The Oscar nominated documentary Jesus Camp makes for pretty grim viewing. It focuses on the Kids On Fire School of Ministry’s Christian summer camp where activities include praying for George W. Bush (with a cardboard cut out present for inspiration), telling young children that abortion is evil and that Harry Potter should be put to death as a warlock. The camp’s leader, Becky Fisher, is particularly fond sharing her views on “the truth” and the purpose of the camp…
“It’s no wonder, with that kind of intense training and discipling, that those young people are ready to kill themselves for the cause of Islam. I wanna see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people are to the cause of Islam. I wanna see them as radically laying down their lives for the Gospel as they are over in Pakistan and Israel and Palestine and all those different places, you know, because we have… excuse me, but we have the truth!”
As you can probably tell the film does not paint a very good picture of the camp or the extremist edge of modern Christianity and the version screened on Channel 4 (Tuesday 6th May, 11.05pm) will have managed to persuade even more people that this is the only face of Christianity.
The documentary ran at 60 minutes (including adverts) some 24 shy of it’s cinema and DVD runtime. Whilst the shortened version got across the general feel of the film and the shocking nature of the camp’s indoctrination sessions it also turned it into a one sided argument. The voice of mainstream Chirstianity was nowhere to be heard. The cinema version features a chap called Mike Papantonio, a lawyer, broadcaster and Methodist who heavily criticises the camp and it’s activities.
I’m not a religious man but I know plenty of people who are upset by what they consider to be the one sided representation of their religion perpetrated by a media that focusses only on uber-nutters. I don’t agree with this view but it certainly does not help when a broadcaster takes, what I consider to be, a fair documentary and edits the balance out of it.
If you are interested in Jesus Camp and the terrible activities of the what I consider to be religious extremists then you would be much better served to grab a copy of the DVD or, at least, wait until Channel 4 broadcast the full version.
You do a disservice to honest, thoughtful, caring Christians by lumping “evengelical” under the ideas of Becky Fisher. Fisher is at the radical edge of the Christian chruch and many Christians would consider her acultic rather than christian. To imply she reporesents evengelicals is like saying Jessica Simpson represents soutehrn rock because she comes from Texas. Its apples and oranges. There are millions of evangelicas who reject her extremism and use their time to feed the hungrey, provide housing, fight injustice, minsiter to aids paitents. Anti-Christian bigotry and propaganda conventiely forget that the “evangelical” church spearheaded the abolition of slavery, gave women the vote, spearheaded civil rights, lead mental health and prison reform, initiated the idea of public education and many many other social advances.
Thanks for the comment dpcpastor and I apologise for any offence taken.
Please rest assured there was no intention on my part to claim Ms Fisher represents the mainstream – as you can see the thrust of my post was the disservice done to the vast majority of Christians by Channel 4’s poor condensing of the documentary… and you will be pleased to know that I have argued the points about the abolition of slavery, civil rights etc with anti-religionists (it’s nice to make up words) on a forum that I belong to. As stated I am not religious myself, but my wife is and I have first hand experience of the great things that faith can do (even though I don’t have that faith myself).
…anyway, in light of your comments, I am going to edit my post to more accurately describe Ms Fishers position within popular Christian thought.
Thanks for the feedback – it’s always appreciated.
Your response is very gracious and kind and I apoligize if I appear on the defense. It seems in much of the larger culture that “evangelical” Christians are the only subgroup which it is thought acceptable to attack. I now know you were not doing that and i truly do appreciate your perspective and graciousness.
Also, I do indeed like your new word! Can you tell me your thought on “To End All Wars”? I was considering making a post concerning it but have not yet decided. As you can see, my site centers on refelctions of grace in different art mediums including film. You thoughts are welcome.