Jesus Camp

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(Nothing favor is too small to ask of God: Typos)
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===Martyrdom and war===
 
===Martyrdom and war===
Fischer frequently makes references to martyrdom, and asks that people be ready to die for Jesus. During a dance routine, the boys were dressed in combat fatigues, and made-up in camouflage paint.
+
Fischer frequently makes references to martyrdom, and asks that people be ready to die for Jesus. During a dance routine, the boys were dressed in combat fatigues and made-up in camouflage paint.
  
 
===The Muslims do it, and so should we===
 
===The Muslims do it, and so should we===
Fischer early in the film talked about how Islamic children are raised, with thorough indoctrination, and given hand grenades to play with. Fischer does not condemn such activity, and indeed adopts a rather unusual approach to combatting this. Her view is that Christian children must also be thoroughly drilled in the tenets of her brand of Christianity. When questioned on this indoctrination, she replied ''"Every other religion is indoctrinating their kids. hellooo. I'd like to see more churches indoctrinating."''
+
Fischer early in the film talked about how Islamic children are raised - with thorough indoctrination and given hand grenades to play with. Fischer does not condemn such activity, and indeed adopts a rather unusual approach to combatting this. Her view is that Christian children must also be thoroughly drilled in the tenets of her brand of Christianity. When questioned on this indoctrination, she replied ''"Every other religion is indoctrinating their kids. hellooo. I'd like to see more churches indoctrinating."'' Perhaps a bit like fighting fire with fire, when fighting in a house built of fireworks and petrol.
  
 
===Speaking in tongues===
 
===Speaking in tongues===
The children are regularly encouraged to speak in [[Speaking in tongues|tongues]], and the adults cheerily join in. Of course it sounds like a bunch of bad actors trying to portray something in between Latin and Aramaic, but perhaps the children will find work in the B movie business. It'll be particularly valuable when the script writers need their demons to say cool sounding things, but they can't afford to hire someone to write in an authentic ancient language.
+
The children are regularly encouraged to speak in [[Speaking in tongues|tongues]], and the adults cheerily join in. It sounds like a bad actor who's been hired to play the role of a arab or an Israeli, but has no idea how to speak the language. The result is vaguely foreign sounding gibberish.
  
 
===Children proselytizing===
 
===Children proselytizing===
At least twice during the documentary, Holy bowling ball girl is seen proselytizing to strangers. During the bowling scene, she wandered up to a woman to pass on the message that God was watching over here. She didn't have a notarized letter to confirm this, but she seemed certain that this is the message she'd received from God. At the end of the film the same girl is seen approaching another stranger to ask them if they knew where they were going after death? Although it's difficult to believe that adults would seek theological advice from random children, Ted Haggard had advised earlier in the film that children should use their "cute" factor to spread the word. Perhaps a secular example would be a nine year-old kid offering strangers advice on sexual positions they could try with their spouses, since that would be equally silly and inappropriate.
+
Holy bowling ball girl is twice seen proselytizing to strangers. During the bowling scene she wandered up to a woman to pass on the message that God was watching over her. There wasn't much of a reaction from the women, so presumably she used to God communicating with her through creepy kids. At the end of the film the same girl is seen approaching another stranger to ask them if they knew where they were going after death? Although it's difficult to believe that adults would seek theological advice from random children, Ted Haggard had advised earlier in the film that children should use their "cute" factor to spread the word.
  
The children had at least one nominated "child pastor", and a boy named Levi appeared regularly in this role throughout the documentary.
+
The children had at least one nominated "child pastor", a boy named Levi, who was fortunate enough to meet Ted Haggard (prior to his drug-fueled exploits with male prostitutes).
  
