LOS ANGELES --
The new documentary "Jesus
Camp" is shocking Christians and non-Christians
alike with its scenes of children sobbing and crying out
to God at a Pentecostal summer camp in North Dakota.
The film follows
Midwestern children Rachael, now 10, Levi, now 13, and
Tory, now 11, who attended Fischer's Bible camp in
Devils Lake, N.D., in 2005, according to the Los Angeles
Times.
Filmmaker Heidi Ewing
said she was raised Catholic and her co-director, Rachel
Grady, is Jewish, enabling them to present what they
hope is a neutral view of Pastor Becky Fischer's "Kids
on Fire" program.
Grady said Fischer let
them make the documentary in hopes of reaching unsaved
people.
In the film, the
children cheered when asked if they'd be willing to give
up their lives for Jesus, prayed over a cardboard cutout
of President George W. Bush and cried as they pleaded
for an end to abortion, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The paper said that one of the children is home-schooled
by a mother who teaches that "science doesn't prove
anything."
Ewing said the children
explained that they wept because God's heart is broken
over a lost and sinful world. But she added that the
children didn't seem unhappy -- just more intense than
the average American child. Grady said all of the kids
plan to become missionaries.
Some critics have
labeled the camp a frightening example of brainwashing
and child abuse.
"This is war! Are you part
of it or not?," Fischer shouted at the children during
the film.
Fischer proudly
compared her Bible camp to indoctrination of young boys
by extremist Muslims.
"If you look at the
world's population, one third of that 6.7 billion people
are children under the age of 15," Fischer said. "Where
should we be putting our efforts? Where should we be
putting our focus? I'll tell you where our enemies are
putting it. They're putting it on the kids. They're
going into the schools."
Fischer went on to say
that Muslims in other countries are taking their kids to
camps like "we take our kids" to bible camps. She said
Muslims are teaching their kids to use rifles, how to
put on bomb belts and to use machine guns.
"It's no wonder with that
kind of intense training in discipling (sic) that those
young people are ready to kill themselves for the cause
of Islam," Fischer said. "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. I want to see
them as radically laying down their lives for the gospel
as they are over in Pakistan and in Israel and Palestine
and all those different places. Because we have, excuse
me, but we have the truth."
The filmmakers told the
Times that they want the film to "make a broad statement
about how politics and faith have become inexorably
intertwined in America."
Fischer said that she
plans to help promote the movie and that she is grateful
for the national attention she's gotten from the movie
and its controversy.
"I couldn't have paid
for this kind of advertising," she said.
In the About Film section
of the movie's Web site, it describes the movie as
follows:
A growing number of
Evangelical Christians believe there is a revival
underway in America that requires Christian youth to
assume leadership roles in advocating the causes of
their religious movement. Jesus Camp follows a group
of young children to Pastor Becky Fischer's "Kids on
Fire Summer Camp", where kids are taught to become
dedicated Christian soldiers in God's army and are
schooled in how to take back America for Christ. The
film is a first-ever look into an intense training
ground that recruits born-again Christian children
to become an active part of America's political
future.
"Jesus Camp" is already
open in New York and will open in 20 more cities across
the United States Oct. 6.
Distributed by Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. All
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broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
