On Fire at Jesus Camp

A new documentary depicts charismatic kids who are articulate and take faith seriously. But have they been "indoctrinated"? Is it a fair representation of evangelicals? Or too political? We asked the directors.

The children who go to Becky Fischer's Kids on Fire summer camp may be too young to vote, but they're hardly politically unaware. In addition to the usual praise and worship at their Pentecostal services, the children offer prayers for President George W. Bush—by actually laying hands on a life-size cardboard cut-out—and burst into tears while asking God to fill the U.S. Supreme Court with "righteous judges."

Jesus Camp, a new documentary about Fischer's camp, opens this week in several U.S. cities, and will expand in the weeks ahead. The film made news last month when Magnolia Pictures acquired distribution rights to the film and tried to have it yanked at the last minute from Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Festival; the distributor said it wanted conservative evangelicals to see the film, and did not want the film to be tainted in their eyes by association with a liberal like Moore.

From one of the directors; At the same time, I did notice some very admirable qualities to the children in our film. They're extremely articulate, they're smart, and they do good things for other people. They think about others, and they lack vanity I've seen in other kids. So on one hand, they're being raised very well. And it's complicated, because one might not agree with the adult that this person might become, or the direction this child is going. However, as children, they're extremely pleasant, and have a lot of things going for them. So I think, again, this whole film falls into a really big grey area. Which is what I think makes it a good movie.

Interesting...at first I thought this was a huge slam on Christians but then I see the website of the actual "Jesus Camp" in the movie supporting and advertising the movie. In the second clip there is a kid from my hometown. Pentecostals are usually very good people even if they don't usual look at some Christians as "true" Christians but heck I am surrounded by Baptists so that isn't anything new. I may go see this film.

I caught an interview of one of the producers on Michael Medved's show yesterday. The outstanding thing about their defense of their "documentary" was in the way that they answered questions.

It was exactly like the way CAIR responds to questions about islamo-fascist terrorism. They dodged, engaged in moral equivocation, and offered up a healthy dose of tu quoque's.

When asked why they put spooky background music to scenes where their targets spoke, they responded with a "One person's spooky is anther person's spiritual" crap. When asked why they deliberately slowed down the camera (post production editing) is certain scenes, they giggled and said "OMG! That's just artistic expression!" They created this mockumentary mess as another slam on Christianity and they knew exactly what they were doing.

I won't be seeing it (or missing it for that matter)..

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