Jesus Camp

Jesus Camp is a 2006 American documentary film directed by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing[1] about a charismatic Christian summer camp, where children spend their summers being taught that they have "prophetic gifts" and can "take back America for Christ".[2] According to the distributor, it "doesn't come with any prepackaged point of view" and attempts to be "an honest and impartial depiction of one faction of the evangelical Christian community".[3]

Jesus Camp
Promotional release poster
Directed byHeidi Ewing
Rachel Grady
Produced byHeidi Ewing
Rachel Grady
StarringBecky Fischer
Mike Papantonio
CinematographyMira Chang
Jenna Rosher
Edited byEnat Sidi
Music byForce Theory
Distributed byMagnolia Pictures
A&E Indie Films
Release date
  • September 15, 2006 (2006-09-15)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1 million

Jesus Camp premiered at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival, and was sold by A&E Indie Films to Magnolia Pictures. Nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 79th Academy Awards,[4] the film brought controversy to the camp which led to its eventual closure.[5]

Overview

Jesus Camp is about the Kids on Fire School of Ministry, a charismatic Christian summer camp located just outside Devils Lake, North Dakota and run by Becky Fischer and her ministry, Kids in Ministry International. The film focuses on three of the children who attended the camp in the summer of 2005—Levi, Rachael, and Tory (Victoria). The film cuts between footage of the camp and a children's prayer conference held just before the camp at Christ Triumphant Church, a large charismatic church in Lee's Summit, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City.

All three children are already very devout Christians. Levi has preached several sermons at his father's church, Rock of Ages Church in St. Robert, Missouri. He is homeschooled, his mother explaining that God did not give her a child just so he could be raised by someone else eight hours a day. He learns science from books and videos that attempt to reconcile young-earth creationism with scientific principles,[6] and that climate change is mere political speculation. Levi preaches a sermon at the camp in which he declares that his generation is key to bringing Jesus back. Rachael, who also attends Levi's church (her father was assistant pastor at the time), is seen praying over a bowling ball during a game early in the film, and evangelizes to strangers, telling them that Jesus loves them. She does not think highly of non-charismatic churches (or "dead churches" as she calls them), feeling they are not "churches that God likes to go to." Tory is a member of the Children's Praise Dance Team at Christ Triumphant Church. She is observed dancing to Christian rock music, and says she has to check herself to make sure she is not "dancing for the flesh."

At the camp, Fischer stresses the need for children to purify themselves in order to be part of the "army of God." She strongly believes that children need to be in the forefront of turning America toward conservative Christian values. She also feels that Christians need to focus on training kids since "the enemy" (radical Islam) is focused on training theirs. She compares the preparation she is giving children with the training of terrorists in the Middle East. "I want to see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people are to the cause of Islam," she tells the camera. "I want to see them radically laying down their lives for the gospel, as they are over in Pakistan and Israel and Palestine."[7]

In one scene shot at Christ Triumphant Church, a woman brings a life-sized cutout of George W. Bush to the front of the church and has the children stretch their hands toward him in prayer for him. In another scene, Fischer rails against Harry Potter, and infers that it is a gateway to joining the occult, in an attempt to scare the children into avoiding it. She infers that if Harry Potter was a real warlock, and lived during the old testament era, that the Jews would have stoned him to death. In another scene, Lou Engle preaches a message urging children to join the fight to end abortion in America. Children are shown a series of plastic models of developing fetuses, and have their mouths covered with red tape with "Life" written across it. Engle is a founder of the Justice House of Prayer and a leader of Harvest International Ministries, a network of charismatic-oriented ministries with which both the church and Fischer's ministry are affiliated. He prays for Bush to have the strength to appoint "righteous judges" who will overturn Roe v. Wade. By the end of the sermon, the children are chanting, "Righteous judges! Righteous judges!"

There is also a scene at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado where Ted Haggard preaches a sermon against homosexuality. Before the service, Levi mentioned how he admired Ted Haggard and was looking forward to meeting him. After the sermon, Levi informs Haggard that he has already preached sermons and wants to be a preacher when he grows up. Haggard advises him: "I say, use your cute kid thing until you're thirty, and by then you'll have good content." Afterward, Levi, Rachael, Tory, their families and several other children take part in a Justice House of Prayer rally held by Engle in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Throughout the movie, there are cut scenes to a debate between Fischer and Mike Papantonio, an attorney and a radio talk-show host for Air America Radio's Ring of Fire. Papantonio questions Fischer's motives for focusing her ministry efforts on children. Fischer explains that she does not believe that people are able to choose their belief system once they pass childhood, and that it is important that they be "indoctrinated" in evangelical Christian values from a young age. Fischer also explains that democracy is flawed and designed to destroy itself "because we have to give everyone equal freedom".

Release

Jesus Camp was screened at Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Festival against the wishes of the distribution company, Magnolia Pictures.[8] Magnolia had pulled Jesus Camp from the festival earlier in the summer after it purchased rights to the film, in a decision apparently inspired by Moore's association with the film festival, with Magnolia president Eamonn Bowles saying "I don't want the perception out in the public that this is an agenda-laden film".[9]

Home media

The DVD, released in January 2007, includes 15 deleted scenes.[10] In one of them, Levi's father and mother suggest that a future president may well have been at Kids on Fire. In another, a woman takes several of the kids on a "prayer walk" through Lee's Summit, and later takes them to a crisis pregnancy center. A Planned Parenthood clinic is located next door, and the woman has the kids pray over it. In an interview, the anti-abortion clinic's director says that she was very pleased to see children so passionate about ending abortion.

