by Uri Lessing
It’s 5:45 on a Friday evening when filmmakers Rachel Grady
and Heidi Ewing join me at the Screenland Theater.
Accompanying them is Becky Fischer, an evangelical children’s
pastor and the primary subject of the film. All three women look
tired and overworked, but that doesn’t stop them from
enthusiastically sharing their ideas about “Jesus Camp” a new
documentary about a camp oriented towards evangelical
Christian children.
Today is the film’s opening day, and the three women have
spent a tremendous amount of time sharing their thoughts and
ideas about the film. One source of irritation arrived in the form
of conservative pundit and film reviewer, Michael Medved. All
three women were interviewed live by Medved on the air earlier
that afternoon and were surprised when Medved slammed the
two filmmakers for what he perceived to be liberally biased
filmmaking.
“I think it’s really arrogant of a pundit or a representative of a
certain group of people to tell us that the people in our film aren’
t smart enough basically to make their own mind up”
Rachel explains, “He thought it was absolutely glaringly obvious
that we had a pointed and vicious and venomous agenda
against Christians and against conservative people, and it’s
very ironic because for the past three days we’ve been showing
very conservative Christians the film, and they have embraced
it.
“So I think it’s his preconceived notions and he’s somehow
decided that Heidi and I, based on what he knows about us,
because we’re from the east coast, maybe because we’re
filmmakers, maybe because I’m Jewish and she’s Catholic, that
we’re liberals and that we are making these people look like
idiots. However, they don’t feel that way, and when other people
have seen the film they don’t feel that way.”
Both filmmakers are clearly upset by this attack because they
feel that they worked hard to eliminate any bias from their film.
Heidi says, “We’re not wearing how we feel on our sleeve, and it’
s not even trying to be coy. It’s just honestly not relevant. We
decided to chronicle this group of people and try to tell the
story of the greater culture war that is emerging in this country
to the best of our ability.”
In regards to Medved’s attack, Heidi counters, “I think it’s really
arrogant of a pundit or a representative of a certain group of
people to tell us that the people in our film aren’t smart enough
basically to make their own mind up…People are trying to weigh
in and co-opt the film for their own agenda and dragging us into
this political fight, and we really refuse to join that fray, because
that’s really not why we made the film.
“It’s a useless film if it’s co-opted by one side or the other. If
both sides don’t get to see the film and weigh in it’s going to be
a much less rich experience for exeryone. We hope it’ll go the
right way.
Heidi understands that it’s a charged issue. “It’s politics and
religion in America right now in 2006. There’s a midterm
election…It’s timely. It’s topical…
“Right now people want to talk about this.”
“And we’ve given them a vehicle, “adds Rachel.
“…an original interesting approach to children and it’s turning
out to be controversial”
Ewing and Grady got the idea for “Jesus Camp” when they were
filming their last documentary. Heidi explains, “‘The Boys of
Baraka’ featured a 12-year-old Baptist preacher named Devon
Brown…We were inspired by him because he was a fire and
brimstone excellent 12-year-old preacher that had knocked our
socks off, and he’s featured in our last movie. So he stuck with
us, and we became interested in doing a film on children who
are truly devoted, children of faith.
“We started doing our research and calling different churches
and looking into the history of children worshipping and children
pastors and Becky Fischer’s name came up a few times from
different churches we called. And so we went to her website
and started looking into her ministry and we had never seen
anything like it before, and I think no one has ever seen
anything like it before.
“(Her ministry) is an original interesting approach to children
and it’s turning out to be controversial.”
Becky Fischer is a larger than life character. In the film, she is
an affectionate and charismatic figure to the children. She also
evokes strong feelings in them, bringing them to tears and
teaching them about the sins of abortion, popular music, and
Harry Potter. Unlike Heidi and Rachel, I have no need to hide
my political feelings. The ideas she preaches in the film scare
the hell out of me.
Becky herself, however, is anything but scary. She is an
instantly agreeable and warm. You can spot this type of person
a mile away: she genuinely cares about children. She is also
selfless and genuine. The voice of my conscience tells me that
it is possible for nice people to have morally reprehensible
ideas. But “morally reprehensible” just doesn’t seem to describe
Becky’s character.
