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movie review: jesus camp

November 22, 2006 at · Filed under movies, religion

i saw jesus camp last night.

The film focuses on an evangelical Christian camp of rare devotion. Twelve-year-old Levi, who was "saved" when he was five, is a shy boy except when he is filled with the Holy Spirit. Nine-year-old Rachael is outspoken in her love for the Lord. They are home-schooled by their Christian parents and interact with their peers at church and church events. In the summer they travel to Becky Fischer's "Kids on Fire" summer camp in Devil's Lake, North Dakota, to intensify their devotion to the Lord.

it's very clear that the makers of this movie wanted to scare the secular liberals about the dangers of fundamentalist evangelicals. i think they are doing a good job of showing that these guys are nut cases brain washing kids with ignorance, division, blind obedience and more.

some highlights:

  • becky fischer's (a minister focused on brainwashing kids) explaining her rational for pumping these kids with christian dogma is that our enemies (the muslims) are doing it, so we better do it to especially that our religion is the true one..
  • home-schooling parent explaining to her kid why science is a ridiculous concept and how to argue on behalf of creationism
  • becky talking in tongues and blessing the conference room in the camp against satan. she blesses the chairs, the audio system, microsoft powerpoint… in her world the "blue screen of death" is the devil's work, rather than bill gates's bugs
  • ted haggard preaching against gay acts (this scene was shot before he was outed by a drug-dealing male prostitute who had sex with haggard for the past 3 years…) and waving at the camera telling viewers he knows what they did last night, and that if they'll send him $1,000 he will not tell their wives..

watching this movie strengthen my view that

(a) religion's negative sides are far greater than any benefits it may have (if any)

(b) these christian brainwashed kids and adults are not much different from the muslim fanatics sending their children to become martyrs, and that given the opportunity will fit very easily into a nazi-like regime.

the movie is not very engaging and its agenda is way too clear, but worth viewing for the shock value. 

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Jesus Camper said,

November 23, 2006 @

You didn’t watch the movie very well. My wife, Tracy, is the homeschool mom in the movie who you say threw science out the window. What she actually said, if you were really listening, was “science doesn’t prove anything.” Everyone in the scientific community knows that. Our family loves science. We are also willing to take an objective look at its strengths and weaknesses… something many people are not willing to do. They treat it like a god. Our son, Levi, who is highlighted in the film, wants to be a doctor and studies biology diligently. Yes, he knows creationism well, but he also knows evolutionism well. I propose that those who ignore either one are the blind faith people. You, my friend, revealed something about yourself in your statement. You revealed that you have a distaste for evangelicals who don’t think like you. You took sound bytes from a movie meant to scare people and you took the bait. Did it ever occur to you that Tracy’s statement about science was nested in a larger context? Did it ever occur to you that the film crew didn’t give you that larger context? Did you care? Did you ever ask, “I wonder what she meant by that? Could there be anything reasonable to it? Did you look up the philosophy of science in a book? No, really, you were content to lambast and call people crazy without giving them a voice. You took the bait the movie gave you and swallowed it hook, line and sinker. You revealed your own bias. Actually, everything in the movie has a context. That’s why we started jesuscampers.com. You might check it out if you dare.

avneron said,

November 23, 2006 @

as i wrote in my original post i think the film’s agenda is very clear, and i understand they chose to show the parts that will create as much shock as possible (for a secular/liberal viewer). however, they just put the microphone in front of people and let the camera roll, what was said and done was not (as far as i know) directed by the film makers. and many parts of it was disturbing.

i think that science and religion are unrelated. one relies on faith and the other on facts. the insistence of religious people to explain the physical world phenomenon using biblical text is a losing cause, as science continues to evolve more of life’s mysteries can be explained and mystical explanations become obsolete.

your choice to confuse your son, pitting creationism vs. scientific theories is poor, but this is the path you took. i actually thought the other parts of the movie were more disturbing.

from what i saw i think it is pretty clear that levi is an intelligent kid, but he is being indoctrinated by someone with an extremist view of the world (becky), and by parents who can’t draw the line between their beliefs and their child’s best interests.

you teach your kid to:
* listen to god speaking to him - this is very dangerous. people tend to justify pretty crazy stuff by saying “god told them to do it”.

* to protest against abortions - i don’t know how old is levi, but he seems to be young to go protest against abortions. he may be mature and intelligent, but i doubt he can get to the bottom of this issue.

* to worship his leaders - the part where the kids are praying in front of figure of bush is disturbing. this type of worship of a leader is a good recipe for blind obedience, rather than questioning authority.

* to confess in public that he is not being a good christian - group crying and confessing. why is it good for these kids to go through it? scaring these kids with stories about how satan is waiting for them behind each corner in life? feeling all this guilt. this is insane.

i am not biased against evangelicals as a particular group. i have a bias against any religious extremism. i don’t think you’re much different in your way of thinking from extreme muslims. you may have not taken the next step and move towards violence, but you lay the ground for it. i think the movie showed several kids talking about giving their life for jesus. now all you need is for them to follow some fanatic that speaks in the name of jesus and these kids can engage in pretty violent stuff.

after you saw what becky said to the camera (she said a lot..), would you still send your kids to her sermons? her camp?

i looked at jesuscampers.com. what about it?

