Movie Roundup
Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady4 Stars
"How many of you want to be those who will give up your lives for Jesus?" Minister Becky Fischer asks in Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's new documentary Jesus Camp. The prospective zealots who raise their hands in response are hardly conventional soldier material: boys and girls aged from twelve years old to as young as five. The film, which takes place between Sandra Day O'Connor's resignation from the Supreme Court and Samuel Alito's confirmation, focuses on these kids, evangelical Christians attending the Lakewood Park Bible Camp in North Dakota.
Fischer makes no bones about her purpose in training these children, saying, "I want to see them as radically laying down their lives for the Gospel." She believes that in order for Christianity to triumph in this world, her protgs have to be able to rise to the standard of fanatical belief that she says the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has set for its children, albeit with one major difference: "Excuse me, we have the truth!"
The children themselves appear refreshingly normal-Rachael dreams of being a manicurist, 10-year-old Tory practices her dance routine in the basement-until Tory gravely tells the camera that she has to be extra careful not to be "just dancing for the flesh," and Rachael confides that being a manicurist would be ideal because she would get "so many chances to tell people about the Lord."
The film tells its story very straightforwardly, eschewing narration and talking heads to focus on the words of the children and their parents and ministers. The only person included who is not a member of an evangelical church is Michael Papantonio, a radio host for Air America, whose periodic interludes restore perspective for a few moments before the camera returns to Lakewood.
In a film full of troubling images-among them a textbook entitled Exploring Creation with Physical Science and little girls screaming "This means war!" with tear-streaked, twisted faces resembling a scene from The Crucible-perhaps no image is more troubling than that of young Levi, a budding preacher with genuine charisma and a gift for public speaking, having his mouth sealed shut by an anti-abortion activist with a piece of red tape reading "LIFE." The unintentional symbolism points out the most unsettling truth unearthed in this film: That instead of nurturing these children as individuals, this kind of indoctrination silences a generation of gifted, passionate and extraordinary kids by encouraging them to become nothing more than another hate-filled and faceless soldier in the religious right's "army."
Looking at the footage taken at camp, Fischer, obviously moved, says "It makes me want to cry." She's not alone.
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