Jesus Camp

(Madman)

Rated: M
Run Time: 84 mins
Genre: Documentary
Director: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady
Executive Producers: Nancy Dubuc and Molly Thompson

Quite possibly one of the scariest documentaries I have ever seen. Much is made of youthful indoctrination by cults, but this Evangelical children’s camp leaves them all for dead. The fact that this particular film is distributed by Madman certainly raised a chuckle in this heathen.

Becky Fisher, a pastor and passionate Evangelical campaigner runs a summer camp for children in North Dakota. Utilizing props (such as Adam and Eve dressed Barbie dolls, plastic baby fetuses), Power point presentations, songs and dances Becky spurs her young charges to become soldiers for Christ in the spiritual battleground of America.

The opening scenes are interspersed with a radio commentary on the progress of George Bush’s selected candidate for the Supreme Court, to highlight the political power that the fundamental right has in the United States. A truely scary nation where parents send their young children to a programme of fasting, and constant political and religious indoctrination under the guise of a church.
The separation between church and state is brought into question on numerous occasions such as when the children take God’s hammer to the evil mug that represents corrupt government or when they pray to a cardboard cut out of George Bush. One highly ranked church officer categorically states “if the evangelicals vote they determine the election”. He looks and sounds remarkably like a smarmy salesman as he says it

Young children are encouraged to recruit others to the causes. The notion that they will be more likely to be heeded because the message is delivered from a small, cute individual is widespread. Rebellion, political upheaval and warfare are all conceits that are tossed at these children with reckless abandonment.

The most amazing aspects are the words that do come from the little kids themselves. They see themselves as the generation that will abolish abortion among other things. The exceptional extras included on the DVD see the little kids going on a field trip to an abortion clinic and having a prayer session – its hard to imagine that parents could use their children in this fashion.

The number of times that people make offhand comments about dying for what you believe in is extraordinary. It is certainly not something you would expect from American society which is so quick to condemn similar actions in other countries. When not speaking in tongues, being whipped into a frenzy and crying hysterically, these children are seriously contemplating martyrdom – it really makes for difficult viewing.

Ultimately Jesus Camp provides a compelling insight into what seems like another world, a dark, scary world where children are too busy being God’s foots soldiers to be innocent little kids. This reviewer won’t be moving there anytime soon.

They took the name of Harry Potter in vain!

Rating: 4/5 stars

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