Jesus Camp

The new genre of opinionated documentaries comes with benefits as well as dangers. The documentary film is a powerful medium that can produce a profound effect on viewers who appear to be confronted with simply objective footage. The viewer must be informed that these documentaries are opinions and as such, all of the included footage and editing works toward a message that the director wants to communicate. The goal is not necessarily to paint an accurate picture of the subject at hand. With that mindset one can appropriately watch Jesus Camp, a disturbing film about a children’s summer camp in South Dakota dedicated to training the Christian children of today for the political wars of tomorrow. Although it’s debatable as to whether or not the movie gives evangelicals fair treatment, it does raise important questions about the place of Christianity in America.
Directors Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing’s purpose is to portray evangelical Christianity as a right-wing ideology that is gaining influence in government, and raising a generation of children that will continue to fight for political influence. The film focuses on Lakewood Bible Camp in South Dakota, a children’s camp led by Becky Fischer, pastor of Christ Triumphant Church in Missouri. She gets most of the camera time, preaching fiery sermons, raising her hands, and calling for kids to pray in tongues. She is the villain of Jesus Camp. All of her footage implies a manipulative, fundamentalist bent on influencing children to be leaders of some crusade to retake America for Christ. Fischer sums up the directors’ intent nicely when she says that this young generation of evangelicals should “make liberals shake in their boots.” This is exactly what Jesus Camp hopes to accomplish through a series of soundtrack-heavy montages in which children seem to be emotionally exploited into crying and chanting for the cause of the religious right.
The weakness of Jesus Camp is that these montages are all there is. It is a documentary that doesn’t really document anything. The worship service scenes are disturbing enough, but there is no purpose to them other than making evangelicals appear crazy. From all of the gasps and sighs of disgust I heard in the theater, the directors’ scare tactics work pretty well, but there is no deeper exploration into the character of these “crazy Christians”, why they believe what they do, and why they are so intent on making others believe the same way.
Watching Jesus Camp as a Christian is a conflicting experience that will likely offend many, but hopefully raise some important questions about the Church in America. As far as the directors are concerned, Becky Fischer speaks for all American evangelicals when it is obvious that her church is on an extreme end of the spectrum. Grady and Ewing did not pick an “average” church to document, but by choosing an extreme, the film paints a plausible picture of what misguided Christianity can become. This film does not simply attack our images (such as comedies like Saved! or Dogma) but delves deeper into our conception of what Christianity is. Fischer’s overzealous personality and fiery preaching style makes her warlike theology seem insane, but why not pursue political representation for Christians? What is so wrong with raising a generation of Christian children by any means necessary? Our mission is “for Christ and his Kingdom”, so why not make America his kingdom? Fischer’s message is clear in one of her sermons when she says “Someone needs to fix this sick ol’ world…so let’s pick up our tools and fix it!” Grady and Ewing wish to point out that Christians “fixing the world” looks frighteningly similar to the bloody crusades of the past ideological regimes whose intent was to make the world a better place. The troubling thing is that they might be right. Jesus Camp is an opportunity for we as Christians to evaluate our mission on earth. What was Jesus’ intent for the Christian life? Was it to “make disciples of all nations by whatever means necessary?” Becky Fischer seems to think that it is. Though it may not be a well-balanced film, Jesus Camp’s message could be important for Christians to consider.