by Cristy Hebert

Created on: September 14, 2008

Jesus camp is a documentary made in 2006 by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. They follow children whose parents are Evangelical Christians. You know pretty quickly is someone is Evangelical because they say that they have been "saved" by Jesus and that they are "born again". Those are two pretty big themes in the Evangelical Christians. Jesus camp puts the emphasis on the children. We see their parents but only briefly. The film makers here chose to put the emphasis on the children. They follow those children a little bit, and a little bit after, they spend time in a summer camp devoted only to religion.

They follow more closely 2 children in particular, Rachael and Levi. Rachael is around 10 years old and Levi is 12 years old. Rachael is so into religion and sure of her that we see her go up to strangers in public top talk to them about Jesus. We see her go up to 60 something men and talk to them about Jesus. When they don't respond too warmly to her intervention, she quickly concludes that they must be Muslim! Levi is a preacher in the making. He talks to the crowds with the aplomb of an adult, many adults would not be that self-assured in front of a crowd.

What is so special about those 2 kids? For one thing, they frightened the hell out of me! You hear Rachael, who is 10 years old may I remind you, that you have to be a warrior and that you have to be prepared to die for your cause. I would have loved seeing more of her parents so it could explain why this kid is so fervently religious at an age where kids are more into Barbies than Jesus. This is the only complaint I have about this documentary because I was riveted to the screen for the duration (around 90 minutes). You see those kids speaking in tongues. They have meetings where the kids chant, speak in tongues, cry, stomp, fall to the ground and more. I once saw a documentary about Jim Jones and his cult and those kids reminded me of that. They have hollow eyes and are frightening to watch.

The meetings are held by a preacher called Becky Fisher who says that we should respect Muslim kids who blow themselves up for Allah! She frightened me even more than the kids, especially when they bring out a cardboard picture of George W. Bush and we see them praying that he can puts judges in places that will be against abortion.

I have never seen a documentary as disturbing as this one. I saw it just after John McCain chose Sarah Pallin to be his vice-president if he gets elected. Pallin is an Evangelical Christian also and I wonder how they bring up their kids. Her first born used drugs during many years and finally enlisted to go fight in Iraq and her second born is pregnant at 17. I wonder if she had the choice to keep the baby or not. Pallin is for teaching creationism in school in place of evolution. In the documentary, you hear a radio host say that he is frightened by the enormous political power that the religious right has in the United States and he is right. Putting McCain in power will only further what George W. Bush has started 8 years ago. Everyone should watch Jesus Camp before going to the polls in November 2008.

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