The film “Jesus Camp” was quite an appalling film for me. Now, this was quite surprising, since I was usually unmoved with materials that chose “religion” as the theme of its content. Although I might provoke some pious believers, I must admit: I personally think religion is ridiculous. Because of their inherent irrationality and the mesmerization that they practice to their followers, religions-every single one of them-have always been my favorites to criticize about and my least favorites to advocate on. Just to go over a few quick points: the most representative teachings that many religions deploy to their followers include claims like “only the ones who believe in thou God shall be rescued” or “do not dare doubt or question the Creator, since he (or she) is always right, and it is best for us mortals to abide by his (or her) teachings and practice only benevolence”. My instant question: if the gods who are “supposedly in charge” of taking care of the poor mankind were so benevolent and magnanimous, why do they discriminate the people who follow them and who don’t? It seems pretty narrow-minded and mean for such “great beings” to only care for the ones who swore the pledge of allegiance to their rule. Furthermore, how are we supposed to know “what’s good” and “what’s bad”, since the vague concepts were never cleared up in the “sacred” Bible or in the “absolute” Koran? Is stealing a loaf of bread to feed the people who are starving a “good” act? Or not? What about killing a dictator who had the clear potential for slaughtering millions in the recent future? Is there a clear answer? Who’s to decide? And even if God (Jehovah, Allah, Buddha, or whoever)
were to evaluate somebody’s action, how are we supposed to know of his standards? What if what we had done with a good intention actually turned out to be something bad for many others? Are we guilty or not? And how can we know if we “don’t question or doubt” God’s thoughts? It all makes no sense. Absolutely no sense at all. And since the “perfect God” is supposed to make sense to us at all times, the contradiction that exists within religion (especially within Christianity) inevitably proves, ironically, that it is flawed. All forms of religions, without exceptions, are created by the people for the purpose to seek relaxation or even salvation by depending on some hypothetical, but ultimately superior, existence.
Well, that’s about it for my personal viewpoints on religion. And this disbelief was precisely the reason I was uninterested in materials that dealt with religion. However, “Jesus Camp” was an exception; despite my efforts to remain indifferent, the video startled me nonetheless. There were mainly two reasons that the documentary was so shocking: the “content” and the “director’s illustration of content”.
First and foremost, the most sensational factor of the video was, of course, its content. At first, when Mr. Garrioch had introduced the film as a nonfictional documentary demonstrating a camp for evangelist children, I’d thought it would be pretty interesting. I never knew that “Jesus Camp” was about to greatly surpass my expectations; what the video had contained was far more interesting than what I’d imagined-even horrible, to some extent. In the video, I saw the images of Becky Fischer, a woman around her fifties who was in charge of “Kids on Fire School Ministry Camp” (Jesus Camp), preaching in front of hundreds people, most of them children.
(Becky Fischer)
I witnessed her fervent speeches in which she commanded her audience to completely dedicate their lives to God, to fight against and repel whatever might be “influenced by the devil”, to sacrifice whatever they have for the “supposed will of God”, and finally, for heaven’s sake, to become “obedient soldiers” who comply with God’s orders; or, practically speaking, Becky’s orders. And this “stringent orders” were directly delivered to children-to 15, 10, and 7 year olds! During the interview she had done with the filmmakers, she commented that “I believe it is critical to properly educate our children to worship God and to devote themselves to the Christian cause. It’s what our loathe enemies, Islams do as well. Do I think that this is brainwashing? No, I think my children are ready for it. Others express their concerns on preaching to youngsters, but my youngsters can handle it.”
And the youngsters really could. They responded to Becky’s demands with absolute subordination and voluntary enthusiasm. When their teacher asked them to pray, the children held their hands up in the air, violently swirling them around along with passionate prayers to be connected with the “spirits”. When they were asked to give sermons in front of their peers, they transformed themselves into masterminds of Christianity, just like their teacher, and argued that “they are the selected generation of God and they have the duty to spread their beliefs to “sinful” others”. The kids in the Jesus Camp weren’t “kids”. They were zealots. Mentally armed, ardent, fanatic, and blindfolded zealots. Becky’s “education” to “train God’s potential army” was clearly successful; she had institutionalized brainwashing.