 
==Causes for hope==
 
==Causes for hope==
If there's one thing in the documentary that at least partially restores our faith in the rationality of humankind, and at least partially alleviates our despair, it is a single scene half-way through the film. A young child addresses the congregation saying:
+
If there's one thing in the documentary that at least partially restores our faith in the rationality of humankind, and perhaps alleviates our despair, it is a single scene half-way through the film. A young child addresses the congregation saying:
  
 
{{cquote|I just wanted to talk about belief in [[God]]. I've had a hard time doing it and it's just really hard to do this. Just to believe in God is really hard, because you don't see him, you don't really know him much. Sometimes I don't even believe what the Bible says... It makes me feel guilty and bad.}}
 
{{cquote|I just wanted to talk about belief in [[God]]. I've had a hard time doing it and it's just really hard to do this. Just to believe in God is really hard, because you don't see him, you don't really know him much. Sometimes I don't even believe what the Bible says... It makes me feel guilty and bad.}}

Revision as of 16:30, 19 November 2009

Jesus Camp is a documentary about children in the Christian Evangelical movement, and centers around scenes from the life of Becky Fischer, the organizer of "Kids On Fire School of Ministry" summer camp, as well as a handful of children who attend the camp itself.

The film highlights serious indoctrination of children using many of the same tactics of more traditional exploitative cults such as Scientology. Towards the end of the film, Fischer has the brass balls to claim that her camp isn't promoting a political position, but apparently she sees nothing wrong with wheeling out a life size standee of George W. Bush and encouraging the children to worship it while kneeling in front of it, touching the cardboard cut-out President in a moment of unintentional irony. During the camp, the children are also subjected to at least two different lectures on the subject of the evils of abortion. These children are too young to understand sexual reproduction, let alone the reasons why a woman might choose to have an abortion and the ethical considerations surrounding it.

Contents

Themes of the film

The activities depicted in the documentary are repetitive, as would be expected when portraying indoctrination, and there are a number of recurring messages given to the children.

No favor is too small to ask of God

The bizarre behavior of evangelicals features heavily in the film, but it's most clearly demonstrated by the surreal and trivial prayers offered by young and old alike. In one scene, a small girl is seen praying that her bowling ball be guided to the pins by Jesus. The camera cuts away to show the ball heading for the gutter. In another scene, Fischer and her acolytes are seen setting up for the opening day of the camp. Her prayer includes the wonderful incantation: "...and please protect our PowerPoint presentation. Satan, I know how you just love to get in our PowerPoint presentations and mess us up. Get out! You have no power over us here." It's one thing to curse Microsoft for their crummy software, quite another to invoke divine malevolence. The notion that Satan would sabotage Christ's word by playing pranks with PowerPoint is comparable to the behavior of demons in Jack Chick's comic books. Chick's grotty little publications actually make an appearance, when the "Jesus, guide this ball that it may smiteth thine enemy pins" child is seen reading during a break in bowling.

Martyrdom and war

Fischer frequently makes references to martyrdom, and asks that people be ready to die for Jesus. During a dance routine, the boys were dressed in combat fatigues and made-up in camouflage paint.

The Muslims do it, and so should we

Fischer early in the film talked about how Islamic children are raised - with thorough indoctrination and given hand grenades to play with. Fischer does not condemn such activity, and indeed adopts a rather unusual approach to combatting this. Her view is that Christian children must also be thoroughly drilled in the tenets of her brand of Christianity. When questioned on this indoctrination, she replied "Every other religion is indoctrinating their kids. hellooo. I'd like to see more churches indoctrinating." Perhaps a bit like fighting fire with fire, when fighting in a house built of fireworks and petrol.

Speaking in tongues

The children are regularly encouraged to speak in tongues, and the adults cheerily join in. It sounds like a bad actor who's been hired to play the role of a arab or an Israeli, but has no idea how to speak the language. The result is vaguely foreign sounding gibberish.

