INSIDE THE JESUS CAMP – 26^th January 2007

 

It was this week’s surprise Oscar nomination – a shocking expose of an extreme US Christian children’s camp. So just how dangerous is the rise of the religious Right?

 

 

An angelic blond boy of perhaps seven falls to his knees, tears pouring down his cheeks, his arms outstretched as he begs for salvation.

 

Around him, children perform war dances in camouflage and face-paint, making straight-armed salutes to a deafening soundtrack of heavy metal.

 

They weep and speak in tongues as they are ‘seized by the Holy Spirit’. Other youngsters whip themselves into an hysterical frenzy before a 7ft cardboard cut-out of President Bush, shouting out blessings to him as a ‘holy man’.

 

Nearby, children as young as six cradle plastic replicas of seven-week-old foetuses in their hands, holding them aloft and sobbing as they pray for an end to abortion, calling for ‘righteous judges’ to help them ‘reclaim America for Christ’.

 

These are just some of the scenes in a controversial new documentary about a Christian summer camp for children, which has gripped and appalled the US in equal measure. This week, it won an Oscar nomination, reflecting the powerful response it has triggered.

 

It is the latest twist in the religious debate raging in the US, sparked by the Right-wing, deeply religious President George W Bush driving through controversial anti-abortion and anti-gay legislation, and likening his war on terror to a religious crusade.

 

Now, the film is being seized on by the liberal Left and Democrats as exposing a new front in the drive to make America a Puritan state.

 

Jesus Camp follows a group of youngsters at the Kids on Fire evangelical Bible camp, in the ironically-named Devil’s Lake, North Dakota.

 

Run through the summer for children aged from six to 13, it is one of several fee-paying camps where instead of ghost stories and toasted marshmallows around the campfire, children are taught what it means to be a ‘dedicated Christian soldier in God’s Army.’

 

The camp is overseen by Becky Fischer, who proclaims: ‘I want to see these children laying down their lives for the Gospel as much as children commit themselves to religious ideals in Palestine, Pakistan and all those different places.’

 

The theme of religious conquest is stamped throughout the film, with one young camper saying, ‘A lot of people die for God, and they’re not afraid.’

 

A boy adds, ‘We’re kinda being trained to be warriors, only in a more fun way.’

 

Unsurprisingly, the film by two New York documentary makers has evoked a firestorm of criticism since its release in the US three weeks ago, setting evangelicals against non-believers.

 

The Chicago Sun-Times described it as ‘thoroughly troubling’, claiming the children were traumatised and scarred. 

 

Another newspaper prayed the film would ‘open slumbering minds’ to the fact ‘fundamentalists of this type wish to impose a Christian kind of sha'ria law on the United States, in which religion will no longer be a purely personal matter.’

 

One film festival gave it their Scariest Movie of the Year Award, whilst critics claim evangelicals are ‘brainwashing’ children, turning them into ‘terrorists.’

 

Fischer denies the charge, saying, ‘If someone doesn’t like what someone else is teaching their child, that’s considered brainwashing.

 

But when they teach their own children their own belief system, it’s just good parenting.’

 

While she is resolute in her defence of the radical practices the film exposes, those on the other side of the divide are equally vocal in their condemnation.

 

Mike Papantonio, a liberal Christian radio talk-show host who appears in the film, says: ‘There is a religious, political army of foot soldiers out there who are being directed by a political Right. We’ve been asleep at the wheel as this conservative, fundamentalist element takes control in this country.’

 

Supporters of the movie say it does no more than show evangelical Churches trying to keep children in the faith, and the political slant given by the filmmakers is ‘designed to demonise.’

 

Fischer seems to be enjoying the storm she’s created, despite a portrayal in the film that is, at times, decidedly unsympathetic.

 

‘Extreme liberals who look at this should be quaking in their boots,’ she says. ‘I will never get the ears of the entire nation again in that way. The exposure I am getting I could never have paid for. I am on a mission!’

 

The militaristic overtones of the camp have sent a chill down the spine of moderate America. Fischer has been accused of training Christian terrorists or running a Hitler Youth Movement.

 

At one point in the film, a ten-year-old girl is seen approaching three black men in a park and asking: ‘If you died tonight, where would you expect to go?’  

 

‘Heaven,’ one of the men says.

