JESUS CAMP

by Kevin Koehler

“I want to see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people are to the cause of Islam” says Pentecostal youth pastor Becky Fischer. “I want to see them as radically laying down their lives for the gospels as they are over in Pakistan, in Israel, in Palestine.” If you believe our children should be indoctrinated to a theological fatalism mirroring suicide bombers and death cults, then I imagine Pastor Becky talks a whole lot of sense. For the rest of us, she makes the documentary Jesus Camp one of the most frightening films of 2006.

Pastor Becky runs the “Kids on Fire” summer camp in North Dakota, where children ride go-carts, pray to George W. Bush, and shake it to Christian rock diddies like “Who’s in the House” (answer: J.C.). They have to be careful with those moves, though, as camper Tory reminds us: “When I dance, I really have to make sure that that’s God, because people will notice when I’m just dancing for the flesh. I really need to get over that.” Tory is ten-years-old. Rachel, a year younger, daydreams about how great martyrdom would be: “I feel like we’re kinda being trained to be warriors, only in a much funner (sic) way.” When the assembled children are asked if they’d “like to be those that give up their lives for Jesus,” most raise their hands; the others have an adult nearby who helpfully raise the hand for them. “They are so usable,” says Pastor Becky. She really does mean it in a good way.

The more disconcerting aspects of Pastor Becky’s ministry involve the blatant politicization of religion – Jesus has picked a side, in case you didn’t know, and it isn’t the Democrats. “We’re going to break the power of our enemies in government” declares one of the camp leaders (who appears to be Australian; this isn’t a solely American issue). These enemies of righteousness are those that removed prayer and creationism from schools, abort fetuses, and read Harry Potter books (also known as “the warlock”). Pastor Becky’s spoken love for “America,” “the American lifestyle,” and “the 21st Century,” is repeatedly undermined by her hostility towards pluralism, secularism, and the material world; in her rush to institutionalize Judeo-Christian values, it never occurred to her that religion flourished in the states, not despite of its constitutional separation from the state, but because of it. Belief in a creator may be best left a matter of conscience, but choice (in any incarnation) has little place in the morbid dogma of Pastor Betty. Death hangs over everything in the “Kids on Fire” camp, a place whose very name echoes everything that’s wrong with it. The children are taught to simultaneously seek and fear death; it’s punishment for the wages of sin (and something done to tiny babies by liberals), but it’s also the only gateway to salvation. “I look at this sick old world,” says Becky, “and I go ‘God, lets get out of here.’” They can’t wait for the world to end and it’s becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy - one home-schooled boy’s lesson on global warming (or, as they call it, “global warming”) is particularly humorous/alarming. There’s no reasoning with someone to whom God personally speaks, whispering in their ear that the world began 6,000 years ago and men rode on the backs of dinosaurs.

Co-directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady for the most part allow their subjects to tighten their own nooses. The figures populating Jesus Camp, young and old, are often surprisingly articulate; it makes what they have to say even more soul-crushing. However, Ewing/Grady can’t resist peppering the film with their own commentary in the form of well-lit Air America host Mike Papantonio; his partisanship is tempered by a southern accent and his own vocal godfearedness, but the film really doesn’t need him. Regardless of how right he may be, his brief segments have the vague smell of white portentous liberalism. During a debate between Papantonio and Pastor Becky, the latter actually makes a point or two that aren’t completely without merit (What’s the line between teaching children and indoctrinating them? Is it the subject of the lesson or the manner in which you give it?); neither Papantonio or the directors seem interested in addressing them and would rather score some obvious, redundant points.

Likewise, Jesus Camp is structured around the Samuel Alito Supreme Court confirmation hearings; it’s an unnecessary conceit, even sabotaging Ewing/Grady’s transparent attempt to appear evenhanded. Alito is a Roman Catholic with no relationship to this radical Pentecostal sect other than a shared antipathy towards Roe v. Wade (a complex legal issue that has many facets independent of religion); yet with a disingenuous bit of editorial shell game, Alito is conflated with the Jesus Camp crew. Who’s being overtly political now? Pastor Becky defends her methods with a proclamation that “we have ‘the Truth.’” One imagines Ewing/Grady might say the same thing.

Interesting footnote: In response to the film, Pastor Becky announced that she would have to shut down the “Kids on Fire” camp for an indefinite period. The owners of the property on which the camp was located apparently feared vandalism, retribution for events depicted in the picture. Pastor Beck is currently seeking out a new location.

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