Product Description

Jesus Camp directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady directors of the critically acclaimed The Boys Of Baraka follows Levi Rachael and Tory to Pastor Becky Fischer's "Kids On Fire" summer camp in Devil's Lake North Dakota where kids as young as 6 years-old are taught to become dedicated Christian soldiers in "God's army". The film follows these children at camp as they hone their "prophetic gifts" and are schooled in how to "take back America for Christ." The film is a first-ever look into an intense training ground that recruits born-again Christian children to become an active part of America's political future. System Requirements:Run Time: 84 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. Rating: PG- 13 UPC: 876964000628 Manufacturer No: 10062

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4745 in DVD
• Brand: MAGNOLIA HOME ENTERTAINMENT
• Released on: 2007-01-23
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 84 minutes

Amazon.com
The feverish spectacle of a summer camp for evangelical Christian kids is the focus of Jesus Camp, a fascinating if sometimes alarming documentary. (Shortly after its release, the movie gained a new notoriety when Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, who appears near the end of the film, resigned his post amid a male prostitute's allegations of drug use and sexual misconduct.) For most of the film, we follow a charismatic teacher, Becky Fischer, as she trains young soldiers in "God's Army" at a camp in North Dakota. Some of the kids emerge as likable and bright, and eager to continue their work as pint-sized preachers; elsewhere, the visions of children speaking in tongues and falling to the floor in ecstasy are more troubling. Even more arresting is the vision of a generation of children home-schooled to believe that the Bible is science, or Fischer's certainty that America's flawed system of democracy will someday be replaced by a theocracy. (In one scene, a cardboard cut-out of George W. Bush is presented to the children, who react by laying their hands on the figure as though in a religious procession.) Filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady maintain neutrality about all this, maybe too much so (they throw in some interviews with radio host Mike Papantonio to provide a liberal-Christian viewpoint) and one would like to know more about the grown-ups presented here. Power broker Haggard is the creepiest person in the film, an insincere smooth talker whose advice to one of the young would-be campgoers comes across as entirely cynical. Time will tell whether the film's Christian soldiers will be marching onward. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

YOU DON'T MAKE HEROES OUT OF WARLOCKS!!!1!
Although Magnolia Pictures purchased JESUS CAMP from A&E Indie Films in 2006 and subsequently attempted to pull it from Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Festival because, according to Magnolia president Eamonn Bowles, "I don't want the perception out in the public that this is an agenda-laden film," JESUS CAMP is indeed laden with agendas. Filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady have produced a blood-curling documentary that reveals all too clearly the dangers that fundamental Christianity poses to our secular American democracy.

JESUS CAMP follows three Kansas City area families as they travel to Devil's Lake, North Dakota, to attend Kids On Fire School of Ministry - the summer "Jesus Camp" of the movie's title. Brothers Levi and Luke live in St. Robert, Missouri, and attend Rock of Ages Church. Levi sports a rocking mullet and enjoys preaching. Rachael attends the same church, and is quite the precocious proselytizer. Rounding out the group is Tory (short for Victoria) of Lee's Summit, Missouri; she's a member of the children's praise dance team at Christ Triumphant Church. While she tries to dance for the Lord, she admits to sometimes succumbing to sin and dancing for the wrong reasons: "dancing for the flesh". She's ten.

Kids on Fire was founded and is run by Becky Fischer and her ministry, Kids in Ministry International. Fischer plays like a funny-yet-frightening fundie stereotype, what with her Harry Potter rants ("WARLOCKS ARE ENEMIES OF GOD!!!1!!"), obsession with sin and fits of hysteria. Much of the film focuses on the summer camp itself, and these scenes are the most chilling. Imagine, if you will, an auditorium filled with children and teens - kids speaking in tongues, rolling on the floor, convulsing as if from epileptic seizures, tears rolling from their Precious Moments eyes, faces red with exertion. At times, some of the children seem almost delusional or in trance-like states. Scary stuff.

