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| News Papers |
A new documentary depicts charismatic kids who are articulate
and take faith seriously. But have they been "indoctrinated"? Is
it a fair representation of evangelicals? Or too political? We
asked the directors.
by Peter T. Chattaway | posted 09/12/2006
A ticked Pentecostal speaks out
The children who go to Becky Fischer's Kids on Fire summer
camp may be too young to vote, but they're hardly politically
unaware. In addition to the usual praise and worship at their
Pentecostal services, the children offer prayers for President
George W. Bush—by actually laying hands on a life-size
cardboard cut-out—and burst into tears while asking God to fill
the U.S. Supreme Court with "righteous judges."
Jesus Camp, a new documentary about Fischer's camp, opens
this week in several U.S. cities, and will expand in the weeks
ahead. The film made news last month when Magnolia Pictures
acquired distribution rights to the film and tried to have it
yanked at the last minute from Michael Moore's Traverse City
Film Festival; the distributor said it wanted conservative
evangelicals to see the film, and did not want the film to be
tainted in their eyes by association with a liberal like Moore.
Directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Similarly, filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady—whose
previous film, the award-winning The Boys of Baraka,
concerned inner-city kids from Baltimore who attend a school in
Africa—say they say they have tried to be as objective as
possible with Jesus Camp, and to let the campers and the film's
other characters speak for themselves. These include National
Association of Evangelicals president Ted Haggard and liberal
Christian talk-show host Mike Papantonio; Fischer herself has
already endorsed the film.
The filmmakers spoke to Christianity Today Movies from their
office in New York City.
You seem to have a thing for movies about precocious kids.
Ewing: Kids are great subjects, because they're honest and
they're extremely candid, and usually they are not as self-
conscious when it comes to the camera. It's not just that we
want to make films about children, by any means, but it's
wonderful to have children as subjects in films, for that reason.
Were you initially looking to make another movie about kids, or
were you looking more for a political subject, and the kids camp
just happened to be a way to get into that?
Grady: Actually, we were looking for a film that focused on
children and faith, and we were inspired by Devon Brown, who
was in The Boys of Baraka. Neither of us had ever met a child
that was so devoted and focused on his church, and it just
made us think, Are there other kids out there like this? So
initially, we weren't looking for a film that focused on even the
evangelical movement in general; we were looking for a film that
would focus on children and faith in a general way. But when we
found Becky Fischer's camp, the film took a different turn.
Ewing: And even after we found the camp, the events that
transpired in the country while we were shooting—namely the
nomination and confirmation of two different Supreme Court
justices—that really was an event that the people in our film
and the evangelical community at large were really chattering
about. To ignore the political seemed almost irresponsible as
filmmakers, and so the film definitely started to take a much
more political turn when the people in our film brought the
political into the religious in the churches. So that just sort of
naturally occurred.
Pentecostal children's minister Becky Fischer
How did you find Becky Fischer?
Grady: We just lucked out, really. We were looking for some
sort of place where children that were seeking a more deep
faith would go, such as a camp or a school, and basically
stumbled upon her website and found it fascinating. Heidi
reached out to her, and we went and met her and interviewed
her and filmed her working with the kids in her community, and
we thought we had a movie.
Ewing: And even before we ran across her website, I had been
making some phone calls to different evangelical churches,
asking about their children's programs, and her name actually
came up a few times: "Oh, you should talk to Becky Fischer."
You talk about the range of evangelicals you came across.
Would Mike Papantonio [a radio talk-show host who appears
throughout the film, and at one point debates Fischer] self-
identify as an evangelical?
Grady: No, he's not evangelical. He's a Methodist, he goes to a
mainline church, but he's quite devoted to his church.
Did you try to contact, shall we say, liberal evangelicals—
people like Jim Wallis or somebody like that—to set up a
dialectic within the evangelical community, instead of between
evangelicals and non-evangelicals?
Grady: Well, we definitely wanted to have a conversation within
the Christian community at large, maybe evangelical or people
who hail from the mainstream or mainline religious affiliation.
We definitely felt like we wanted to have that dialogue. We
ended up, I guess you would say, "casting" Mike, because he is
a radio personality, and we already had the radio device going
in the film. So for us it was very organic and it made sense,
creatively. It wasn't forced.
Radio host Mike Papantonio
Ewing: We also didn't want to set up some kind of talking-head,
point counter-point, in the film; that's not the style of film we
make. But I feel that Mike was a good choice because he
echoes what a lot of liberal evangelicals have said about the
politicization of the evangelical movement. And of course we
follow the liberal evangelicals as they have slowly started to
come out, publicly—and there's not that many, in the press—
and say that they're uncomfortable with the political nature of
the evangelical movement.
While Mike is not officially a born-again Christian, he does echo
a lot of the concerns that these gentlemen have, and we
thought this was a more creative way to vent those concerns,
because he is a Christian. He just thinks that the politicization of
the church is going to be the downfall of it, and he doesn't like
that association. So officially, no, he's not a born-again, but he
does, I think, speak very well for the concerns of Christians that
don't like the political nature of the evangelical movement, or at
least of the far right part of that movement.
