I didn’t have the stomach to see
Jesus Camp
when it arrived in theaters last year. The controversial documentary
had already been labeled “scary” by political liberals and “slanted” by
evangelical Christians. But as soon as it made it to DVD I decided
to
watch it, albeit cautiously, knowing that this is a film about a
Christian children’s ministry produced by two women who do not claim to
be Christians.
The “star” of this documentary is Becky Fischer, a vivacious
charismatic preacher who has served as a children’s pastor since 1991.
She allowed producers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (no relation to me!)
to film her meetings for a year and to do extensive interviews with
children who attended her Families on Fire summer camp in Devil’s Lake,
N.D.
This is not the kind of stuff anyone would expect to see
in a
mainstream movie. The children in Fischer’s meetings speak in tongues,
swoon under the power of the Holy Spirit and weep as they ask God to
end legalized abortion. They also preach, dance to Christian rock music
and witness to strangers in bowling alleys using gospel cartoon
booklets.
“Can
boys and girls change the world? Absolutely!” Fischer shouts in front
of a screaming crowd of elementary school-age kids wearing Christian
T-shirts.
Jesus Camp is an uncanny introduction to life in
the real
world of charismatic faith, captured on film and introduced to an
audience of mostly nonreligious Americans who had no idea until now
that such people even existed.
Becky Fischer is their worst nightmare. She gives kids
hour-long
sermons (complete with lots of attention-getting props) about the evils
of sin. She denounces Harry Potter by saying, “Warlocks are enemies of
God!” And she encourages kids to gather around a cardboard cutout of
George W. Bush so they can pray for him. (Some outraged viewers
mistakenly thought the kids were worshipping the president.)
At the end of the film some of the children are shown
protesting
abortion in front of the Supreme Court building in Washington. Their
mouths are taped shut to remind passersby that the most innocent
victims of abortion can’t speak.
Although Ewing and Grady claim they had no political
agenda in making Jesus Camp
(they describe the film as “honest” and “impartial”), their overall
message implies that evangelical Christians are indoctrinating children
to be militant crusaders for the Religious Right. For example, there is
footage of a home-schooling mom who tells her son that global warming
is a myth. In another scene, charismatic preacher Lou Engle shows kids
plastic models of
developing fetuses and reminds them that one-third of all their
potential friends have been aborted. Some unnecessarily eerie
background music subliminally suggests that a conservative conspiracy
lurks behind Fischer’s ministry.
“Becky
Fischer has reminded us all that if we are going to bring spiritual
change to America we must focus on the next generation.”
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Jesus Camp is both sensationalistic and polarizing.
Some
Christians will love it because it shows 10-year-olds having genuine
experiences with God. Other Christians will hate it because they
disagree with Fischer’s methods or because they think the children are
being manipulated to blindly parrot their parents’ beliefs.
And many nonbelievers will react in outrage when they
realize that
Christian children are actually taught to oppose evolution and
abortion. Yet Fischer reminds viewers that Islamic radicals train
children as young as 5 years old to carry weapons. Why, she asks,
should Christian children not be trained to spread the gospel?
Some people have criticized Fischer for allowing the
filmmakers
unlimited access to her ministry. Perhaps she was naïve to do
that—but
I can’t be the judge. She admits today that she was stunned when she
saw the final cut of Jesus Camp and realized how politics had
been injected into the script.
“I have never viewed myself as political in any way,” she
explains
in a statement on her Web site. As a result of negative publicity
associated with the film, Fischer was forced to discontinue her summer
camp and now stages her ministry events in other venues.
Yet Fischer has refused to denounce the movie and actually
encourages people to see it. “For Christians who see the film,” she
adds, “I hope they will come away with a new awareness of how dedicated
and committed children can be for Jesus Christ when they are given the
chance and are seriously discipled in the Christian faith.”
Regardless of what you think of Jesus Camp or of
Becky
Fischer’s views on speaking in tongues, evangelism or Harry Potter, I
believe she deserves our respect and support. She has dedicated her
life to training kids to love Christ, and she has reminded us all—with
the help of an unusual secular documentary—that if we are going to
bring spiritual change to America we must focus on the next generation.