What was particularly so “remarkably terrifying” were the “techniques” Becky employed to achieve her goals. Yes, the realistic depictions of the camp were quite disgusting as well, but the most appealing substance was Becky’s genius. Her ingenious tactics to persuade the children was distinguishable from any plain sermon; she effectively addressed the ethos, pathos, and logos of the innocent minds.
Everybody could see that her dramatic preaching was directly appealing to the pathos of the children; the impressionable emotions of the little ones easily sympathized with Becky’s impassion. Furthermore, her entire campaign attracted the kids’ unsteadfast “ethos”. By “defining” everything related to the evangelist faith to be “good” and everything else to be “bad”, the camp manipulated its participants into thinking that whatever it tells them to do is “ethical”. And this method was extremely effective, especially since children in their puberty always try to behave and be “good boys and girls”. Since the youngsters desired to become nice and likable (which most children want to), guiding them to believe that upholding religious morality was the correct way to do so worked magically, showing critical effect. Lastly, Becky even employed tactics to logically persuade her students to conform to Christianity. In her lectures, she explained the reasons why “they must believe in Christ”, why “they’re so important to Christ”, and why “they must be ardent in doing so”. Using devils and hellfire as vivid imageries of the consequences that would penalize sinners in the end, Becky utilized her dexterous linguistic abilities to exaggerate the “logic” behind religious zealousness. So, in summary, Becky used her skillful tongue to seduce the young, by appealing to their emotions, ethics, and reasoning. And as it is clearly shown in the film, her strategies worked superbly.
However, it wasn’t only the “content” itself that made this documentary so sensational; it was also the way the director of this film so craftily led its viewers to obtain a negative impression about this camp, and moreover, evangelicalism and Christianity as a whole. Most of the people who watched the film would have been fully absorbed to the loathsome features of “Jesus Camp”, (like what I had done) and thus they wouldn’t have realized the bigger scheme that lay behind the shocking images. That was the filmmaker’s intention, which was to deliberately portray religion as something to be afraid and disgusted of.
(Rachel Grady)
The director of this documentary, Rachel Grady, purposefully chose “one of the most extreme cases that illustrates the distorted form of religious fervor”, chose the most “extremely malicious images” of the camp (Becky screaming her heads off, children crying insanely because of religious enlightenment, and other chaotic pictures overall), and intermittently inserted gruesome music and interviews that satirized the distorted versions of Christianity. Although I was personally against all the concepts Becky had proposed, (which was the reason why I was almost absorbed by the director’s message, like many others) I barely noticed in the end that my “ideas” despising religion were being strengthened and encouraged. That is when I realized this film was crafted and designed by Rachel’s strategies; her splendid strategies that produced the intended and maximized results. Of course, the response from the public was immense. The audience, including even the most renowned film critics, was enraged and flabbergasted at the malice of Becky and her camp. Some even left comments like “I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing”. Well, for me, that kind of made sense, since what Rachel disclosed to the public was the very extreme and perverted images of the truth, not authentic ones. I’m sure Becky was crazy to some degree, but I can say with almost absolute certainty that she wouldn’t have been THAT crazy as shown in the film. Same goes for the camp: I’m sure it was ludicrous, but not “sincerely terrible” as the director wanted her audience to believe. Of course many people couldn’t believe what they were seeing; it wasn’t the genuine version of the truth. The true mastermind in “The Jesus Camp” wasn’t Becky; it was Rachel, who edited the film to emphasize Becky as a mastermind. She adopted the exact same techniques to influence her viewers that Becky adopted to influence her students: by emotionally, morally, and logically demonstrating that “RELIGION IS BAD.”
All in all, I thought I had seen the model examples of “great, eloquent persuaders” after watching the “Jesus Camp”, although they had utilized their fantastic skills of persuasion for distorted purposes. The way the film-Becky and Rachel-struck me, or struck my sentiments, ethics, and rationality, was greatly shocking; enough for me to scream out loud “JESUS!”
Some Videos to Watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGceAojHR6o&noredirect=1
-->America's political commentator and stand-up comedian, Bill Maher discusses Jesus Camp from three different perspectives
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LACyLTsH4ac
-->Highlights of "Jesus Camp"
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