Jesus Camp

Jesus Camp is now out on video. I saw it a couple of weeks ago and because this is a movie that I want to see again, I thought I would mention it in this post.

If you don't know, Jesus Camp is a documentary about a summer camp for evangelical Christian kids. Most of the film follows a charismatic teacher, Becky Fischer, as she trains young soldiers in "God's Army" at a camp in North Dakota. (There is a scene toward the end that made my hair stand on end. The movie has a clip with Ted Haggard preaching about homosexuality and talking about other things as well. This movie was made before Ted Haggard's scandal broke in the news. Knowing what we know now about Haggard, makes his comments in the film very eerie.)

I think this film creates an interesting conversation about evangelicalism. Obviously, this film only represents one slice of the very diverse evangelical pie. The fact that I could not see very much of myself or my church in this film, reminds me just how open and ambiguous the label evangelicalism actually is. It is a label that isn't very helpful anymore. The label Evangelicalism is too broad and carries with it too much baggage in today's culture. (see my previous post, Has the E-Word lost it's Meaning). Definitely go rent this DVD, and let it become a good conversation starter with your friends and family.


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