Movie Review: Jesus Camp

A few parts were interesting, but overall I was considerably disappointed with this documentary. What could have been an interesting case study of a peculiar group ended up coming across as little more than presenting a liberal's worst nightmare type conception of the American Evangelicalism.

My issues with the documentary:

1) It did not give enough background or screen time to the kids that were the main focus of the documentary.

2) There was no background given to radio personality Mike Papantonio, who's talk show (on Air America) monologues served as a counterpoint to the views of children's minister Becky Fischer.

3) There was no narration that helped the viewer put things in perspective, this left the documentary a bit of a jumble and disjointed.

4) The documentary followed the kids from their churches in Missouri to the summer camp in North Dakota, but in my view went badly astray when the kids went to Ted Haggard's (before the scandal) church in Colorado and to Washington D.C. Why the kids where there and who was paying for the trips were unanswered questions, leaving me to suspect that the film makers were manipulating things and not doing a more objective observation (it forced the kids out of their natural habitat so to speak).

5) Papantonio's statements placed throughout the documentary painted the Evangelical movement in a board brush and could easily confuse those less informed into thinking all Evangelicals are similar to Fischer and the kids shown in the movie. When in fact, Fischer and company are strict Fundamentalist Pentecostals, who probably operate the most aggressive youth ministry and that subgroup (I thinking it's safe to assume if there was a more aggressive one the documentary would have been on them instead). And American Evangelicalism is a fairly diverse group, including many who would decry aspects of Fischer's ministry and/or theology, as well as some who are political liberals.

Papantonio's statement that Evangelicals make up 20% of the American population could be right if a broad view of the term "Evangelical" is used, but he went on to say that is then 80 million Americans, which is decidedly incorrect (20% of the American population would be around 60 million people).


A main concern the documentary raises is Christian (that is the Christian Right's) involvement in politics. I support the idea of separation of church in state, that is: no governmental interference in religion, no established or supported religion, and no religious groups with governmental powers. However, individuals in a democratic republic will vote their convictions, religious or otherwise, which is as they should. Papantonio is apparently a Christian who is an outspoken political liberal and would not doubt vote based on his principals (he claims "they," apparently a vast right-wing conspiracy, has taken over the Presidency, Congress, and the Judiciary for a generation).

I am concerned about how Christians both on the right (as well as on the only slightly less numerous but organizationally outclassed left) but I thought this documentary was unhelpful for that discussion as it was a bit alarmist and exaggerated the political successes that the Christian Right has had. I do wish though that Christians would be much less quick to make judgments on another person's faith based on that person's political views.

The other main (probably the biggest one) concern raised by the documentary was how Fischer's group and those like her train or "brainwash" children. It's true that children will be trained by someone or something, but there definitely is such a thing as overly training someone, and there seems little doubt that some of the kids in the documentary have been overly trained. Such as the 12-year-old boy who said he was saved when he was five because he couldn't find anything fun and wanted more out of life, or the 8? year-old boy who was crying because everything was just too hard.



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