Children proselytizing

Holy bowling ball girl is twice seen proselytizing to strangers. During the bowling scene she wandered up to a woman to pass on the message that God was watching over her. There wasn't much of a reaction from the women, so presumably she used to God communicating with her through creepy kids. At the end of the film the same girl is seen approaching another stranger to ask them if they knew where they were going after death? Although it's difficult to believe that adults would seek theological advice from random children, Ted Haggard had advised earlier in the film that children should use their "cute" factor to spread the word.

The children had at least one nominated "child pastor", a boy named Levi, who was fortunate enough to meet Ted Haggard (prior to his drug-fueled exploits with male prostitutes).

Causes for hope

If there's one thing in the documentary that at least partially restores our faith in the rationality of humankind, and perhaps alleviates our despair, it is a single scene half-way through the film. A young child addresses the congregation saying:

I just wanted to talk about belief in God. I've had a hard time doing it and it's just really hard to do this. Just to believe in God is really hard, because you don't see him, you don't really know him much. Sometimes I don't even believe what the Bible says... It makes me feel guilty and bad.

...to accompanying squirms of discomfort amongst the faithful there present. Bravo, kid! But never feel guilty for questioning the idiocy you're being force fed. If one child can resist the brainwashing, then maybe there's hope for the others brought up in this environment.

Quotes

  • "Warlocks[1] are enemies of God."
  • "Had it been in the Old Testament Harry Potter would have been put to death."
  • "Take these prophecies and do what the apostle Paul said and make war with them. This means war! This means war! This means war!"
  • "I think that Democracy is the greatest political system on Earth but that's the problem, it's Earth. It is ultimately designed to destroy itself because we have to give everyone equal freedom and ultimately that is going to destroy us."
  • "I can go into a playground of kids that don't know anything about Christianity, lead them to the Lord in a matter of, just no time at all, and just moments later they can be seeing visions and hearing the voice of God, because they're so open. They are so usable in Christianity."

Reviews

The film received strangely polarized reviews: negative ones from not-stupid people condemning the indoctrination shown, negative ones from fundamentalists who didn't like the way the camp was portrayed, positive ones from not-stupid people that saw the film as a balanced report on this hellhole, and positive ones from bible thumpers who apparently saw nothing wrong with the film or the chaos shown.

The most notable critique, however, comes from vandals who targeted the camp itself and caused it to be closed down[2] allowing the world to rest quietly once again.[3]

Criticism

Ted Haggard[4] features in the film as the pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, which the children from the camp visited. Shortly before the film's official release, he accused the film-makers of having an "agenda" and portraying the protagonists of the film as "sinister". The makers posted a response to this on their website, pointing out, amongst other things, that Haggard was the only person in the film who had a problem, and that everyone else involved, "feel it is accurate and fair and are excited about people seeing it."[5]

Ted Haggard

In an amusing-but-disturbing sermon, we see Ted Haggard rant against the evils of homosexuality. Haggard, of course, was an in-the-closet homosexual himself who despite proclaiming the joys of lots of sex, presumably with his wife,[6] actually enjoyed trysts with homosexual prostitutes and recreational hard drugs,[7] thereby continuing the rich tradition of evangelicals with major sexual hangups.[8]

On the DVD, there is an extended deleted scene in which Haggard jibes the English cameraman who is filming his sermon at the New Life Church. While hamming it up in front of the camera, Haggard discovers the man's Catholicism, and turns to mocking the Catholic Church, the Pope, priests, and form of worship, encouraging his audience to laugh at the church with him. Ah yes, ecumenicism is a lovely thing.

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. Referring to the Harry Potter series
  2. Kids in Ministry
  3. Remember, RationalWiki doesn't support vandals!
  4. Yes, the same Ted Haggard who had sex with a male prostitute, while allegedly also taking crystal methamphetamine...
  5. "Jesus Camp responds to Ted Haggard". Jesuscampthemovie.com
  6. "Friends of God - Ted Haggard and Sex". Youtube.com
  7. "Haggard admits 'sexual immorality', apologizes". Associated Press. MSNBC.com
  8. See the Wikipedia article on Christian evangelist scandals.
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