More frightening still is all the militarized, warmongering imagery invoked by adults and children alike: "God's warriors." "God's Army." "This means war." "Foot soldiers." "Will you sacrifice your life for Jesus?" Fischer justifies her army-building - the younger the soldiers, the better! - by comparing American Christians to Middle Eastern radical Muslims: the children of Islam learn to become martyrs at an early age, to fight and lay down their lives for their religion. Rather than recognizing the abusive nature of such indoctrination, Fischer reasons that Christians must do the same. After all, this is war, is it not? (To up the ante, the DVD has a deleted scene in which Tory's father says of his pending deployment to Iraq, "I see this as an all-expenses paid missionary trip." No wonder we never got those flowers dubya promised us.)

At Jesus Camp, the children also receive political instruction: there's an eerie pro-life lecture, complete with plastic feti and strips of tape reading "life" to cover the children's little mouths for a moment of silence; a speech about "godly" judges; and much talk about those supposed core values shared by this Judeo-Christian country. All is presided over by a cardboard cutout of George W. Bush, for whom there is much prayer. The rituals resemble miniaturized, child-sized versions of those in Margaret Atwood's THE HANDMAID'S TALE: indoctrination at the Red Center; the Birth Ceremony; and Prayvaganzas, Salvagings and Particicutions. It's at once terrifying and hilarious.

The children all inspired a mix of pity and revulsion in this atheist's cockles, but doe-eyed Rachael really stole the spotlight. I couldn't decide whether I wanted to call Child Protective Services or throttle her, shake some sense into her arrogant Christian self. Rachael spends much of the movie trying to "save" others: a stranger in the bowling alley, other children, her neighbors, random African American men on the street ("I think they're Muslim"). Her parents, of course, think her proselytizing is just peachy; there's no consideration as to whether others, Christians and non-Christians alike, might find this insulting or offensive. Not that this is surprising, when her parents are off doing more of the same. In a deleted scene, Rachael admits to "working on" her young neighbor while her parents simultaneously "work on" the girl's parents, trying to lure the family into their church ("cult" is really a more appropriate term). Another deleted scene shows Rachael bragging about all the gifts God has given her: discerning of spirits, prophecy, speaking in tongues and hearing, talking to and understanding THE LORD.

In short, Rachael's parents are successfully molding her into an insufferable little snot.

In addition to the Jesus Camp footage, there's also some film of the families at home before the summer trip (for example, we see Levi being homeschooled by his mother, who "teaches" that creationism is the only means of explaining the mysteries of life and that "global warming" is a lie) and afterwards, during vacations to Colorado Springs (here, Ted Haggard makes a brief but glorious cameo) and Washington, DC (for a small but disquieting anti-choice protest). This is all set against the backdrop of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's resignation and Samuel Alito's nomination and confirmation. Radio talk show host Mike Papantonio (of Air America Radio's Ring of Fire) provides the sole voice of reason, and p0wns Fischer in a one-on-one interview - in which she freely admits to "indoctrinating" children, and claims that she loves democracy but says that "democracy is going to destroy us." Make no mistake - this is war, and fundamentalists of any and all stripes won't rest until they've remade the world in their image.

Watching the horror that is Jesus Camp, I was reminded of two pertinent quotes:

"I want to get down on my knees and start pleasing Jesus. I want to feel his salvation all over my face." - Eric Cartman

"Such labelling of children with their parents' religion is child abuse." - Richard Dawkins

And there you have it - JESUS CAMP in three sentences.

Powerful truth that shows innocence lost
I'm so glad to see spiritual revival in American. But Pastor Fischer's children's ministry is training kids to be Christian warriors, when the burden is on us adults. This is what's wrong in America, why are we making kids grow up so fast? I believe one of the central tenants of Christianity is to be like children to enter into Kingdom of God. Why are we taking that away from them? Additionally, anyone who harms them is forsaken Jesus himself. The message of Pastor Fischer of death and sin is not age appropriate and down right scary. There is God, there is good and evil. But kids shouldn't be sent into the battlefield. Thanks...

Lame
People shocked by this documentary are simply naive. It's amazing to see how many people fail to realize even the simplest of realities: that all people will come to doubt at one point or another. No one is being "brainwashed" here, these kids will eventually grow up, question what they have been taught (and hopefully stay with the faith). Just because you have wasted your life without considering spiritual/theological things does not mean no one else does.

Jesus Camp: just more secular propaganda being used to smear Christians, at the expense of an isolated community in Who Knows Where, USA. Please people, just wake up, turn off the TV, and start thinking for yourselves.