Jesus Camp [DVD] [2007] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

There's been a certain amount of debate about whether the portrayal of evangelical Christianity in this film is fair or accurate. It's hard to see how much there is to complain about in this respect since most of the film simply consists of pointing a camera at what's happening. Obviously it's possible for film-makers to subtlely affect your perceptions of what's happening through their editing and the use of music and so on, so perhaps we should be aware of that. However, one thing is abundantly clear. What's happening here is utterly, utterly sick. If you can watch this film and not feel angry about what you see happening then something has happened to desensitise you to the bullying and manipulation of children, and you should be worried about yourself as well as them.

The film centres around Becky Fischer's "Kids on Fire" camp where children go to get "fired up" for Jesus, and they certainly do get fired up. They're given very little choice when Becky Fischer is screaming at them that they are essentially bad or weak people if they're not willing to get fired up for Jesus. She talks about how some children may have been living a double-life, believing one thing on a Sunday and living differently when they're at school. She says that to live this way makes them phonies and hypocrites and she works them up into an anguished state about their need to be forgiven for these "sins". These children seem genuinely distressed and many of them cry. There are a number of clips where the children explain "their" philosophies about things and it is perfectly clear that they could not have come to these kinds of conclusions independently. They have clearly had their heads filled with various ideas about what is good and what is evil, what God wants and even "what kind of churches he is likely to turn up at". They are encouraged to mock evolution and any other theories of science which conflict with the Bible.

Of course the real villains here are the adults, people like Becky Fischer and Ted Haggard. Becky Fischer is simply a bully and a scaremonger and she clearly has no respect for other people. She only wishes to instill "the truth" into children's minds without any consideration of whether she has the right to interfere with them in this way. Ted Haggard however is an utter creep. When I saw him talking to a young boy called Levi who was an aspiring preacher I desparately wanted to tell him to get away from him. His bitterness and cynicism were plainly evident and it was horrible to hear the way he was speaking to this young boy. However this young boy clearly chose to overlook the wierdness of Haggard's attitude because he's been taught that anyone who preaches Jesus has to be a good guy.

There are a few moments in this film which will make you laugh, such as the lamentable Christian hip-hop used at one of the meetings - "hey homie, we're kicking it for Christ", and Becky Fischer solemnly commanding the devil not to interfere with her powerpoint presentation. Mostly though you'll probably find yourself laughing to avoid crying. These people have lost all perspective about everything, and they're riding the train to insanityville. A situation like this can only end badly for all concerned, especially the children who obviously believe what they're being told and are willing to stake their lives on it. There's so much that's wrong with what's happening here that you could write a book on it, so it's hard to do justice to it in a short review. All I would say is that there should be some way of holding these people to account. They have no right to do the things they're doing and these children need to be protected from this madness. Let's keep speaking out against this woeful abuse of children and hope that we may be able to make a difference.

I actually thought this was a great documentary. The topic aside, I felt like the filmmakers, Ewing and Grady, had really done their research, and I was surprised by how extensive their interviews were. There were maybe three or four children that they focussed on and all of them were interviewed in their own environments, in a place where they obviously felt comfortable. They were all given a chance to say their piece, as was the preacher, Becky Fischner.

I have to admit, there were a few moments when I wondered if I was being manipulated into thinking and feeling a certain way. One scene springs to mind, when during a sermon, there was a wailing, somewhat melodramatic music/song happening. Just as I was thinking that it was a cheat-like of the filmmakers to add a dramatic score over a relatively dramatic shot, the camera panned left and there was a woman wailing into a microphone, which I presume is supposed to help bring the children to religious ecstacy. So that just sort of told me that it wasn't neccessarily the filmmakers doing the manipulating.

As another reviewer said, they seem to be just pointing the camera and shooting, with no obvious enhancements for dramatic effect. I can only appreciate that, as by the end I felt that I was mostly able to decide for myself. The film is in no way unbiased, but then the subjects within the film could hardly be considered unbiased.

In terms of the topic, I thought it was a good one to cover in a world where we mostly seem to focus on Islamic fundamentalism. We seem to forget that there are many other religions out there with their own special branches of people who are taking it too far.

I think the thing that I found most compelling was the fact that the preacher seemed to really believe what she was saying. She spoke with such conviction that I could see how people would be easily swayed by her, particularly children. I think that frightened me more than anything. Her passion was almost alarming, that is until we got to the kids.

The kids were disturbing. They were all so serious and adult like. At one point a twelve year old boy told the preacher that at the age of five, he was depressed and thought there was nothing more to life until he heard the word of God. Well, the preacher was pleased at any rate. Myself, I wasn't sure whether to scoff or to scream. If that really were the case, which I doubt that it is, and the boy really was depressed at five years old, then I think what we should all be concerned about is the loss of childhood, and of innocence. Clearly, we don't have to worry too much about imagination, there seemed to be plenty going round.

How does the warped religion depicted in this disturbing film come to exist and flourish? Maybe one clue is in the visuals. The opening sequence shows a flat, featureless landscape whose human component is wholly structured around the automobile. Roads, gas stations, ugliness of all kinds. The outdoors seems like a foreign country to the adults in the film; it's just a place to drive through to get to their next artificial indoor environment. No wonder most of the adults and a lot of the children are frighteningly obese. The few times we see any interaction with the natural world, it's the kids on their own, exploring a cave or just messing around outside. Even then, they seem for the most part to find the creatures they encounter scary or disgusting.

What we're looking at here is endemic and severe nature deficit disorder. It comes out in the theology as well as the lifestyle. These people do not value God's creation; they are alienated from it, hence all the emphasis on purity and overcoming sin so as to bring about the return of Jesus and an end to the natural world as we know it.

As the theologian Jurgen Moltmann said decades ago, "Unless a new point of departure can be found, the conflict between body and soul is going to end fatally for human beings". Time is proving him right. Sad, sad, sad.