SummaryA growing number of Evangelical Christians believe there is a revival underway in America that requires Christian youth to assume leadership roles in advocating the causes of their religious movement. This documentary, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, directors of the critically acclaimed "The Boys of Baraka," follows Levi, Rach...
SummaryA growing number of Evangelical Christians believe there is a revival underway in America that requires Christian youth to assume leadership roles in advocating the causes of their religious movement. This documentary, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, directors of the critically acclaimed "The Boys of Baraka," follows Levi, Rach...
This documentary is a simply terrifying inside look at religious fundamentalism movement in the United States. You just feel so sorry for these children and the way that they're being indoctrinated into this cult. I had to pause it a couple times just to make it all the way through it. My only complaint was that the radio host was not necessary and should have been omitted. A real eye opener.
Provocative and extremely disturbing account of Born-Again Christian Evangelism/Fundamentalism.I was shaking my head through about 75% of the movie.Despite the even-handed style you realise very quickly that all these people are delusional,crazy people who pray on(and mentally abuse)impressionable and vulnerable kids.Very eye-opening.
Whether you are a religious, churchgoing person or not, if you are the least bit liberal or tolerant in your world view, this has got to be one of the most unnerving films of the year.
The doc these kids would make with flea market camcorders couldn't possibly be as ugly as this absurdly hypocritical critique of the far right's role in escalating the culture war. The classier indoctrination to which Gap-shopping urban Democrats subject their kids might look damn spooky, too, but it probably wouldn't sell.
For my movie review I chose to watch Jesus Camp. Before watching this movie I had heard mixed reviews about this film. So I decided to watch it for myself.
The movie follows three kids from Missouri and there experience at an evangelical Jesus Camp. Levi, Tory and Rachel are evangelical Christians. Levi, 10 years old wants to become a pastor. Tory wants to be a pro-life leader of abortion. Finally Rachel, age 9, wants to work at a nail salon and tell people about Jesus. Young kids are being brain washed about all of the modern things happening in their lives. They are told that **** is wrong and prayers must occur during school. This film also shows scenes of mothers homeschooling her son about the evolution of the world. The attendees of the camp even pray to a cardboard cutout of George Bush. This movie was ridiculous horrifying. At times it even made me frightened of what the kids and their parents were doing because they would run around and chant.
Although this movie was crazy and strange I still enjoyed it. I didn't expect anything like it. I would defiantly recommend this to anyone over the age of twelve because it may be frightening. Overall I would give this film a eight out of ten.
A very disturbing look at the growing radical Christians in the US. The film tries very hard to be unbiased by not including a narrator, but the filmmakers use the radio show host to bluntly voice their views. My only complaint is that it hits it point very early on and just rehashes it again and again through the rest of the film. But hey, it was enough to get the crazy camp closed down, so I applaud the filmmakers.
This woman Beck Fischer who runs the camp suffers from obesity and the many illnesses compounded with it.
Her obesity is a direct outcome of her anger which lead her to hatred. Being obese is not a pretty picture in the eyes of people. She knows this and it makes her angry because she can't stop eating. She directs the anger toward the world. This anger toward people and herself leads to hatred. As her disease progressed she began to hate the world and want revenge on it. The complexity of this disease makes her a very unhappy woman who indulges in tons of food to quell her anger.
Religion afforded her an opportunity to be around others in her obese state. But the only way she can have enough courage to do this, is through self righteousness. She cannot be around others unless she assumes an intimidating role, the more intimidating, the less apt is a follower to ask about or remark on her obesity. It's far too involved to go into here but that's her, in a nutshell.
Their stance on abortion would not comply with Christ's assessment of the subject.
Proof being that Christ once said to some very self-righteous temple going people. " Even the prostitutes and tax collectors are going into Heaven ahead of you." Christ was knowledgeable of prostitution and the things women had to go through if they were a prostitute.
Christ was well aware of abortion. Prostitutes have practiced abortion for centuries. Christ, knowing this and being a very intelligent person, still claimed that even they, the prostitutes were going to enter Heaven.
He claimed that others were going to have to wait outside while these prostitutes and tax collectors went in ahead of the self-righteous. Since he knew that they practiced abortion from time to time and still stated that they would enter Heaven, it means Christ is a very loving person for allowing prostitutes into his kingdom. I saw no love coming from these people in the film. I saw zealots stating phrases that had the word love in them but as a famous writer once wrote. “What you are, shouts so loud, I can't hear a word you say.
I'll get back to the film in a minute: This part is for all people regardless of believers or nonbelievers.
When Christ said “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” He was simply stating the fact that we can only come from the energy and matter contained in the Universe. This is the Creator or Father and we are part of the Universe. The energy and matter of the Universe is inside of us. The Father cannot exist outside of the Universe because the Universe is All. We are the Universe beholding Itself.
Probably the most interesting thing Jesus verified (and don't get too excited, since most likely none of us are anywhere near to having what it takes.) but he said : We humans are Gods and children of the most high. He was saying that we have a capacity in us that can do nearly anything and went on to say that we as humans would do even greater works than he was doing.
This poor woman Fischer can't even pull off a slight miracle like giving up a bag of Frito's to save herself from obesity. If something so obvious as this escapes her understanding, then how can she understand deeper issues like abortion, **** and war?
It was fearful and self-righteous feelings that got our Nation into a war with Iraq, a nation that had never done anything to us. The religious right-wing and people such as these and Bush took us into this war. Now the Karmic principle that Christ taught is being visited on our nation. "As you do unto others, it shall be done unto you."
We destroyed their economy, Our economy was destroyed. We destroyed their infrastructure, Katrina and the Gulf Oil Spill destroyed ours. We made millions of them homeless, millions of our homes went into foreclosure. Isn't it just like he stated? Millions of our jobs were exported overseas and our own bankers turned on us, robbing our retirement savings and lowered the value of our homes by 40%. Now our tax dollars are being used to rebuild Iraq infrastructure.
Christ was an incredible teacher and this film is actually quite a lesson as to how religious people, armed with incomplete understanding can do so much damage to themselves and the world in general.
This film portrays what happens in any religion, not just the Christian people.
As a last observation on this film, their teaching of hatred toward **** is totally off.
Christ never said anything about **** and for a very good reason.
His Father is the Creation itself and in the Creation or Universe, this planet came into being. On this planet, **** exists in several of the animal life forms. It didn't just develop in Mankind. Christ knew this and there was no reason for him to say anything about it. The Creator of the Creation doesn't make mistakes. Everything that exists can only only exist because of the way it arranges itself in the Eternal-Now.
This movie was very interesting to watch. One can even say that radical Christians are using impressionable kids to fight the battle that they can't. I didn't know that 75% of home-schooled children are Evangelists and how they teach their children that Evolution is wrong and that Creationism is the only answer. This is a biased view on the world. They teach their kids that Science doesn't answer anything but religion does. The camp itself is fairly disturbing. They or Pastor Becky in general, made the kids feel guilty if they wanted to be normal or shy away from God. She told them that they are phonies and must repent. Also, I found it funny that she mentioned that Harry Potter would've been killed in the old testament because he was a warlock. Also, when they wanted to tell ghost stories, the kids were once again feel guilty because they are told that the storied don't honor God. I also saw how they slipped how abortion is wrong into the equation. They are turning these kids into soldiers of God in a radical way. I'm not one to judge but these kids will have interesting lives ahead of them. If only they had freedom to live and do what they please like normal children.