At this camp, indoctrination is hardly a
game
-
Neva Chonin, Chronicle Critic At Large
Friday, September 29, 2006
Jesus Camp: Documentary. With
Becky Fischer and Mike Papantonio. Directed by Heidi Ewing and
Rachel Grady. 87 minutes. (PG-13. At Bay Area theaters).
Watching Heidi Ewing and
Rachel Grady's disturbing documentary about children
indoctrinated into evangelical Christianity will make you weep.
The tears might be of joy or terror, depending on how you feel
about divisions between church and state -- or child
exploitation, for that matter. One thing is unequivocal, though.
"Jesus Camp" should be required viewing for coastal urbanites
perplexed by the heartland's shift to the right.
The film offers one answer to
why the country's Evangelical minority packs such a political
wallop, and it's frighteningly simple: They're efficient -- and
ruthless.
Pastor Becky Fischer,
effervescent and focused, recruits for Kids on Fire, a
Pentecostal summer camp in Devils Lake, N.D. There campers pray
to a cardboard standup of George W. Bush, weep and speak in
tongues, writhe on the floor clutching little fetus dolls and
perform Cultural Revolution-style musical numbers in camouflage
face paint.
Think of it as boot camp for
the future army of God. Fischer cheerfully admits to borrowing
techniques used by other extreme religious factions (Islamic
fundamentalism is a particular favorite) in her jihad against
abortion, liberals and godless secularism. Counselors at Kids on
Fire do not use war as a metaphor, but a sincere and formidable
call to arms aimed at "taking America back for Christ."
Granted, the children in "Jesus
Camp" aren't randomly plucked off the playground and set on a
redemptive crusade. Most are born into religious households
where they are home-schooled to reject everything from evolution
and science to Harry Potter and non-religious dancing (heavy
metal and hip-hop are fine, as long as Christ is in the heart
and the lyric sheet).
Ewing and Grady ("The Boys of
Baraka") aren't interested in the genesis of American
evangelism, but in examining how the movement attracts young
people at a time when church attendance is in a national slump,
and the methods used by adults to sway the minds of children.
They accomplish this by keeping larger cultural analysis to a
minimum while concentrating on a microcosmic foursome: A trio of
kids and Fischer, the adult who is either ruining or saving them
(again, this is a matter of opinion). The three budding warriors
for Christ are distinctive moppets, making their indoctrination
into religious groupthink all the more unsettling. Mullet-haired
Levi is a charismatic (in every sense) 12-year-old who emerges
from his shell to deliver fire-and-brimstone sermons; Tory, 10,
looks like a future cheerleader, but says she only wants use her
body to exalt the Lord; and Rachael, who is articulate and
earnest, and at 9 already a devoted street soldier accosting
strangers to share the Word.
Mike Papantonio, a Christian
Air America talk-show host, acts as the directors' onscreen
mouthpiece by questioning evangelical tactics. A Midwesterner,
he conveys a deeply personal despair at watching his country and
religion co-opted. "Jesus Camp" tries to avoid overt political
statements, striving instead for a disinterested empathy that
informs without preaching. It succeeds, with a few
hammer-to-head exceptions. The camera lingers too long on the
hideous stretches of fast-food joints, religious signage and
flag-bedecked suburbs that have become shorthand for "ignorant
Midwest," for example. More irksome still is an interview with
Levi's mother, a fundamentalist housewife whose quotes seem to
have been edited into brief, fanatical sound bites.
At heart, all documentaries aim
to be important films. Few actually pull it off. Minor flaws and
all, "Jesus Camp" is among the year's most important films, if
only because it forces us to learn about an America we seldom
see and seldom want to see. It stares into the face of faith run
amok, and for those willing to follow its gaze, it provides sad
revelations.
-- Advisory: Frightening
descriptions of abortions and emotional intensity and images of
children writhing on the floor.
E-mail Neva Chonin at
nchonin@sfchronicle.com.
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