“Jesus Camp”
Director Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Magnolia Pictures
For today’s documentaries, two characteristics just keep
popping up: cuteness and catastrophe.
In “March of the Penguins,” huggable birds
speed-waddle from ravenous seals. “Born Into Brothels”
featured bright-eyed kids with prostitute moms. And even
“Grizzly Man” took the typically cuddly bedtime friend
and warped it into a bloody man-eater.
Viewers will also find this recipe in Heidi Ewing and Rachel
Grady’s “Jesus Camp” as the filmmakers follow
three kids into a summer camp for evangelical Christian children
that couples a deep love for Jesus with a militant mentality to win
back the U.S. from the spiritually wayward. It’s a world
where go-kart races meet with fiery anti-abortion sermons and
playful ghost stories become as familiar as cries from children
tearfully pleading for God’s forgiveness.
But while the film has the chance to dig deeply into an elusive
facet of American religion, its loose focus leaves the audience
with a frayed view of the film’s subject.
“Jesus Camp” splits its time between two
discussions: an exploration of the lives of evangelical Christian
children and a look at how Christian fundamentalism is edging its
way back into American politics. The dual take leaves the film so
stretched out that it can’t say much about either.
The study of the children is the most engaging. The homeschool
sessions rejecting evolution and the closets full of Jesus-ware
leave the audience to figure out if the parents are indoctrinating
their children or if they are rightfully protecting them from a
nation of broken morals.
Pastor-to-be Levi, precocious-but-awkward Rachael and
dance-obsessed Tory serve as guides into the camp. Once we move
past Tory’s role as an anti-abortion speaker during a sermon,
however, she gets dropped from the film since she can no longer
contribute to any political discussion. Her disappearance helps
emphasize other features the film is missing that would make for a
more interesting story , such as a look into how people face peers
who disagree with them.
The political argument also lacks strong support. Pastors and
religious pundits both speak of the growing power of an extreme
religious right in the government, but there is never solid
evidence of this involvement. A small group of followers singing
hymns in the capital and worried proclamations by a radio host do
not compare to finding statistics on what actual policies this
voting bloc has would have determined.
“Jesus Camp” ultimately traps itself in another
recent documentary trend that has been around since the success of
“Farenheit 9/11″: the political expose. But instead of
turning up anything worth discussing, the film has little sense of
what it is trying to say in the first place.