Becky shares with me about her childhood and faith, “Our
background is charismatic Christian. My parents were pastors.
They were pastors of churches for 25 years. I had
grandparents that were both ordained pastors and were the
same denomination, and then I had four uncles who were
pastors. So I kind of grew up in that environment. But I can
honestly say that from my earliest experiences that I embraced
the message as my own. I was never one of those kids that just
rode on the spiritual shirttails of their parents. I embraced the
faith as my own from a very young age.
“My parents tell me I actually responded to an alter call when I
was five years old, although in my heart I believe it happened
much sooner.”
Becky never expected to enter a career with children, “I always
tell people that God tricked me actually, because I had no
interest in children whatsoever on the surface. I was like
anyone else in their local church. I took my turn teaching a
Sunday school class, and I took a season where I took one
whole year and actually did their children’s church services. I
was actually very good with the kids with no experience and no
education or anything, but it never occurred to me that it was
my call in life.
“In fact my first experiences of seeing children operate in the
supernatural in the specific area of healing the sick occurred
during that time. But that was back in the 1980s when it still had
not dawned on me that this was a calling from God.
“Then I moved to another city, started getting involved in that
church. They lost a children’s pastor, and so I just picked up
the baton and began to carry it, and that’s when I really began
to fall in love with this thing. I much more deliberately began to
teach them. Before I just taught them by accident what I felt and
believed. But when I stepped into this church it was a deliberate
passing on (of) values and things at that time, and I began to
see how children just really responded to this message.”
Becky shares her interest in the future of the children she
teaches, “This group of kids of course, they’re still in the
making. Levi, the main character, believes that he’s called to be
a doctor in India, so he will be in the medical profession but he
will use that as an evangelistic tool.”
Heidi interrupts, “They have big plans actually, that’s why we
want to make part II, because we’d like to see if those plans get
realized and how these kids are as adults maybe five or ten
years down the road. That would be fascinating, but they do
have big plans and all of them involve God in some sort of way.
It figures into everything even if it’s a non-religious profession.
Most of the kids work it in somehow.”
“We said, ‘Would you have prayed to Clinton? You know, pre-
scandal, during scandal, post scandal.’”
One of the most controversial moments in “Jesus Camp” occurs
when a cut-out figure of George W. Bush is displayed in front of
the children. A woman who works at the camp tells the students
to speak a blessing to the President, and says, “He has
surrounded himself with spirit filled people.” The students wave
their arms and passionately pray for the president. I ask Becky
if this was a religious moment or a political moment.
Becky replies, “This is a very interesting aspect because, of
course, we didn’t see that as political on any level. We’ve
prayed for presidents all my life. That’s just a thing we do as
Christians, because there’s a scripture that says, ‘Pray for
those who are in authority over you,’ and God has placed all
people in government. He raises kings up and he takes them
down, and if you want to live in peace you need to pray for your
leaders.
“So we looked at that as just… ‘Well, we’re just teaching what
the bible says.’ These ladies came in from a secular vantage
point having not had that background, and all kinds of
antennas started coming up because they only had one grid to
see that through, and it was political.
“And so they didn’t have any other foundation or basis through
which to see all these issues like whether it was abortion or
praying for the president or any of those things. So that’s where
it got very interesting and at first very intimidating.
“We realized what the angles they were taking. It was like nine
months into the film before I knew that any of this was
happening, and it really did make me kind of frightened at first.
Well, what just happened here? But as we’ve discussed it and
we’ve walked through this process together, I understand that it
happened very organically.”
Heidi adds, “We said, ‘Would you have prayed to Clinton?’ You
know, pre-scandal, during scandal, post scandal. And they
said, ‘Yeah! We would pray for all of our leaders.’ But I think the
moment is significant… in context to the broader political
spectrum of the film because there is a special affinity, as we all
know, between Evangelical Christians and George Bush. This is
clearly a very friendly relationship.
It’s not that cutout; it’s everything everyone wants to put onto
that cutout.”
Becky responds, “It’s only fair to say that there’s a lot of
Christians who are getting frustrated with some of the things
that they see. I’m not pinning my hopes on (George W. Bush). I
pin my hopes on Jesus Christ. He just happens to be a
temporary vessel, and if we can take back some territory we
feel that we’ve lost on spiritual issues then so be it, but I’m
certainly not pinning my hopes on him.