The DVD also includes commentary by Grady and Ewing.[10] They reveal that when they arrived in Kansas City, there was a great deal of excitement over the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. However, according to Grady and Ewing, Fischer and the others did not see their activism for socially conservative causes as political, but as a matter of faith. They also reveal that Fischer and the others did not understand why some of the scenes of them speaking in tongues and praying over objects were included in the film, since such occurrences were second nature to them. Furthermore, on the DVD commentary, Heidi and Grady refer to the central character, Becky Fischer, as "a great documentary subject" because of her charisma.[11]

Reception

In November 2006, Fischer announced that she would be shutting down the camp due to negative reaction towards her in the film. According to Fischer's website, the owners of the property used for the camp shown in the film were concerned about vandalism to the premises following the film's release and thus will not allow it to be used for any future camps. Fischer has said that the camp will be indefinitely postponed until other suitable premises can be found, but that it will be back.[5][12]

Critical reception

Jesus Camp received an 87% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 105 reviews, with an average rating of 7.26/10. The website's consensus states, "Evangelical indoctrination is given an unflinching, even-handed look in this utterly worthwhile documentary."[13] The documentary has a 62/100 score on Metacritic based on 28 mainstream reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[14]

Michael Smith of the Tulsa World gave the film three stars out of four, describing it as "impressive in its even-handed presentation", "straightforward" and "a revealing, unabashed look at the formation of tomorrow's army of God."[15]

The Chicago Tribune reviewer Jessica Reaves also gave the film three stars out of four and writes that Jesus Camp is "an enlightening and frank look at what the force known as Evangelical America believes, preaches and teaches their children" and concludes that what the filmmakers "have accomplished here is remarkable—capturing the visceral humanity, desire and unflagging political will of a religious movement."[16]

David Edelstein of CBS Sunday Morning, New York, and NPR finds Jesus Camp "a frightening, infuriating, yet profoundly compassionate documentary about the indoctrination of children by the Evangelical right."[17]

Some reviewers responded negatively to the film; Rob Nelson of the Village Voice called the movie "[an] absurdly hypocritical critique of the far right's role in the escalating culture war",[18] and J. R. Jones of the Chicago Reader criticized the film for "failing to distinguish the more fundamentalist Pentecostals" and for inserting "unnecessary editorializing" by using clips from Mike Papantonio's radio show.[19]

Award nominations

Jesus Camp was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 79th Academy Awards;[4] it lost to Davis Guggenheim and Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.

See also

References
  1. "Jesus Camp" – via mubi.com.
  2. Watts, Tom (4 October 2006). "Ewing believes in Jesus Camp". Real Detroit Weekly. Archived from the original on 16 April 2008.
  3. Cole, Kristin U. (8 August 2006). "Jesus Camp Distributors Adverse to Screening at Traverse: Michael Moore Ignores Request to Remove Documentary from Festival". Christian News Wire. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
  4. "The 79th Academy Awards". Oscars.org. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
  5. "Pastor will shut down controversial kids camp". The Seattle Times. 8 November 2006. Archived from the original on 21 April 2007. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
  6. Wile, Jay L. (2000). Exploring Creation With Physical Science. Apologia Press.
  7. Glaister, Den (29 September 2006). "They cry, pray to Bush and wash out the devil - welcome to Jesus Camp". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
  8. Kilday, Gregg (4 August 2006). "Moore fest defies distrib over 'Jesus'". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007.
  9. Hernandez, Eugene (6 August 2006). "When A Fest Strategy Goes Awry: Traverse City Screens "Jesus Camp" Against Magnolia's Wishes". indieWire. Archived from the original on 20 August 2006.
  10. "Jesus Camp". DVD Talk. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
  11. Nichols, Bill (2017). Introduction to Documentary (3rd ed.). Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-253-02685-9.
  12. "Kids in Ministry: Are You Closing Jesus Camp Down?". Kidsinministry.com. Archived from the original on 3 January 2007.
  13. "Jesus Camp (2006)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  14. "Jesus Camp Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
  15. Smith, Michael (15 September 2006). "Making Child Warriors". Tulsa World. Archived from the original on 12 April 2013. Retrieved 10 October 2013.
  16. Reaves, Jessica (28 August 2007). "Movie review: 'Jesus Camp'". Metromix Chicago. Archived from the original on 3 January 2008. Retrieved 4 March 2010.
  17. Edelstein, David (25 September 2006). "Wake-up Fall". New York. Archived from the original on 7 October 2008. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
  18. Nelson, Rob (19 September 2006). "'Jesus Camp'". Village Voice. Archived from the original on 22 September 2006. Retrieved 4 March 2010.
  19. Jones, J. R. (28 September 2006). "Young Americans: Documentaries about John Lennon and far-right Christians both come down to a battle for the hearts and minds of the kids". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 9 August 2015.

Further reading
  • Fischer, Becky (2011). Jesus Camp: My Story, A Biographical Review of the Oscar Nominated Movie 'Jesus Camp'. Mandan, ND: Fire on the Altar Publications. ISBN 978-0-615-50958-7. Foreword by Dr. Ted Baehr of MovieGuide and the Christian Film & Television Commission.
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