(M) Jesus Camp
Grade: B
This look into raising young fundamental evangelical christian children was quite interesting. It reminded me of three other movies I've seen, Death In Gaza (where young Palestinian children are raised to hate and prepare to kill Israeli's), Stevie (which has scene's with an evengelical church), and Searching For The Wrong-Eyed Jesus (which also deals with ultra-religious people).
What is frightening about this movie is that young children, who are the most impresionable people, are being raised and indoctrinated with certain religious and politcal beliefs. Now, whether these beliefs be good or bad or true or not is not the issue I have as much as the children are kept out of public schools where other schools-of-thought are present. Because of this the children can't make their own decisions about things.
Moments that disturbed me were when the camp teacher referred to Islam as the enemy, when a girl told a story of how when her father goes off to do missionary work they yell out "MARTYR! MARTYR! MARTYR!" as he leaves because to die for Jesus is the best thing that could happen to their father, the extremely intense emotional states the kids are put through, and that Ted Haggard came off as the biggest fake in the world and I don't mean cause he's gay and wants people to think he's straight but he comes off as using his position for power and not because he even believes anything he is teaching. Finally, I got the impression that the children don't know anything about the bible but are just taught Jesus Saves you from eternal hell and damnation and so fear is being used to discipline and control.