“I can only say for myself that I’m starting to see things from a
different angle, but I would still say I am probably going to vote
down the line. For me personally, the only reason I would…
vote Republican is because they happen to support more of the
issues that I believe in than the other party, but that does not
mean that I think... we got no faults and no issues. I think we’re
fraught with issues. The honest issues, I get very frustrated with
my party of choice. You don’t want to put all your cookies in one
jar or whatever, but the only reason I personally tend to go that
route is because there are more issues I can agree with than I
can in the other party.”
“A Just life has nothing to do with damnation, and here’s where
we get controversial.”
Becky’s rhetoric in the film implies that Christianity provides the
only way to live a decent life. I decide to ask her flat out if she
believes that a strong ethical and moral code can exist in a
family that is not religious.
Becky says, “Absolutely, but I’m going to bet that somewhere
down the line Grandma and Grandpa or Great-Grandma and
Grandpa or somebody had some pretty strong religious values.
I travel all over the world, and we know beyond a shadow of a
doubt, and I know there’s people who are going to argue with
this point, but this nation was based on biblical values. What
are those biblical values? Basically: the Ten Commandments. I’
ll take you to nations where the Ten Commandments was
nowhere in their history, and it’s a stinking mess.”
I ask Becky if you have to be born again to live a just and moral
life. She replies, “No. I think these guys (Rachel and Heidi) live
just and moral lives and they don’t claim to be born again. I don’
t think Christians have a corner on that, but I think if you are a
Christian that it behooves you. That if you’re not, you’re a
phony.”
I ask her if one can lead a just life and still go to hell. Becky
says, “A Just life has nothing to do with damnation, and here’s
where we get controversial.”
Heidi interrupts, “Because I’m going to hell! But (Rachel) gets
one last chance, which is totally unfair.”
Rachel chimes in, “Is that not true? If you’re Jewish, you get one
last shot?”
Becky smiling replies, “I’ve heard that, and I really don’t know.”
Rachel quickly quips, “I think it’s true,” and now we are all
laughing.
Heidi with mock bitterness shouts, “I was brought up Catholic,
and I’m going down.”
But Becky does not skirt around the issue, and once our
laughter is done, she provides a serious explanation, “As a
bible believing Christian who claims to have a born-again
experience our anchor is the scriptures, is the word of God. So
any opinion, any worldview we have is anchored in that book.
That’s it. So unlike a pluralistic society where all religions lead
to heaven and it’s based on good works. So we adhere to the
word of God.
“So there’s many scriptures, too many to even discuss here,
but the basic one was Jesus said, ‘You must be born again.’ He
was the one who first used the terminology that’s now a
catchphrase in America.
“A lot of people say, ‘You have to pray this certain prayer
before you can be born again.’ But that’s not what the Bible
says. The bible says, ‘If you believe in your heart that Jesus is
the Son of God and if you believe God raised him from the
dead, you’re saved.’ But it says, ‘You must confess with your
mouth.’ So that is the pivot stone.
“We adhere to that scripture. So it has nothing to do with your
works. You can sing in the choir, give all your money to charity,
give your body to be burned for the saving of a poor orphan
child in Afghanistan, but if you don’t name Jesus Christ as the
lord of your life, that’s the deciding factor of where’s your going
to spend eternity.”
I decide I can’t let this one go. A religion where morality takes a
back seat to belief just seems wrong to me. I point out that,
according to the Bible, humans are made in God’s image, and
that as a human I would not wish that fate to befall any just
person. I ask why God allows the just to be punished. (I am
transforming myself from a film critic into a theologian.)
Becky answers, “He didn’t wish that fate on anyone, and hell
was never created for people. Hell was created for the devil and
his angels, because of their rebellion, and every man, woman
and child is born with a choice. And he says, “Choose you this
day whom you will serve. Choose you this day. I’ve set before
you today life and death. Choose life, that you and your
children might live.” And so he gives every human being a
choice of choosing life. And so it’s not his choice, and it’s not a
matter of, “You’re not saved so I’m going to send you to hell.” It’
s a choice that people make, and that’s why we as evangelical
Christians feel it’s so important for us to get the word out
because a lot of people haven’t been given that knowledge in
order to make that choice.”
