Harry Potter is going to hell apparently. Its not because you can’t open a newspaper, go to the cinema, or go on the tube without seeing some sort of reference to the boy wizard and his perky chums. No, according to Pastor Becky Fisher, leader of ‘Kids on Fire’ evangelical camp, as a ‘warlock’ Harry Potter is an enemy of God who would have been burned at the steak in more godly times.
If Fisher’s deadly serious condemnation of this seemingly innocuous character from a children’s book is rather comical, this comedy is starkly mediated by the reaction shot of the crowd of preadolescent children she is preaching to. They holler and cheer as she hammers the point home: ‘You don’t make heroes out of warlocks’. It seems that in the world of evangelical Christianity the only heroes allowed are Jesus and God.
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s Oscar nominated Jesus Camp is a worrying portrayal of the growing grip which fundamental Christianity is taking of America. It follows the progress of three children embarking on their three week stint in the, questionably named, ‘Kids on Fire’ camp.
There is Levi, a promising preacher. Tory, who earnestly expresses her desire to dance for God and not ‘the flesh’. And Rachael, who fearlessly approaches random strangers with fundamentalist literature in the name of bringing the message of God to the people. Mostly home schooled, the evangelical message pervades all aspects of these children’s lives from the science books they are taught, to the video games they play, to the pop music they listen to.
In between the usual ghost stories and playing in the woods, at ‘Kids on Fire’ the children are subjected to rousing sermons from Pastor Fisher. With the aid of props such as a Barbie and Ken Adam and Eve, a jelly brain and a life size scythe, Fisher lectures the children on the message of God.
The children react with startling displays of emotion, seemingly to prove their acknowledgement and understanding of what they are being taught. It is this emotion which they believe brings them closer to God. Rachael condemns traditional churches in which people simply sit and listen to the sermon as ‘dead’ – ‘God is not there’ she claims.
There is a particularly harrowing scene in which the ‘hypocrites’ who display their belief in God in church but not in front of their school friends are invited to repent and be cleansed with holy water. With its close ups of preadolescents sobbing and shaking in a spiritual trance, and a girl wailing strangely in the background, it has the nightmarish quality of a horror film.
Pastor Becky Fisher is the most intriguing and menacing figure in the film. One can’t question her commitment to the evangelical cause. Her energy and enthusiasm are unfailing in the drive to ‘save’ America and make it a more pure and Godly nation.
Yet her methods of going about this are dubious to say the least. According to Fisher, indoctrinating children is a must, justified by the ‘eye for an eye’ argument that the radical Islamists do it too and that it’s particularly effective ‘if you get them between the ages of 7 and 9’. She also seems to see nothing problematic in positing the ‘saving’ of America as a war in which the children she is teaching are to be the army. ‘Would you die for Jesus?’ she cries repeatedly and encourages the children to violently smash their ‘cup of sin’ (which are in reality a coffee mug) with a hammer.
There are clearly unsettling parallels drawn between this violent radicalisation of Christianity and radical Islam movements, the ideas propagated by Fisher being just a few steps away from those which justify suicide bombing and terrorism in the name of religion.
The worrying ‘entanglement of religion and politics’ occurring in the fundamentalist Christian movement is explored in the film with interludes from Mike Papatino a radio broadcaster and Christian who clearly favours the ‘dead’ variety of church. He muses upon the increasing grip which the evangelical faith is taking upon the American political system and the way in which it provides a justification for highly conservative policies.
This politicisation intrudes into ‘Kids on Fire’ as the children are lectured by an anti-abortion activist and presented with a life size cut out of George Bush, the most powerful man in the country who is, as it happens, an evangelical too.
Possibly the most questionable aspect of the camp is the lack of space there is for the usual exploration and learning through trial and error which are vital processes of growing up. The children aren’t allowed to think for themselves at all, they are instead more like automatons or mouthpieces for adults like Fisher and their higher cause of bringing fundamentalist Christianity to America.
Jesus Camp is an insightful film, whose bias is evident but also strongly justified and, as Pastor Fisher rightly predicts, it will leave many ‘quaking in their boots’.
Jesus Camp opens Friday 23 November 2007 and runs until 20 December 2007 at the ICA in London.