Jesus Camp Analysis
Derek C. Jones
Professor Romesburg
Freshman Comp. 1
December 16, 2015 Jesus Camp Jesus Camp is a documentary about a Pentecostal Christian children’s summer camp in North Dakota, called “Kids on Fire.” The camp is run by a minister named Becky Fischer. It’s directed by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing. The filmmakers follow three pre-teens, Levi, Rachael and Tory, around the country as they attend the camp, sit in on one of Ted Haggard’s sermons in his New Life mega church in Colorado Springs, CO and travel to Washington, D.C. This is during the nomination process of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. The filmmakers do not narrate these events or otherwise provide an editorial voice during the film, but an important viewpoint is provided …show more content…
Indoctrination is teaching a certain idea, doctrine, principle, or religion. Fischer and the other ministers often profess their devotion to George W. Bush, because of his supposed born-again Christian beliefs, and at one point bring in a cardboard cutout of him and encouraging all the children to stretch out their hands toward it and pray for him. The children are also taught that abortion is evil. Little dolls are passed around the congregation and are supposed to be fetuses so they can touch and adore. Another scene shows some of the children at home, being taught by their parents to say a different version of the Pledge of Allegiance, not to the American flag but to a “Christian flag” that consists of a blue cross on a field of …show more content…
Fischer praises kids for being “usable” for their cause. Another minister congratulates children who attend the camp, “Way to be obedient!”, and says, with no apparent awareness of irony, that “the devil goes after the young, those who cannot fend for themselves”. Their expressed goal is to raise a new generation of fundamentalist Christians that will outnumber other groups and win the cultural war through population. Stories like this are the best possible evidence for Richard Dawkins’ argument that it should be considered child abuse to indoctrinate children in the religion of their parents and deny them the chance to make up their own minds.
Now that so much has changed, it is still saddening, but mostly because of these children’s lives that are being taken away from them by a warped ideology that tries to turn all its adherents into mindless drones for the cause. Since this film came out, Fischer has closed the camp down, by fears of a backlash, though she has says that she intends to continue her preaching in other ways. I would love a follow up that explores how the children and adults in this documentary have changed after the camp and if any changed at
Professor Romesburg
Freshman Comp. 1
December 16, 2015 Jesus Camp Jesus Camp is a documentary about a Pentecostal Christian children’s summer camp in North Dakota, called “Kids on Fire.” The camp is run by a minister named Becky Fischer. It’s directed by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing. The filmmakers follow three pre-teens, Levi, Rachael and Tory, around the country as they attend the camp, sit in on one of Ted Haggard’s sermons in his New Life mega church in Colorado Springs, CO and travel to Washington, D.C. This is during the nomination process of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. The filmmakers do not narrate these events or otherwise provide an editorial voice during the film, but an important viewpoint is provided …show more content…
Indoctrination is teaching a certain idea, doctrine, principle, or religion. Fischer and the other ministers often profess their devotion to George W. Bush, because of his supposed born-again Christian beliefs, and at one point bring in a cardboard cutout of him and encouraging all the children to stretch out their hands toward it and pray for him. The children are also taught that abortion is evil. Little dolls are passed around the congregation and are supposed to be fetuses so they can touch and adore. Another scene shows some of the children at home, being taught by their parents to say a different version of the Pledge of Allegiance, not to the American flag but to a “Christian flag” that consists of a blue cross on a field of …show more content…
Fischer praises kids for being “usable” for their cause. Another minister congratulates children who attend the camp, “Way to be obedient!”, and says, with no apparent awareness of irony, that “the devil goes after the young, those who cannot fend for themselves”. Their expressed goal is to raise a new generation of fundamentalist Christians that will outnumber other groups and win the cultural war through population. Stories like this are the best possible evidence for Richard Dawkins’ argument that it should be considered child abuse to indoctrinate children in the religion of their parents and deny them the chance to make up their own minds.
Now that so much has changed, it is still saddening, but mostly because of these children’s lives that are being taken away from them by a warped ideology that tries to turn all its adherents into mindless drones for the cause. Since this film came out, Fischer has closed the camp down, by fears of a backlash, though she has says that she intends to continue her preaching in other ways. I would love a follow up that explores how the children and adults in this documentary have changed after the camp and if any changed at