I say, “It sounds…”
Becky interrupts me, “It sounds narrow and bigoted doesn’t it?”
I say, “Narrow and bigoted aren’t the words I was thinking. It
sounds dysfunctional. It sounds like a system that God, being a
powerful entity, would try to stop. God would change things
around so that people who live an ethical life would be the ones
to reap the rewards of heaven.”
Becky answers, “Okay, here’s the whole foundation. If we could
get to heaven by our works than Jesus died on the cross in
vain. There was no purpose in his dying. None whatsoever. And
so for some people, that’s not a problem… And this would take
a whole sermon for me to outline the significance of his dying
on the cross and his shed blood— that’s a term that you will
hear a lot around Born Again Christians—has nothing to do
with what we do as far as works or goodness. We have no
goodness. Even Jesus says, “Why are you calling me good?
There’s only one person who’s good and that’s God.” So this
really gets outside the dimensions of this movie I think. It’s a
whole doctoral debate that just goes on and on and on, and it
just depends on your worldview and your understanding of the
scriptures.”
“This film has totally changed my worldview and that’s so
precious.”
My time is running out. It’s now 6:30pm and Rachel, Heidi, and
Becky are famished. I was promised twenty to thirty minutes.
They have given me forty-five. I ask the filmmakers about future
projects.
Rachel answers, “…we want to continue to make films that are
provocative, that we get to reap a lot of benefits intellectually
from as well. This film has totally changed my worldview and
that’s so precious.”
Heidi responds, “I care a lot about the audience. I think about
the audience every shoot I go on. I think about what my
audience needs to see. What I need to do to make an audience
understand…In a very efficient 85 minutes, this person is going
to have an accelerated compacted intense experience, and it
excites me to think we are giving them that.”
Rachel sums up her experiences making “Jesus Camp” well, “It
was fascinating we really did feel like we were allowed to
participate in a parallel existence that was happening right in
the middle of America. I think that’s a privilege any time
someone lets you do that. You’re penetrating someone’s most
intimate space.”
It’s 5:45 on a Friday evening when filmmakers Rachel Grady
and Heidi Ewing join me at the Screenland Theater.
Accompanying them is Becky Fischer, an evangelical children’s
pastor and the primary subject of the film. All three women look
tired and overworked, but that doesn’t stop them from
enthusiastically sharing their ideas about “Jesus Camp” a new
documentary about a camp oriented towards evangelical
Christian children.
Today is the film’s opening day, and the three women have
spent a tremendous amount of time sharing their thoughts and
ideas about the film. One source of irritation arrived in the form
of conservative pundit and film reviewer, Michael Medved. All
three women were interviewed live by Medved on the air earlier
that afternoon and were surprised when Medved slammed the
two filmmakers for what he perceived to be liberally biased
filmmaking.
“I think it’s really arrogant of a pundit or a representative of a
certain group of people to tell us that the people in our film aren’
t smart enough basically to make their own mind up”
Rachel explains, “He thought it was absolutely glaringly obvious
that we had a pointed and vicious and venomous agenda
against Christians and against conservative people, and it’s
very ironic because for the past three days we’ve been showing
very conservative Christians the film, and they have embraced
it.
“So I think it’s his preconceived notions and he’s somehow
decided that Heidi and I, based on what he knows about us,
because we’re from the east coast, maybe because we’re
filmmakers, maybe because I’m Jewish and she’s Catholic, that
we’re liberals and that we are making these people look like
idiots. However, they don’t feel that way, and when other people
have seen the film they don’t feel that way.”
Both filmmakers are clearly upset by this attack because they
feel that they worked hard to eliminate any bias from their film.
Heidi says, “We’re not wearing how we feel on our sleeve, and it’
s not even trying to be coy. It’s just honestly not relevant. We
decided to chronicle this group of people and try to tell the
story of the greater culture war that is emerging in this country
to the best of our ability.”
In regards to Medved’s attack, Heidi counters, “I think it’s really
arrogant of a pundit or a representative of a certain group of
people to tell us that the people in our film aren’t smart enough
basically to make their own mind up…People are trying to weigh
in and co-opt the film for their own agenda and dragging us into
this political fight, and we really refuse to join that fray, because
that’s really not why we made the film.
