open mind to her teachings did not survive the first ten minutes of the movie. In fact, I can tell you the exact moment that my emotional dial turned to contempt, and that would be during an interview where Fischer speaks with an undisguised jealousy of the children (trained by “the enemy”) who grow up to be suicide bombers. Wishing that American children could show such initiative, she refers to the children in her ministry as “usable.” “They are so usable.”
I think that, in some ways, it’s a shame that many of the more memorable moments just make Fischer and her allies seem kooky but not necessarily harmful. The movie got a deep and unexpected laugh out of me when Fischer and her co-workers lay hands on their laptops and ask God to bless their Powerpoints because you know how Satan loves to play tricks by messing up their slideshows. I’ve had tech malfunctions, but I never realized they were the behest of evil powers. Fully aware of her audience--both in person and behind the camera--Fischer announces that she has something to say about Harry Potter, going on to condemn the celebration of Warlocks. “Warlocks are not heroes!!!” she bellows to a seemingly slightly baffled crowd of children.
Those are the moments that make it into the trailer version of this film. These are the easy laughs. But there’s a lot here that really isn’t a laughing matter. I know that abuse is a strong word to use, but that’s honestly how I felt watching Fischer and the other adults put the weight of the world on the tiny shoulders of their charges, letting them know that the guilt of not saving their peers must hang over them, and that God sees and makes note of every little slip up that they make. The kids are rewarded with attention and praise when they denounce themselves as sinners and make a show of confessing. In a moment that is both funny and disturbing, they are asked to speak in tongues to bless a cardboard cutout of President Bush. There is an unsettling awareness that these children are not being taught an inner spirituality, but rather the performance of spirituality. Before going in front of the children to denounce them for their worldly interests, Fischer covers herself in make-up, nail polish, and hairspray, launching the camp by demanding that the whole audience clap for how she looks. The children attend a rousing sermon by Ted Haggard, and if you can’t quite place that name, he’s the evangelist who shortly after this film came out was revealed to have had a sexual relationship with his male massage therapist and purchased some meth from the guy. So.
Then there’s the overtly twisted political nature of what happens at home and at the camp. In one sequence, a very sincere young man named Levi shows just what kind of education he’s been receiving when he tells the camera that he thinks that “Galileo was right to give up science for Christ.” Yeah, that’s . . . not what happened, Levi. Levi’s mother tries to present including Creationism in a science curriculum as some sort of even-handed thing. When she rhetorically asks Levi how he’d feel if he went to a school where people told him that he was stupid and wrong for believing in evolution, Levi answers honestly that he’d love that. “Oh, you’d . . . like that?” his mother stumbles, realizing that she hasn’t yet taught her child the art of false equivalencies as a tactic. We later watch Levi’s mother coach him about how to refute climate change.
I have to say, boy did I love the kids in this film. Levi, Rachel, and little Victoria are really engaging, cool people. They all made me think, in one way or another, of students I’ve had over the years. I don’t think that being intensely religious makes them bad people, but it does turn them into the kind of person who will walk up to a group of old men just trying to enjoy their afternoon and ask them where they think they will go when they die. Religion and how one expresses their religious belief is obviously a highly personal decision, but I hated watching the sincerity and good hearts of these kids being turned to memorizing the fact that the world’s average temperature has gone up by “only” 0.6 of a degree.
The only thing I really didn’t like about this film was a frequent framing device of a radio host who rants against Fischer and generally about evangelism’s intrusion into democracy. It’s an unnecessary counterpoint to what we’re seeing, and would have been better delivered either by having an interviewer raise these points to Fischer or just trusting that the film’s viewers can tell that the ranting against secularization of American society is inherently undemocratic.
An unforgettable glimpse into a particular brand of indoctrination.