'Jesus Camp' Will Leave No Viewer on the Fence

Liberals (or folks who believe in the separation of church and state) will find " Jesus Camp " alarming.

Members of the religious right may find themselves yelling "Amen!" 

But nobody's going to be indifferent to Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's documentary.

"Jesus Camp" follows three Missouri youngsters to a Christian summer camp in North Dakota that serves as ROTC training for God's army. As part of the Rev. Becky Fischer's "Kids on Fire" program, the children sing hymns, discuss their faith, speak in tongues and attend presentations that emphasize the evils of modern society. Once in a while they find time to hike or ride go-karts.

The goal, Fischer tells us, is to create the next generation of leaders, people who will be elected to high office, rise in business and industry and use their clout to return American to the God-fearing nation it was before the banning of school prayer.

The film's three young subjects, Levi, Rachael and Tory are bright, articulate and fearless when it comes to advancing their faith. Every now and then one of them will be moved to walk up to a complete stranger in a restaurant or on the street and witness for the Lord.

Levi is particularly compelling, an astonishingly self-assured pre-teen who plans on a preaching career and in fact already has the moves and vocal delivery of a pulpit veteran. At one point he compares notes and gets some coaching on technique from the pastor at one of our mega-churches.

The film was shot in the summer of 2005, when the announced resignation of Sandra Day O'Connor created the possibility of a long-lasting conservative majority on the Supreme Court. That looming battle galvanizes the young campers and their leaders, who in one session pass around plastic reproductions of aborted babies and in another direct their prayers at a life-sized cardboard cutout of George W. Bush. The idea is to give the President the strength to nominate a truly righteous candidate to the nation's highest court.

Ewing and Grady also spend time in the children's homes. All three are home-schooled by mothers who find God in just about any subject. At one point Levi and his mom dismiss global warming based on theological rather than scientific arguments.

In fact, intellectual inquiry seems to be tolerated only to the extent that it reaffirms the families' religious convictions. By the time they get to the summer camp, these kids are all on the same moral and theological page. The unanimity of belief is so widespread that when one cherubic little boy breaks down in tears and admits that he has doubts, everybody is too shocked to say anything.

Employing a cinema verite style, the filmmakers have done a remarkable job of presenting this polarizing material without editorializing. Rev. Fischer has seen " Jesus Camp " and given it her blessing.

But they do attempt to balance the film by incorporating on-air exhortations from Mike Papantonio, a talk show host on the Air America radio network. A Christian liberal, Papantonio opposes many aspects of evangelical thought, especially the goal of creating a monolithic society in which everyone will believe exactly the same thing.

Unfortunately, Papantonio gets so worked up that he sounds like a Chicken Little alarmist.

The problem is not that parents on the religious right raise their offspring to follow in their footsteps. It's that everyone else doesn't instill in their children an appreciation of tolerance, pluralism and the freedom to question anything.

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" JESUS CAMP ''

Director: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady

Cast: Becky Fischer, Mike Papantonio

Rated: PG-13 for some discussions of mature subject matter.

Running time: 1:30

3 stars

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(c) 2006, The Kansas City Star.

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