“It’s a useless film if it’s co-opted by one side or the other. If
both sides don’t get to see the film and weigh in it’s going to be
a much less rich experience for exeryone. We hope it’ll go the
right way.
Heidi understands that it’s a charged issue. “It’s politics and
religion in America right now in 2006. There’s a midterm
election…It’s timely. It’s topical…
“Right now people want to talk about this.”
“And we’ve given them a vehicle, “adds Rachel.
“…an original interesting approach to children and it’s turning
out to be controversial”
Ewing and Grady got the idea for “Jesus Camp” when they were
filming their last documentary. Heidi explains, “‘The Boys of
Baraka’ featured a 12-year-old Baptist preacher named Devon
Brown…We were inspired by him because he was a fire and
brimstone excellent 12-year-old preacher that had knocked our
socks off, and he’s featured in our last movie. So he stuck with
us, and we became interested in doing a film on children who
are truly devoted, children of faith.
“We started doing our research and calling different churches
and looking into the history of children worshipping and children
pastors and Becky Fischer’s name came up a few times from
different churches we called. And so we went to her website
and started looking into her ministry and we had never seen
anything like it before, and I think no one has ever seen
anything like it before.
“(Her ministry) is an original interesting approach to children
and it’s turning out to be controversial.”
Becky Fischer is a larger than life character. In the film, she is
an affectionate and charismatic figure to the children. She also
evokes strong feelings in them, bringing them to tears and
teaching them about the sins of abortion, popular music, and
Harry Potter. Unlike Heidi and Rachel, I have no need to hide
my political feelings. The ideas she preaches in the film scare
the hell out of me.
Becky herself, however, is anything but scary. She is an
instantly agreeable and warm. You can spot this type of person
a mile away: she genuinely cares about children. She is also
selfless and genuine. The voice of my conscience tells me that
it is possible for nice people to have morally reprehensible
ideas. But “morally reprehensible” just doesn’t seem to describe
Becky’s character.
Becky shares with me about her childhood and faith, “Our
background is charismatic Christian. My parents were pastors.
They were pastors of churches for 25 years. I had
grandparents that were both ordained pastors and were the
same denomination, and then I had four uncles who were
pastors. So I kind of grew up in that environment. But I can
honestly say that from my earliest experiences that I embraced
the message as my own. I was never one of those kids that just
rode on the spiritual shirttails of their parents. I embraced the
faith as my own from a very young age.
“My parents tell me I actually responded to an alter call when I
was five years old, although in my heart I believe it happened
much sooner.”
Becky never expected to enter a career with children, “I always
tell people that God tricked me actually, because I had no
interest in children whatsoever on the surface. I was like
anyone else in their local church. I took my turn teaching a
Sunday school class, and I took a season where I took one
whole year and actually did their children’s church services. I
was actually very good with the kids with no experience and no
education or anything, but it never occurred to me that it was
my call in life.
“In fact my first experiences of seeing children operate in the
supernatural in the specific area of healing the sick occurred
during that time. But that was back in the 1980s when it still had
not dawned on me that this was a calling from God.
“Then I moved to another city, started getting involved in that
church. They lost a children’s pastor, and so I just picked up
the baton and began to carry it, and that’s when I really began
to fall in love with this thing. I much more deliberately began to
teach them. Before I just taught them by accident what I felt and
believed. But when I stepped into this church it was a deliberate
passing on (of) values and things at that time, and I began to
see how children just really responded to this message.”
Becky shares her interest in the future of the children she
teaches, “This group of kids of course, they’re still in the
making. Levi, the main character, believes that he’s called to be
a doctor in India, so he will be in the medical profession but he
will use that as an evangelistic tool.”
Heidi interrupts, “They have big plans actually, that’s why we
want to make part II, because we’d like to see if those plans get
realized and how these kids are as adults maybe five or ten
years down the road. That would be fascinating, but they do
have big plans and all of them involve God in some sort of way.
It figures into everything even if it’s a non-religious profession.
Most of the kids work it in somehow.”
“We said, ‘Would you have prayed to Clinton? You know, pre-
scandal, during scandal, post scandal.’”
