Skip to main contentIf the prayers of little children can shake kings, and the youths depicted in Jesus Camp are representative of the next generation of conservative Christian voters, then Sam Alito's appointment to the Supreme Court is just the tip of the cultural and political iceberg. Jesus Camp is an artful documentary about Christian children sent to "Kids on Fire," a Pentecostal summer camp in Devil's Lake, N.D., whose mission is to convert the political landscape of the United States by transforming its campers into pint-sized foot soldiers in the army of God. We meet Levi, an 11-year-old with a lustrous rattail and a passion for preaching; Tori, a 10-year-old dancer who guiltily confesses that she sometimes dances for the flesh, not for God; and Rachel, a 9-year-old whose single-minded devotion and rapid speech makes her sound like a coked-up Billy Graham. Where some liberal filmmakers would consider this a prime opportunity to slip in a few sarcastic quips and one-sided string-ups (Michael Moore, I'm talking to you), Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (who both also directed The Boys of Baraka) favor compassion over sarcasm. The result is fascinating and disquieting—not like watching a car wreck, but like watching 300 hysterical children sob, embrace and speak in tongues, which, needless to say, happens more than once in this movie.
Also fascinating is Jesus Camp's depiction of how evangelical faith molds the developing minds of its young believers. Becky Fischer, the camp's founder and charismatic leader, taps into (or incites) the paranoia, self-consciousness and confusion of pubescence by accusing her campers of acting "different" (i.e., secularly) when they're at school with their less faithful peers. Charged with this hypocrisy, the kids whip themselves into an apologetic apoplexy that they no doubt think is a religious experience. The campers learn to act as a tribe—Levi says he can tell when he meets a non-Christian because "something just doesn't feel right"—and in one chuckle-worthy scene involving the Harry Potter books, the kids effectively police each other's "bad behavior." These kids may look adorable, they may speak with admirable intelligence and conviction, but they are already as righteous as street preachers. Jesus Camp wants us to imagine what they'll be like—and how they'll vote—once they're all grown up.
Of course, indoctrinating young children with ultra-conservative values is only bound to be disturbing to people who disagree with those beliefs. Jesus Camp is so clear-eyed and even-handed that, depending on the viewer's political and religious persuasion, it is possible to interpret the film in two entirely opposite ways. Most will see it an alarming examination of Evangelical indoctrination. Some will see instead an inspiring story about believers doing the holy work of God.
Fox Tower.
WWeek 2015