One reason I ask is because one online columnist, in an item
on Jesus Camp, said, "Does anyone know an evangelical who
voted for John Kerry?" Well, I do. So this film may perpetuate a
certain stereotype.
Ewing: But really, Peter, if you look at the numbers, the vast
majority vote Republican. So to find the needle in the haystack,
you know, I don't know if that's our responsibility. I don't know if
that's very accurate, to portray that there's a lot of liberal
evangelical Christians that vote Democratic, either. If you look
at the numbers, conservative people, religious, will usually vote
conservative politics.
Grady: And there's nothing wrong with that.
Ewing: No!
Grady: And I don't think that's even Mike Papantonio's beef. I
think his concern is that the church is not the place to be
having those conversations.
Ewing: And he doesn't think that a religious group should be
affiliated with a political party either. So I think right now, people
definitely see the two as hand-in-hand, and I'm kind of glad to
see that some evangelicals are coming out and going against
the grain and saying, "You know what? We're not all in
agreement." But that is sort of a newer trend of pastors who
have the courage to come out publicly and speak out against
this giant behemoth.
Grady: And in fact, when they do speak out [as Greg Boyd
recently did], it gets on the cover of the New York Times,
because it's unusual. But I think it's part of a general trend
that's happening in this country, and I think that our film
happens to have good timing. Hopefully it'll ride the wave of this
conversation and will be a catalyst for more conversation,
amongst all Christians.
What about the criticism that some have made, that the film, by
focusing on Becky Fischer and her community, focuses on a
more extreme form of evangelicalism? For example, she tells
the children that Harry Potter is evil, but many evangelicals
have openly said that the Potter books are good.
Ewing: I think it's hard, as a filmmaker, to be all things to all
people, and we look for compelling stories, smaller stories that
can help tell a greater story. We look for compelling characters
who are articulate and fascinating. And we were interested in
what Becky was doing. We identify her as a Pentecostal, and I
think it's impossible to make a film that represents all Christians.
I just think that that's a criticism that we're going to get,
regardless.
The Harry Potter issue? We heard a lot about that, actually. We
listened to a lot of Christian radio programs. I think I even heard
on the Dobson program once, and American Family Radio,
conversations about Harry Potter being a real big issue. So it
wasn't just in Becky's church that we had heard this criticism of
Harry Potter. And of course not all Christians feel that way, but
the Christians in our films do. It was something the kids were
often talking about, and it was sort of like forbidden fruit, so we
wanted to include that.
Grady: And also, that's why it was important to us to include a
figure like Ted Haggard, who really represents the more
mainstream evangelicals. And obviously as the head of the
National Association of Evangelicals, he represents a large
chunk of the community. And the people in our film are
constituents of him, so there is a connection.
Nine-year-old Tory Binger lets the tears flow
Did anything that happened on camera catch you by surprise,
for example, the speaking in tongues?
Grady: It's one of those things that is sort of surprising initially,
and you get used to it very quickly. Heidi and I have both filmed
spiritual ceremonies of all different kinds of religions. Heidi
made a film where they do body piercing and things that are
much more shocking, really. But I guess it became a little more
exotic because we had never seen Americans being so devout
and so charismatic in their worship. But it's one of those things.
It wears away very quickly, and I think both of us feel that
everyone is entitled to worship however they want. I don't judge
anyone for how they want to express their faith.
Ewing: We had a lot more scenes like that, that focused more
on the practice of the charismatic faith. And we started to shy
away from including a lot of details and explanation of all of
these things, because we didn't want to marginalize
charismatics. But again, it's just a practice. In the end, they all
believe in the same Bible and they all listen to the same radio
and read the same publications as evangelicals who don't
speak in tongues, so we felt like they had a lot more in common
with the greater evangelical movement than they didn't. That's
why we didn't start focusing on a lot of their differences.
We actually kind of held back on some of the material we had,
that might distract people and confuse people and freak people
out too much. We felt that we actually toned it down a bit.
Some of the kids talk about what's fulfilling in life and what's not
fulfilling; do you think they have any valid critiques of our
society, or do you think they have just been "indoctrinated"?
Nine-year-old Rachael Elhart is one of the featured kids
Grady: The kids that we focused on are, I think, too young right
now for us to answer that. Two of the kids are nine, and one is
a 12-year-old boy. We have a scene in the film where one of
the kids is describing the majority of society as being trashy. I
think we need to wait 10 or 20 years to see what he has to say
about society. I think at this point, all 12-year-olds or nine-year-
olds repeat what their parents tell them. I did.
Ewing: At the same time, I did notice some very admirable
qualities to the children in our film. They're extremely articulate,
they're smart, and they do good things for other people. They
think about others, and they lack vanity I've seen in other kids.
So on one hand, they're being raised very well. And it's
complicated, because one might not agree with the adult that
this person might become, or the direction this child is going.
However, as children, they're extremely pleasant, and have a
lot of things going for them. So I think, again, this whole film falls
into a really big grey area. Which is what I think makes it a good
movie.
| There are several 100 news papers and Internet news stories so it is imposable to have the all here on Jesus Camp. |
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| Kids in Ministry. Becky's Web Site |