 

‘Are you sure?’ the little girl prods.

 

‘Yes,’ the man says pleasantly.

 

As the girl walks away, confused by the encounter, she whispers to her friends, ‘I think he was Muslim.’

 

So why indoctrinate children with such views?

 

‘Our enemies are putting their focus on the kids,’ says Fischer. ‘In Palestine…they take their kids to camps and they’re putting hand grenades in their hands. They’re teaching them how to use machine guns.

 

It’s no wonder, with that intense training, that children are willing to kill themselves for the cause of Islam. I want to see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people who are committed to the cause of Islam.’

 

In the documentary, she tells children, ‘This is a sick old world. Kids, you got to change things. This means war! Are you part of it?’

 

Whilst most non-believers and mainstream Christians will find the hysteria of the children uncomfortable viewing at best, it’s non uncommon in the US charismatic movement.

 

Its form of worship tends to be expressive, exuberant and emotional, with clapping, dancing and speaking in tongues throughout the services.

 

With its 30 million US members coming from a variety of Churches, it is said to be the fastest growing Christian movement worldwide.

 

There’s no denying that its level of religious zealotry is disturbing to outsiders. At the Kids on Fire summer camp’, it’s all Christian values, all the time; Harry Potter doesn’t make the cut. ‘You don’t make heroes out of warlocks!’ thunders Fischer.

 

At one point in the documentary, a ten-year-old girl at a bowling alley prays over her ball.

 

‘Your spirit, not mine,’ she whispers. ‘Help me to make this one a good one. Ball, I command you in the name of Jesus: Make this one a good hit.’

 

Her prayers aren’t answered: the ball winds up in the gutter.

 

Many critics see the most worrying aspect of the camp to be the blatant political indoctrination of children.

 

‘I come from a pretty strong spiritual centre, but it doesn’t change the way I judge people,’ says Papantonio, who is a Methodist.

 

‘The Sermon on the Mount makes much more sense to me than the frenzied rantings of America’s new ‘religious right’. They have become an element of American politics that threatens our decency as well as our democracy.

 

Now, 25 percent of Americans describe themselves as evangelical. They’re very tenacious and elbow themselves into positions of power.’

 

It’s certainly true that America has a strong puritanical streak. As one political observer put it to me this week, ‘you have to look at where we came from. We fled from places such as Britain to escape religious persecution and pursue our Puritan faith. We’re not going to give it up without a fight.’

 

Compared with Britain, Christians have a strong, vocal presence in mainstream, secular America. Turn on any pop radio station, and you’re just as likely to hear a Christian rock tune as the latest offering from Beyonce.

Every schoolchild in the country starts their day with the Pledge of Allegiance, which affirms their loyalty to ‘one nation under God.’

 

Tens of millions of ordinary Americans genuinely believe the end of the world is nigh – witness the hysterical scenes in the run-up to the Millennium.

 

Novels dealing with the ‘Rapture of the Saints’ – in which, on the Last Day, Christians are swept to heaven and unbelievers are left to endure the Anti-christ’s Tribulation –outsell bestselling authors such as Jurassic Park’s Michael Crichton.

 

Harnessing the religious demographic put George W. Bush in the White House. Whilst many of his predecessors tried to court the religious right – Bill Clinton even held ‘prayer breakfasts’ – Bush was the first to make concrete promises in return for their support.

 

As a result, millions who would otherwise not have voted at all turned out to support him. He became the first self-proclaimed born-again Christian to reach the White House, and immediately ‘surrounded himself with spirit-filled people’, as Fischer puts it.

 

Their agenda was clear: to reclaim America for the religious right. To this end, Bush has pushed through an anti gay-marriage amendment, brought stem cell research to a halt, and started what many view as a ‘Holy War’ against Islam in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

The evangelical right is swift to point out that despite its militaristic rhetoric,  its ‘foot-soldiers of Christ’ have armed themselves with nothing more than a Bible and an extraordinary zeal.

 

But moderate America has only to turn its eyes to the spate of firebomb attacks on abortion clinics, and murders of doctors willing to perform what are – for now – still legal terminations, to feel the cold wind of concern.

 

While the strident message of the Kids on Fire summer camp is disseminated in cinemas across the country, liberal America wonders where else the Almighty may call His followers to wage a modern Holy War.