Jesus Camp

The documentary Jesus Camp is a depiction of the Evangelical Christian religion, and the disturbing fundamental aspect of that ideology and how it impacts children raised in an Evangelical household. The film shows how children who have Evangelical parents are not really allowed to express their own opinion, and are not even really taught reality. They do not attend school, but rather are home schooled in order so that they do not learn anything that counters the Evangelical beliefs. It’s highly disturbing how these children are given such a distorted view of religion. This religion speaks of how anyone who doesn’t believe in the Evangelical faith is a sinner and will be forever damned. The audience feels sympathy for these children who attend these camps, because the audience is well aware that this belief system is indoctrinated so much so into these children’s subconscious that they will subsequently have messed up adult lives; much like how the preachers of Evangelical Christianity are disturbed in personality. The film was obviously made for people who are not aware of what a disturbing phenomenon this really is; made for people who are not aware how these people are politicians (especially the modern Republican party’s) stool pigeons for votership. I wasn’t even aware at how this virus, as it were, is spreading; ¼ of Americans are Evangelical Christians, which is very disturbing and which is more of a reason for the importance of this documentary being made in the first place.
The filmmaker was extremely successful in keeping my interest. The rabid nature of the participants of this religion are almost out of a Horror movie; there doesn’t even need to be any narration to enliven the film in anyway. The footage speaks for itself; the corrupt nature of what’s going on here is so easily apparent. Kids around the age group of the ones attending the camp’s critical factors are so easily bypassed at a young age, and the corrupt Evangelical leaders and preachers know this. One is supposed to find religion for themselves, and not the other way around. I know realize after seeing this film, why this religion is spreading so rapidly; many Evangelicals simply don’t have a choice-they are not given a proper education and are basically deprived individuals. It’s shocking to consider that ¼ of all Americans are stuck in this predicament of being ensnared in a cult. The filmmaker was successful in capturing all of this because of the amount of empathy that the audience has for some of these children; they are naturally bright individuals and yet all of that is gone to waste. (Many want to use their talents to become preachers.) There were no challenges on the film makers part in depicting what they wanted to depict; the obviousness of the situation sadly is only apparent to anyone outside of this religion’s participants. Because of this, not only the filmmaker’s but the whole outside world seems withdrawn and separated from these people. The filmmaker’s merely document the footage and get out as fast as they can.
One particular scene that reflects this film’s spirit for me is when the preachers in the camp perform the ritual as it were of taping all of the kid’s mouths. These kids are not allowed to speak for themselves in anyway, and this fact (like the scene) is highly disturbing. A depiction of this is the home schooling scene, where its obvious that the children’s childhoods are obviously rigged and set up for one out come and one out come only; they have to be obedient servers of the Evangelical religion. (It’s shocking how even all of the children’s pop cultural references-even the drawings that they draw and the songs that they sing-all pertain to Christ. Evangelical’s excuse for this lack of freedom-the excuse that they always give-is that they don’t want pop culture, i.e., the normal way to grow up, to easily corrupt the children in a sinful manner.) There are very many close ups of the children. These are present in the film in order to emphasize the caring nature that we should have towards these individuals who are trapped; we the audience can subtly read their need to escape-their unhappiness-in their facial expressions. They all look like hypnotized zombies. The sounds that emanate these children when they prey are terrifying gobbledygook; they are not uttered in a wholly manner but more in a Satanic fashion. Everything about this religion, and the ways it is depicted aesthetically by the filmmakers, reeks of trouble.