The documentary, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, follows evangelical pastor, Becky Fischer, who has developed a camp for young children (called "Kids On Fire") who are trained to be fearless warriors of Christ. At this camp, youngsters are encouraged to "reclaim the United States in the name of Christ", and to "die for Jesus". They also engage in group chants such as the call for "righteous judges" to criminalise abortion and homosexuality, and ritualistically worship cardboard cut-outs of George Bush. 

 

The film was screened by Michael Moore at a recent film festival where it was awarded a prize for Scariest Film (Moore hasn't lost his sense of humour, it seems), and also won a special jury prize at the NY Tribeca Film Festival. But what's most amazing is that the film's subject, Becky Fischer, has begun touring to promote the film, and publically states that "I don't feel exploited by the film in any way", conceding that it is a fair and adequate representation of her work. She simply sees the film as her greatest way yet to reach the nation with her cause - a nation where in the last five years, sales of christian music has risen 300%, and enrollments in Evangelical colleges have increased 70%. 

 

In this way, the documentary is a strange addition to the recent trend of popular cinema releases of left-based non-fiction pieces (hot on the heels of Gore's An Inconvenient Truth). Every one of these films claim to be impartial and not driven by any ideological agenda, but this is the first of which both for and against the issue in the film have come forward in support of the work. Michael Moore supporting the very same documentary as the U.S Evangelical revival? It happened in 2006.

 

The following is the official trailer for Jesus Camp, and anyone with any information on obtaining a copy of this film (you can imagine my anticipation) is encouraged to contact us via the contact us page.