TWO-YEAR-OLD Ivy's grandfather had serious eye problems, diagnosed as a detached retina. He had surgery, but despite doctors saying the procedure went well, his eyes did not improve.

One day, after a visit to Ivy, he left. When his granddaughter realized he was gone, she ran after him down the street. "Grandpa! Grandpa! Wait I have to do something," she yelled.

He knelt down and said: "What do you have to do?"

"I have to kiss your eyes," she said, and with that she removed his glasses and kissed each one of his eyes and said, "Jesus", then put his glasses back on.

Within a week, grandpa's eyes were totally healed and he was able to go back to work.

This story, and many more like it, are on Becky Fischer's website under the title "Peewee Prophets".

Fischer runs an organization called Kids in Ministry. She is the central character in a new documentary which raises uncomfortable questions about religious education and politics in the United States.

Jesus Camp is the story of three children, Rachel, now 10, Levi, now 13, and Tory, now 11, and the summer camp they attended last year.

Becky Fischer enlists a group of children as young as six as Christian soldiers in the service of God, as they weep, speak in tongues, collapse and writhe on the floor and find the power of enlightenment.

At one stage Fischer warns the children against Harry Potter. Warlocks, she says sternly, are enemies of God. If Harry Potter had been around in the time of the Old Testament, he would have been put to death.

She frequently uses war terminology, but says it is about a spiritual warfare, not one with guns and other weapons.

On her website, she answers her own questions, such as "Are you raising up Christian terrorists or another Hitler Youth Movement?" and "You are charismatic. Do you represent all evangelical Christians?"

She says: "Christians do believe they are in a cultural war for the lives and souls of people worldwide, and particularly for the minds and hearts of our children and youth."

In the US, the film has been rated PG-13, which means it is recommended that the three children should not see themselves on film. Perhaps the film classification board was concerned about young people being impressionable. The three young stars of the documentary, who attend the camp, are all from evangelical homes in Missouri.

Levi loves to preach, which he does to the summer camp. He is home schooled by his mother, who teaches him that the world was created by God 6000 years ago and that global warming is not a problem. Science proves nothing, she says.

Rachel believes that churches where everybody prays and are solemn are "dead churches".

Tory practices break-dancing and loves heavy metal Christian music. She does not like Britney Spears because her songs are about dating. In the film she wears a T-shirt that says: "My dad is in the army." At the end of the film, Rachel and Levi are filmed trying to preach the Gospel to a group of black men sitting beside a road. Rachel asks one man where he thinks he will end up when he dies. "Heaven," he replies confidently. This flummoxes them, so they retreat. As they walk away, Rachel says: "I think they were Muslims."

The film would be compelling enough, but the filmmakers, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, added an overtly political element after the main photography was shot. It starts with the radio announcer saying Sandra Day O'Connor has resigned from the Supreme Court, thus giving George Bush the opportunity to nominate a conservative to the court and tip its balance to the right.

Thus the film is set against an America where the culture wars are nearing their climax, with the ultimate prize, control of the Supreme Court and its power over decisions such as abortion, up for grabs.

This political context came as a shock to Fischer. "If you know anything at all about our ministry, you can imagine I was in shock because I have never viewed what we do with children as political in any way," she said.

"It was a blow and I have been on a roller-coaster emotionally over it, but not having any editorial rights to the film, there was not much I could do about it."

In fact, after a test screening, Fischer and others objected to the music, which they believed portrayed them as sinister.

Ewing and Grady, at their own expense, then redid all the music, which impressed Fischer that they were sincere in trying to be even-handed.

The film draws no overt conclusions. It will inevitably be interpreted through very different eyes. In a screening this week in godless New York, there was derisive laughter in the cinema.

Afterwards, one woman said; "That was a very scary movie."

The moviemakers, however, are also hoping to tap the religious film market exploited by The Passion of the Christ.

The president of the National Association of Evangelicals, the Reverend Ted Haggard, says the movie is skewed against Christianity. Mr Haggard, who appears in the movie when Levi and Rachel attend his mega-church in Colorado Springs, told the Denver Post the film was yellow journalism, with "a strong agenda, like any Michael Moore film with the cinematography of The Blair Witch Project".

"It does represent a small portion of the charismatic movement," he admits, "but I think it demonises it. Secularists are hoping that evangelical Christians and radicalised Muslims are essentially the same, which is why they will love this film."

In fact, Fischer compares her evangelising of children with Muslims being brought up in the Middle East. "Our enemies," she says, are filling up their children's minds. The difference is that, "excuse me, we have the truth".