Happy As Kings: Jesus Camp

Last Saturday, my husband and I went to see Jesus Camp, a movie about a summer camp for kids in North Dakota called, Kids on Fire. I intended to just watch the movie, but a statistic shown at the beginning of the film, that '75% of homeschooled kids are Evangelical,' made me get out my notepad. The NCES statistic for religious reasons for homeschooling stands at around 30%. I spent the rest of the movie alternately watching and scribbling in my notepad by the light reflected from the theater's screen.

What follows is taken from my notes, with a few after-the-fact observations.

"fact" 75% of hmschl kids are Evangelical.

Pentecostal service.

[movie] started in Lee's Summit

Our town almost shares a border with Lee's Summit.

radio show -- Air America?

Chick Tract?

One of the children appeared to be reading a Chick Tract to another child, but it wasn't highlighted.

Rachael going up to strangers + "witnessing" about that person

2nd father Army officer CPT?

Because the family lives in Lee's Summit, and the commute to Ft. Leavenworth would be fairly long (an hour and 20 minutes, according to Google's map service) given the availability of homes far closer to Leavenworth, I am guessing that the father is in the Reserves. I live about a five-minute walk from an Army Reserve center, so it's possible that the father is a Reservist ... or maybe he's what is called (or at least, used to be called) a "geographical bachelor?"

I can tell you that not all homeschooled kids whose dads are in the Army fit the mold shown in the movie.

2001 Kids on Fire camp begun

praying for Power Point to keep the devil out of it

The Book of Common Prayer has a variety of prayers for specific situations, but I don't remember any prayers for exorcising demons from hardware.

"J.C. moves in the house!"

rap "kicking it for Christ"

The 'music video' section happened in a group meeting in what I'm supposing was the camp's main meeting room. Music and emotional manipulation were my main impressions. It is known that music is especially effective in memory retention and helps to transmit information. One has only to think of a child singing, "A, B, C, D, E, F, G. H, I, J, K, elemeno, P, ..." Most kids don't know what an "elemeno" is, or think L. M. N. O., but they sing it anyhow.

Music also helps to bypass reasoned thinking. For that, one has only to think of popular songs. I've all but given up listening to any Oldies station because I listen to words. I know everyone was stoned 'way back when' while they were writing those songs, but, if you try making any kind of sense of them, too many of them are now painful to listen to because of the nonsense.

But none of this is new. Plato has similar concerns about the connection of music and emotion.

Sin starts small and grows

The visuals for sin starting small and growing were plush toy lions. The cub represented sin being cute and fuzzy and small, but then growing up into an adult lion.

Devil goes after the young.

Harry Potter: enemies of god

Harry Potter put to death ... Amen -- applause

The idea of telling children that a heroic fictional character should be murdered is appalling. Children, even more so than adults, identify with fictional characters. If the children have enjoyed any of the books, they would probably have vicariously taken part in Harry's adventures, and the mental connection of 'put Harry to death' may be that the children themselves ought to be executed.

Even if these children have not read, or listened to, a Harry Potter book, or seen a movie, the idea of putting a child to death for something the child can't control (in the construct of Rowling's books, being "born a wizard"), is heinous.

In other parts of the movie the children were told about abortion. Why is it that in one part of the movie the camp director is 'pro life' but in another part she is 'pro death,' both in cases of children-not-at-fault?

calling kids phonies and hypocrites

I'm reminded of pots and kettles.

come up and get washed [children washing hands in water poured from containers]

water of your word

psychological bullying

repenting

Some of these children look as if they're perhaps eight or nine years old. What do they have to repent for?

All that faux guilt being ladled out reminds me of a visit to a neighbor who told me she had some Wilton cake decorating books. This was in 1980, and in Germany, so Wilton books were hard to come by. The lady asked me over to her house, and while I was there I played with her 2-year old daughter. The little girl got excited and threw a small rubber ball in the living room. It hit the door. The mother instantly commanded, "Bring me the hand that threw that ball." Seriously. I tried intervening by saying that it was my fault that the little girl got excited, but her mother would have none of it. "She knows the rules." Then, this rather large woman hauled back and smacked this very little girl's hand.

