Jesus Camp
If you're afraid of the religious right taking over this fine nation of ours, just wait until the next generation takes over. That's the moral of the story here in this documentary about children of the Evangelical faith coming together for a camp called "Kids on Fire" in the American Midwest.
There's a very quick shot within the first few moments of this film that I think summarizes the film perfectly. The scene takes place in the church of the de facto main character, the organizer of the camp's program. She's talking to the children about faith, and she asks the children, "Now, how many of you think that God can do anything He wants to do?" There's a brief cut to several children raising their hands, and then a shot of a small child, an infant, really, sitting in her mother's lap completely aloof. The mother grabs the child's arm and raises it for her. Because, we all know the vast majority of our value systems are instilled in us by our parents.
The film follows a few of the children as they come to terms with their faith: there are two brothers who are home-schooled (because, as the mothers states, the schools don't teach the right values, so they have to themselves) whose parents have taught them an alternate version to the Pledge of Allegiance. There is also a little girl whom we follow at the bowling alley as she solicits the word of the Lord to the patrons and then prays for a strike (she gutterballs it.), and whom we also follow at home, where she tells us that she loves to dance, but she'll only do it for the Lord, and not for the fun of it, something she thinks would be a sin.
Another key moment for me was before the camp started, where the organizer/pastor and her staff are roaming around the main hall at the camp, praying over the pews the children are to sit in, the computers they plan on using for their presentation, and for the electricity to not go out during a predicted storm. They pray that the devil not take over the Powerpoint program because they know that the devil likes to mess with them in any way he can.
In between all these segments are two or three minute segments of the host of a radio show talking about the camp and the Evangelical right, and the overall state of the nation in terms of religion playing too big a part on politics these days, which eventually culminates with a short phone-in interview with the organizer/pastor of the "Kids on Fire" program.
The really skillful thing about this documentary, and this was pointed out to me later on, was that the film was really objective in terms of portraying people involved. Originally, my fiancee and I thought that the object of the film was to decry these programs and the religious right taking over. However, after giving it a little thought, I realized that the film was made such that someone in the religious right, a supporter of this and other programs of the ilk, could watch this film and see it as a testament to families passing on their beliefs to the next generation, and not only their beliefs, but the correct beliefs.
I highly recommend watching this film with someone you can chat about it with.
There's a very quick shot within the first few moments of this film that I think summarizes the film perfectly. The scene takes place in the church of the de facto main character, the organizer of the camp's program. She's talking to the children about faith, and she asks the children, "Now, how many of you think that God can do anything He wants to do?" There's a brief cut to several children raising their hands, and then a shot of a small child, an infant, really, sitting in her mother's lap completely aloof. The mother grabs the child's arm and raises it for her. Because, we all know the vast majority of our value systems are instilled in us by our parents.
The film follows a few of the children as they come to terms with their faith: there are two brothers who are home-schooled (because, as the mothers states, the schools don't teach the right values, so they have to themselves) whose parents have taught them an alternate version to the Pledge of Allegiance. There is also a little girl whom we follow at the bowling alley as she solicits the word of the Lord to the patrons and then prays for a strike (she gutterballs it.), and whom we also follow at home, where she tells us that she loves to dance, but she'll only do it for the Lord, and not for the fun of it, something she thinks would be a sin.
Another key moment for me was before the camp started, where the organizer/pastor and her staff are roaming around the main hall at the camp, praying over the pews the children are to sit in, the computers they plan on using for their presentation, and for the electricity to not go out during a predicted storm. They pray that the devil not take over the Powerpoint program because they know that the devil likes to mess with them in any way he can.
In between all these segments are two or three minute segments of the host of a radio show talking about the camp and the Evangelical right, and the overall state of the nation in terms of religion playing too big a part on politics these days, which eventually culminates with a short phone-in interview with the organizer/pastor of the "Kids on Fire" program.
The really skillful thing about this documentary, and this was pointed out to me later on, was that the film was really objective in terms of portraying people involved. Originally, my fiancee and I thought that the object of the film was to decry these programs and the religious right taking over. However, after giving it a little thought, I realized that the film was made such that someone in the religious right, a supporter of this and other programs of the ilk, could watch this film and see it as a testament to families passing on their beliefs to the next generation, and not only their beliefs, but the correct beliefs.
I highly recommend watching this film with someone you can chat about it with.
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