One of the most controversial moments in “Jesus Camp” occurs
when a cut-out figure of George W. Bush is displayed in front of
the children. A woman who works at the camp tells the students
to speak a blessing to the President, and says, “He has
surrounded himself with spirit filled people.” The students wave
their arms and passionately pray for the president. I ask Becky
if this was a religious moment or a political moment.
Becky replies, “This is a very interesting aspect because, of
course, we didn’t see that as political on any level. We’ve
prayed for presidents all my life. That’s just a thing we do as
Christians, because there’s a scripture that says, ‘Pray for
those who are in authority over you,’ and God has placed all
people in government. He raises kings up and he takes them
down, and if you want to live in peace you need to pray for your
leaders.
“So we looked at that as just… ‘Well, we’re just teaching what
the bible says.’ These ladies came in from a secular vantage
point having not had that background, and all kinds of
antennas started coming up because they only had one grid to
see that through, and it was political.
“And so they didn’t have any other foundation or basis through
which to see all these issues like whether it was abortion or
praying for the president or any of those things. So that’s where
it got very interesting and at first very intimidating.
“We realized what the angles they were taking. It was like nine
months into the film before I knew that any of this was
happening, and it really did make me kind of frightened at first.
Well, what just happened here? But as we’ve discussed it and
we’ve walked through this process together, I understand that it
happened very organically.”
Heidi adds, “We said, ‘Would you have prayed to Clinton?’ You
know, pre-scandal, during scandal, post scandal. And they
said, ‘Yeah! We would pray for all of our leaders.’ But I think the
moment is significant… in context to the broader political
spectrum of the film because there is a special affinity, as we all
know, between Evangelical Christians and George Bush. This is
clearly a very friendly relationship.
It’s not that cutout; it’s everything everyone wants to put onto
that cutout.”
Becky responds, “It’s only fair to say that there’s a lot of
Christians who are getting frustrated with some of the things
that they see. I’m not pinning my hopes on (George W. Bush). I
pin my hopes on Jesus Christ. He just happens to be a
temporary vessel, and if we can take back some territory we
feel that we’ve lost on spiritual issues then so be it, but I’m
certainly not pinning my hopes on him.
“I can only say for myself that I’m starting to see things from a
different angle, but I would still say I am probably going to vote
down the line. For me personally, the only reason I would…
vote Republican is because they happen to support more of the
issues that I believe in than the other party, but that does not
mean that I think... we got no faults and no issues. I think we’re
fraught with issues. The honest issues, I get very frustrated with
my party of choice. You don’t want to put all your cookies in one
jar or whatever, but the only reason I personally tend to go that
route is because there are more issues I can agree with than I
can in the other party.”
“A Just life has nothing to do with damnation, and here’s where
we get controversial.”
Becky’s rhetoric in the film implies that Christianity provides the
only way to live a decent life. I decide to ask her flat out if she
believes that a strong ethical and moral code can exist in a
family that is not religious.
Becky says, “Absolutely, but I’m going to bet that somewhere
down the line Grandma and Grandpa or Great-Grandma and
Grandpa or somebody had some pretty strong religious values.
I travel all over the world, and we know beyond a shadow of a
doubt, and I know there’s people who are going to argue with
this point, but this nation was based on biblical values. What
are those biblical values? Basically: the Ten Commandments. I’
ll take you to nations where the Ten Commandments was
nowhere in their history, and it’s a stinking mess.”
I ask Becky if you have to be born again to live a just and moral
life. She replies, “No. I think these guys (Rachel and Heidi) live
just and moral lives and they don’t claim to be born again. I don’
t think Christians have a corner on that, but I think if you are a
Christian that it behooves you. That if you’re not, you’re a
phony.”
I ask her if one can lead a just life and still go to hell. Becky
says, “A Just life has nothing to do with damnation, and here’s
where we get controversial.”
Heidi interrupts, “Because I’m going to hell! But (Rachel) gets
one last chance, which is totally unfair.”
Rachel chimes in, “Is that not true? If you’re Jewish, you get one
last shot?”
Becky smiling replies, “I’ve heard that, and I really don’t know.”
Rachel quickly quips, “I think it’s true,” and now we are all
laughing.
Heidi with mock bitterness shouts, “I was brought up Catholic,
and I’m going down.”