Soon after, the mother calmly took me back to the bedroom to show me the Wilton magazines. After I looked at the cake decorating magazines, she showed me some sex toys, and a photo calendar she and her husband kept under the mattress. Earlier she had been telling me that her older son, about 12, was already 'called' to be a preacher. Talk about mental whiplash. I was waiting for Salvador Dali to pop out of the closet next.

I'm happy to say that I saw nothing sexual in Jesus Camp, but the expectations that children "repent" reminded me very much of that weird neighbor.

No, I do not equate saying you're sorry with "repenting" as it was presented in the movie.

But back to the notes.

crying children

"she should be arrested" [no context for this note, and I don't remember if it was my comment, or something from the movie]

camp looks like old motel [no disrespect intended, it just looked like an old 'motor lodge']

After the group meeting, the children were in their rooms and getting ready for bed.

kids playing flashlight tag

making scary faces

ghost stories

[enter adult] stories don't honor god

Next part is of the camp director giving a tour of the props room, and showing how she put together the presentations.

power point slide [camp director specifically looking for a font that resembles dripping blood]

Ken and Barbie demos [wearing 'fig leaves']

gelatin mold for brain + sticky gizmos; bad stuff sticking to your brain -- bad jokes, swear words, tv [children's toys used for demos]

Interview with Rachael:

"dead churches" God like churches where people are jumping up and down

I wondered about this reference to "dead churches" because it didn't sound like something a child would say. 'Boring' was how my kids sometimes characterized church when the readings and sermons weren't scintillating (and definitely not rocking), but never "dead." I did a search for "dead church" and came up with a reference to the Book of Revelation, Chapter 3, verse 1.

Back to group meeting in auditorium

who wants to give up your lives for Jesus? (cheering)

Again with the pots and kettles. The camp director maligns terrorists for "putting hand grenades" in the hands of children, but then says we should do the same thing. Another camp leader asks the children who wants to die for Jesus, and the children joyfully wave their hands in the air.

Why aren't these adults out dying for Jesus if that's what's so important? They're quite blithe about other people losing their lives. I have a similar reaction to people who insist on driving Hummers. If you're so enthralled with driving the thing, do it right and enlist.

smashing cups to [symbolically] break power of devil

same thing as in the Baptist church when I was a kid [not cup smashing; just general mental manipulation]

My family was not Baptist, but a neighbor lady offered to take me and my brother to Sunday School with her. My mother must have assumed that the intended Sunday School was the general Protestant Sunday School run by the Air Force base chapel that I usually attended. It wasn't. The neighbor must have known that we weren't members of the church because the church she took us to was small and everyone had to have known each other.

Part of the Sunday School was a church service -- hellfire and brimstone, if my 8-year old memory can be trusted. I was so intimidated that I put my name in the collection basket to become 'saved' in order to avoid eternal damnation. Soon after that, I remember walking down the sidewalk on a cold Saturday afternoon and seeing that minister coming out of my house. I ran. I hid behind the neighbor's house because I did not want that man to see me. My attendance at that Sunday School stopped after that. I assume my parents realized that this neighbor had, in effect, lied about where she was taking us.

I was so relieved not to have to go there any more, but a magazine I had somehow subscribed to showed up for a while. It had scary stories such as a 13-year-old girl who was run over by a school bus and killed, but was described as being happy to die for Jesus. How they knew that, I don't know. That haunted me for a while, and I was very careful not to stand near the curb when the school bus arrived.

children crying

make war with the prophecies

dancing in camo

This means war!

Are you a part of it or not?

America is supposed to be God's nation.

Cardboard Dubya -- pray the spirit over him

1 nation under God

Most important generation in American history

Grown man talking like a mind reader [he seemed to be drawing out the children and echoing back to them what he picked up from either their replies or body language]

talking to kids about abortion "1/3 of your friends" could have been here -- passing around plastic fetuses [who makes these things?]

crying children -- "No more! No more!" [a girl was sobbing on the verge of hysteria about the aborted babies]

I've heard that some people object to sex education in the schools in order to protect their children's innocence. What kind of destruction of innocence happens when children are told about abortion and are immediately given small plastic dolls to nurture?

