Jesus Camp
My wife and I recently watched the movie Jesus Camp. For those who have not seen it, it is a documentary about a Pentecostal church camp. The film is very well done with many great camera angles, but it is clearly made with an agenda in mind. Besides the crowd manipulation of children, and the Ted Haggard footage, one of the most disturbing things about the portrayal is the fusing of Christianity and patriotism. Though the film claims to be about the camp, it is this combination of religion and patriotism that is really at the core of the movie.
Throughout the movie, references are made to America as being “God’s nation.” At one point, they break coffee cups declaring that with each broken cup, they are unleashing a bit more of the Spirit, breaking the bonds of Satan over this country’s government. In another service, they bring out a cardboard figure of George W. Bush and pray blessings over him. Don’t get me wrong, I think we need pray for our government and our leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-3, etc.), but I’m not sure that we’ll be featuring any life-size presidents in our church services any time soon (actually, yes, I am sure).
Throughout the movie, they flash to a radio host (Mike Papantonio) as the apparent voice of reason, decrying the religious, right wing conspiracy that’s taking over our country. He decries the call to teach Intelligent Design as lying to our children and claims that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney owe their election to this vast conspiracy. Perhaps what’s so troubling is that the churchgoers, leaders and the children are as comfortable praising George W. Bush as they are God.
At one point, the radio host argues that Christians like these are not just raising Christian kids but warriors for the Republican Party. What’s so troubling is that it’s perfectly reasonable based on groups such as this one to see why he’s worried about such things; that’s exactly what they’re doing. While it’s disturbing that many in the larger culture think of a “right wing religious conspiracy,” it’s perhaps more troubling that that’s exactly what many people are calling for.
We must be careful that our religion and patriotism do not become so fused that they become inseparable. We must recognize that God ordains our rulers (Romans 13), but God also ordained that the Assyrians would wage war against Israel (Isaiah 10:5-11), that Pharaoh would not let the Egyptians go (Romans 9:14-18) and that Jesus would be put to death (Acts 2:23). Simply because God has placed a person in a position of authority does not mean that they are necessarily doing God’s will. This is a hard truth to grasp. We must be wary of condoning any politician’s actions outright in the name of God without first submitting their every deed to the scrutiny of the Gospel.
I personally believe that there are some issues such as abortion which for which Christians have a responsibility, but that does not mean that to be Christian in America means to be Republican. As Rod Dreher (in Crunchy Cons and elsewhere) and others have been arguing, the modern form of “conservatism” espoused by the Republican party bears little resemblance to traditional conservative thought or to many biblical ideals.
I certainly believe in raising my children with biblical convictions, but I also believe in raising them with critical thinking skills and discernment. I want them to be able judge how to vote on specific issues based on Gospel-thinking rather than believing that simply voting a straight party line is “God’s will.”
This movie has again reminded me of just how important a well-formed, well-rounded biblical worldview truly is. We must see that the Gospel is about all of life and we must filter everything through it. When we do, we will be challenged, in the (paraphrased) words of Derek Webb, that
our first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man
our first allegiance is not to democracy or blood
it’s to a king & a kingdom
Any allegiance to country must be secondary to and filtered through allegiance to Christ. But it is becoming increasingly common to combine the two as if they were inseparable.
For those of you who have seen the movie, what are your thoughts?
June 11th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Brent,
I have not seen the movie, I had seen previews but I had forgotten about it. I will have to check it out. But, I think you are right.
It seems that Jesus is the one who has done the big work for us, so I think our allegiance should be there first. I don’t have a problem with Bush, but I do have a problem with the blind devotion to any particular leader or political party. Proverbs talks often about using discernment and the importance of it.
June 11th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
I saw the movie as well and think you gave a fair review.
The Haggard comments by the way were the most chilling part of the movie for me, because those comments were made and edited in the movie before the scandal broke, they were not added in after the DVD version came out.
I don’t come from a Pentecostal background, so much of the movie didn’t resonate with a lot of my own personal experience. I think though what I walked away with was the nature of the Christian-subculture that many of us swim in, and the traps of mixing politics and religion.
Yes I like W, and I pray for him - but I always found it odd that the Presidential prayer movement, as an example, really didn’t get started until W was in office, where was it when Clinton was in office. He certainly needed our prayers too.
Jesus Camp is certainly worth renting and watching, it makes for some very interesting discussion.
June 12th, 2007 at 9:43 am
I thought Jesus Camp was a well done film on an extremely engaging topic, but I didn’t always enjoy watching it. It made me nauseous at points. I think it had something to do with seeing the gospel which I have so much passion for being distorted and manipulated for partisan political gain, and amongst children no less!
I was blessed and convicted by the little girl brown haired girl (I forget her name) who shared her faith as such a natural extension of her life.
And like you, I felt like the Mike Papantonio monologues put too much spin on the film. The film said enough on it own, and I didn’t need this guy boiling it down to a bunch of partially true, but ultimately unfair generalizations. Good film, though.
June 14th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Hi Brent,
Great review. I haven’t seen the film but checked out it’s preview on a - get this, Apologetics Index - a cult awareness website.
I’m an Aussie and I simply don’t get the passion towards politics that Americans have. I wonder what happens when the Democrats are in power. Does the religious right have the same patriotism towards them also?
I totally get where you are coming from about raising kids with discernment instead of blind “reasoning”.