Jesus Camp & the culture's critique of Christianity

jesuscamp.jpgGet ready for Jesus Camp . A Pentecostal summer camp is the focus for this documentary. The camp teaches kids Christian values, and the filmmakers show how they try to integrate these beliefs into their young lives. A story writes:

There is, for example, the boy who believes he is part of the “key generation to Jesus coming back,” the girl who dreamily intones, “I feel like we're training to be warriors – but in a much funner way,” and the star of the show, a Pentecostal children's minister, who declares that democracy, in which every person is given an equal voice, is “going to destroy us.”

“Jesus Camp” (rated PG-13) already has drawn honors from New York's Tribeca Film Festival and the SilverDocs AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival in Silver Spring, Md. It's due to open to wider audiences beginning Sept. 15, and by the time it's released in San Diego Oct. 6, you can expect the buzz will have built to a crescendo.

The documentary focuses on the Rev. Becky Fischer and her “Kids on Fire” summer camp held in North Dakota. The Christian retreat is more boot camp for spiritual warfare than a kumbaya marshmallow roast – and the children the film follows definitely get the message, as we see them later handing out conversion pamphlets and praying for an end to abortion in our nation's capital. (source )

One user comment from the IMDB writes:

The documentary goes beyond their experiences at camp and paints a vivid image of the evangelical subculture in middle America. From scenes with a mother home schooling her son on the lunacy of evolution to kids at camp praying fervently for a cardboard cutout of George W Bush, the tenacious beliefs of the subjects and their utter lack of doubt is striking. The infusion of politics into religion is also notable, as the children are told of the evils of homosexuality, that prayer in school is necessary for schools to teach effectively, and that America is responsible for the deaths of fifty million innocent children since 1973. The families even travel to Washington to protest in front of the Supreme Court building.

Jesus Camp, is released in the same time as three new books putting conservative, born-again Christians under a cultural microscope.  "Righteous" a book by Lauren Sandler,  from her travels around the country to write about young evangelical adults intent on converting America to Christ through everything from mega-churches to skateboard festivals.  

We've talked about 'exegeting our culture', listened to the 'Lost' presentations and now the microscope is turned more finely on Christians.