Righteous Judges! [leaders and children chanting the phrase over and over]

pray to end abortion

Don't be a promise breaker, be a history maker.

[change to lighter text to indicate change of subject]

liberal radio announcer

religious political foot soldiers

not a tinfoil hat moment

look like your neighbors [no context for this note]

took over White House, legisl. Judic.

voice-over about Alito's nomination

Change the scene to a large auditorium with mostly adults in attendance.

New Life Church

Colorado Springs

Compelling rock music

Las Vegas show [the presentation reminded me more of a Las Vegas show than it did a church service]

[preacher] no general assembly needed [by this congregation] -- New Life

Mega church -- stage show

Massive warfare

Let the battle begin

Ted Haggard

Mr. Haggard talking to Levi [featured boy in movie] about the content of his preaching, "Use your cute kid thing until you're 30..." then go for 'content.'

Before seeing Jesus Camp, I'd never heard of Ted Haggard. I had to Google him.

Change to Washington, D.C.

Kids seeing sights + monuments

Singing and swaying; rhythmic motion [my awareness of the motion was increasing]

invoking children's power

Levi: trained to be warriors

Rachael: peace + excitement; no fear

people die for Jesus

Rachael: [telling story about another family whose father was apparently a missionary (?), and how that each time the father left to go overseas where there might be danger to him because of what he was doing, the kids would encircle him and ...] jump around father yelling, "Martyr! Martyr! Martyr!"

Becky Fisher: "liberals must be shaking in their boots"

train thru Lee's Summit

radio interview w. Becky: Q: "Why go for kids?" A: "What they learn at 7 is w. them forever."

brainwashing -- training

children soldiers for the Republic

separation of church and state

Fisher: democracy will destroy us

view of I-70 [highway] voiceover, Alito confirmed

end credits Spirit in the Sky

rock music taps into emotions

Other sites:

Interview with filmmakers: Filmchat

Review of movie: kcactive.com

Review collection: Rotten Tomatoes

Contrasting points of view: Richard Dawkins, The Root of All Evil

Comments

Dear Happy King,

I came across your site today when I was googling something about homeschooling. I was impressed by your thorough note taking during Jesus Camp. My family is a pretty big part of the film. Levi is my son and my wife Tracy is the woman who is shown home-schooling. We are also the family that visits Ted Haggard’s church (I didn’t know much about him either until the film crew asked us to visit there.) The girl Rachael is in my congregation. I am a pastor (as well as a Reservist like Tory’s father).

I would love to chat about the movie a little. The movie shows so many things that are out of context. Many of those things I would never show people in a 30 second blip without giving it context. Becky’s comment about Harry Potter, for instance, I find myself trying to explain quite often. It comes across as violent, but Becky is not for violence and neither are we. She regrets the statement because she really isn’t against Harry Potter, she was trying to let the kids know that witchcraft itself is not something God condones. I could discuss that one further.

When Becky (and us) talk about laying down our lives for Christ, we are not talking about dying or killing anyone. It is a giving up of your selfishness to live for Jesus, love people and do as much good as possible. This theme doesn’t come out very well in the movie because the filmers just used sound bytes that they knew would rile people up. All the talk of love and forgiveness and healing were not included in the movie. The only time laying down our lives for Christ involves death is if we happen to be martyred (or if we do something like drown trying to rescue someone). None of the kids were ever confused about anything Becky said along these lines. They knew that they were not to go out and kill themselves or others.

Thanks for letting me chime in.

Posted by: Jesus Camper | 06 December 2006 at 05:04 PM

Thank you for commenting, Jesus Camper (and my apologies for the delay in 'approving' it -- 'life' has been hectic here).

Despite my concerns about the film, I wasn't happy to hear about the vandalism at the camp. It must have saddened the children to find out that a place they enjoyed had been ruined by others.

Posted by: Valerie | 26 December 2006 at 09:19 PM