Norbert Varga said,

March 16, 2007 @

I saw the movie last night and I needed a stiff drink to handle it. This was perhaps the most terrifying documentary I have ever seen because it reminded me of the remote reality of armageddon that is not so remote if we allow these spychopaths take over our lives. I don’t think anyone is completely aware of the dangers that these mentally deranged, idiotic, so called christians,the evangelicals, present for America and the world. Now I am entirely convinced that WWIII (armageddon) will be due to these fanatics who do not even believe in God. They treat God and the beliefe in God as some sort of supertition. They wear their religion on their sleeves and toute it in your face arrogantly as if they were special and any better than anyone else when in fact they simply suffer from a combination of mass psychossis and self-induced mental deficit or perhaps the food they consume that is of concern or they may have some retardation due to some infection. In any case, this is not how one worships God, by losing control, not having any human composure and act like someone with a mental disorder. God is personal, your so called communication with God is intimate and should be kept that way if you ever feel that you talk to God. Furthemore, these people are uneducated and their leaders are wicked as all evidence is pointing that way. They will be perfect pawns for the next nazi regime coming in our future. They are intolerant and they don’t believe in democracy. We simply cannot allow these demons to take over America and jeapordize the human race. I was in disbelief that this actually exists in the 21st century. I think we need to make electro shock treatment mandatory to rewire the brains of some of these demons. Remeber that they don’t repsect you if you are not of one of them, they are smug and pathilogically arrogant and they could not care about you except their God that is not the God I accept. Of course just lookk at the hypocracy by which they live inculding thier multi miilionaire leader Haggard who is a disgusting closet gay. I want to vomit.
As for their home schooling, their kids will grow up to be ignorant yahoos who won’t be able to make anything of themselves as they won’t be prepared in math and sciences to get a real eduction from accredited institutions that would provide these kids with the proper training to become somebodies. You cannot homeschool kids to become doctors, engineers and scinetist who drive our world to become different. They viciously attack science, but science invented TV that they use [not empty worship or prayer], science developed life- saving medicine [again not worship], science invented anything that any of us use to make our lives better. To pray and worship something is fine, but you won’t get too far with that. I think God disapproves these people and they don’t have an ounce of evidence that God favors them in any shape or form.
over other christians. An advice for these rottweilers of religion is: read Descartes and St Augustine to really understand religion and christianity not just toss around empty rhetoric. I will buy this movie to have it in my DVD collcetion to remind our friends about who will destroy our lives and who we have to look out for in the future. Quite frankly, they freak me out as much as the radical muslims.

Jeannie said,

April 2, 2007 @

After I watched this movie, I couldn’t wait to let my children watch it. My children where made for war. The real war is against Satan (not Muslams) and what he creates in this world. I suggest you do more research before condemming this movie. There will be a war and this generation of children will be a powerful force and will not be stopped. Get ready, it’s coming.

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May 9, 2007 @

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Ziminger said,

December 15, 2007 @

Never saw the movie, but am tempted out of curiosity. Then again, I already know such people exist. The dificulty I have is with your statement that this movie strengthens your view that “religion’s negative sides are far greater than any benefits it may have (if any).” This shows extreme ignorance to the benefits afforded by the more mainstream and moderate denominations. It’s delusional to think that one invents such concepts as charity and forgiveness on one’s own; these are taught. Also, there’s more variety in personal views (and healthy debate) in moderate denominations than you might think. But you give the impression that you don’t want to let that thought cross your mind, and so you fearfully ignore that possibility.

Most moderates like myself are frustrated not with the exposure that the “evangelicals” get nor with the well deserved rebuttal of their behavior, but with the stereotyping and intolerance toward organized religion as a whole that people like you think is justified as a result. It is not. It may be that oversimplifying, stereotyping and condemning a group far beyond the behavior observed of SOME of its members is a natural part of the human condition–your own comment supports this view.

The term “evangelical” has been pirated with the help of people like yourself, because it is not simply interpreted to mean “mindless indoctrination.” You can look up the dictionary definition and I encourage you to do so, but the connotation among moderates is that we are not an elite and fellowship is open to all. There are more of us than you think.

On a lighter note, I’m tempted to believe in intelligent creation. Why else would a grocery sack have been just the right size for a cat to hide in?

Stevie said,

December 31, 2007 @

I don’t think that religion and science are that different at all. I feel it is the perfect blend of both that create a synergistic renewal of faith and discovery. These two subjects though very different have their own holes and inadequacies in which when brought together they can fill each others voids. Where science stops, faith takes over and vice versa. I don’t agree with the manipulation that these children undertake, as humans we were granted free will by the Lord himself and when you insist your children have the same beliefs as you that to me is wrong. You can raise your child whichever way you would like, but I know that my mother raised me catholic and my father is muslim and I feel completely loyal to neither religion. I am a polytheist and believe that there is no “one truth”, how can someone be so bold and naive as to say their religion is the truth, it honestly disgusts me. We as humans are imperfect so how can you say you know your religion is perfect when it is ultimately men who held the writing utensil when the bible was written. I don’t trust any group of men to deliver the message of the lord to me through a land bridge of some sort. My relationship with God is between him and I, I need no one else’s confirmation on the subject.

Your insecurities show through in the way you restrict the mindsets of your young evangelicals, plain and simple..

–I can respect your freedom to practice, but I don’t agree with it.

roland said,

December 31, 2007 @

I dont like the debate between science and religion as a two sided debate. its a debate of egos. some man wrote thousands of years ago that the world was created this way, and now people are tearing each other apart over it because they beleive him more than the facts. things get dangerous when people start saying words were influenced by god. with that influence anything can be justified including murder and genocide. These people are one step away from becoming violent. I mean come on Kill harry potter an imaginary character in a book. That is an example of people who know first hand how powerufl brainwashing or “indoctrining” whatver u want to call it to be. They have seen how well it works with their fairytails of adam and eve that they are afraid of childrens imaginations. Honestly if there is a bunch of kids out there worshipping the devil cutting themselves and then reading harry potter the world is in a lot worsh shape then we thought. its all a little bit ridiculous.

patrick said,

May 8, 2008 @

over all, there is some useful truth in this flick… as long as it’s taken with a grain (or maybe a bucket) of salt

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