But Becky does not skirt around the issue, and once our
laughter is done, she provides a serious explanation, “As a
bible believing Christian who claims to have a born-again
experience our anchor is the scriptures, is the word of God. So
any opinion, any worldview we have is anchored in that book.
That’s it. So unlike a pluralistic society where all religions lead
to heaven and it’s based on good works. So we adhere to the
word of God.
“So there’s many scriptures, too many to even discuss here,
but the basic one was Jesus said, ‘You must be born again.’ He
was the one who first used the terminology that’s now a
catchphrase in America.
“A lot of people say, ‘You have to pray this certain prayer
before you can be born again.’ But that’s not what the Bible
says. The bible says, ‘If you believe in your heart that Jesus is
the Son of God and if you believe God raised him from the
dead, you’re saved.’ But it says, ‘You must confess with your
mouth.’ So that is the pivot stone.
“We adhere to that scripture. So it has nothing to do with your
works. You can sing in the choir, give all your money to charity,
give your body to be burned for the saving of a poor orphan
child in Afghanistan, but if you don’t name Jesus Christ as the
lord of your life, that’s the deciding factor of where’s your going
to spend eternity.”
I decide I can’t let this one go. A religion where morality takes a
back seat to belief just seems wrong to me. I point out that,
according to the Bible, humans are made in God’s image, and
that as a human I would not wish that fate to befall any just
person. I ask why God allows the just to be punished. (I am
transforming myself from a film critic into a theologian.)
Becky answers, “He didn’t wish that fate on anyone, and hell
was never created for people. Hell was created for the devil and
his angels, because of their rebellion, and every man, woman
and child is born with a choice. And he says, “Choose you this
day whom you will serve. Choose you this day. I’ve set before
you today life and death. Choose life, that you and your
children might live.” And so he gives every human being a
choice of choosing life. And so it’s not his choice, and it’s not a
matter of, “You’re not saved so I’m going to send you to hell.” It’
s a choice that people make, and that’s why we as evangelical
Christians feel it’s so important for us to get the word out
because a lot of people haven’t been given that knowledge in
order to make that choice.”
I say, “It sounds…”
Becky interrupts me, “It sounds narrow and bigoted doesn’t it?”
I say, “Narrow and bigoted aren’t the words I was thinking. It
sounds dysfunctional. It sounds like a system that God, being a
powerful entity, would try to stop. God would change things
around so that people who live an ethical life would be the ones
to reap the rewards of heaven.”
Becky answers, “Okay, here’s the whole foundation. If we could
get to heaven by our works than Jesus died on the cross in
vain. There was no purpose in his dying. None whatsoever. And
so for some people, that’s not a problem… And this would take
a whole sermon for me to outline the significance of his dying
on the cross and his shed blood— that’s a term that you will
hear a lot around Born Again Christians—has nothing to do
with what we do as far as works or goodness. We have no
goodness. Even Jesus says, “Why are you calling me good?
There’s only one person who’s good and that’s God.” So this
really gets outside the dimensions of this movie I think. It’s a
whole doctoral debate that just goes on and on and on, and it
just depends on your worldview and your understanding of the
scriptures.”
“This film has totally changed my worldview and that’s so
precious.”
My time is running out. It’s now 6:30pm and Rachel, Heidi, and
Becky are famished. I was promised twenty to thirty minutes.
They have given me forty-five. I ask the filmmakers about future
projects.
Rachel answers, “…we want to continue to make films that are
provocative, that we get to reap a lot of benefits intellectually
from as well. This film has totally changed my worldview and
that’s so precious.”
Heidi responds, “I care a lot about the audience. I think about
the audience every shoot I go on. I think about what my
audience needs to see. What I need to do to make an audience
understand…In a very efficient 85 minutes, this person is going
to have an accelerated compacted intense experience, and it
excites me to think we are giving them that.”
Rachel sums up her experiences making “Jesus Camp” well, “It
was fascinating we really did feel like we were allowed to
participate in a parallel existence that was happening right in
the middle of America. I think that’s a privilege any time
someone lets you do that. You’re penetrating someone’s most
intimate space.”
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| News Papers |
| There are several 100 news papers and Internet news stories so it is imposable to have the all here on Jesus Camp. |
 |  |  |
| Kids in Ministry. Becky's Web Site |