First viewing of Jesus Camp

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Just saw Jesus Camp. In the words of Penny, holy crap on a cracker. I think what sets this movie apart from the popularized documentaries of today is it doesn't include a narrative. It simply shows the people in the movie through their own words.

Has anyone else seen this?
 
Yeah, I watched it years ago. This group seems to be just outside of Cult status.

Wasn't that also the one that had that meth-head preacher that had the "Ear of the President?" I saw it just before his disgrace, and he really creeped me out.
 
Yeah, near the end it had Ted Haggard. I think the part that really shocked me was when they came out with the cardboard cut-out of George W. Bush and told the kids to say hi to it. It was sad to watch these kids being indoctrinated by people who really believe that religions should be at war with each other.
 
Yeah I saw it and I know the camp they rent out that is in the film. Some of the lovely folks who saw and enjoyed this movie went and vandalized the camp they rented to the point of the owners shutting the place down. Classy.

And while these people are, I truly believe, nutty, always remember that when you shoot a film like this you get, literally hundreds of hours of footage that an editor takes and cuts down to about 90 minutes. Whatever you walked out of the film thinking about the people/subject is exactly what the filmmaker carefully created. I'm not saying they aren't nutty people, probably even dangerous, but we are only seeing a glimpse of them here (which unfortunately could mean they are even worse than we see, although I suppose if there was any worse than this they would have shown that... and besides, could it get any worse? Yikes).

I actually only had one issue with the film, and that was the rather out and out lie that got pushed around (not necessarily in the film, but by the filmmakers in interviews and the press for the film) that this was "mainstream evangelical Christianity". They filmed a bunch of far right nuts and rednecks with beliefs that the majority of evangelicals would find off-putting and even disturbing (like the Bush thing you mentioned).

But if I had to write a review of the film it would be pretty much: Holy crap. That woman is bad news and needs to be stopped.
 
It's a shame about the people who destroyed the place which was rented out. It's always the worst of us who end up hurting our point of view the most by their actions.
 
S

Soliloquy

It's a shame about the people who destroyed the place which was rented out. It's always the worst of us who end up hurting our point of view the most by their actions.
Applies to both sides, really.
 
It's a shame about the people who destroyed the place which was rented out. It's always the worst of us who end up hurting our point of view the most by their actions.
I agree, its the same camp my wife's church rented out when she was a kid. We were watching it and she was like... WHOA!
 
It's all good Soliloquy.

Now I'm watching Lord, Save Us From Your Followers. It's interesting how it goes over all of the religious and unreligious alike and how they believe the opposing views are pushing their views and influencing the nation in a way which is negative on the country. I think this is a prime example of why religion is such a divisive topic.
 
P

Philosopher B.

I saw Jesus Camp in a doc class recently. Disturbing shit. One student walked out. It was amazing and horrifying to see the extent of the brainwashing those kids got. Shit, they weren't allowed to tell freaking ghost stories. And that woman ... *shudder*
 
As a former camp counselor in the glorious United States of America, I feel like I should have watched this movie.

It's on my to-watch list.
 
As a former camp counselor in the glorious United States of America, I feel like I should have watched this movie.
The "camp" shown is not exactly "mainstream" here. It's more what we in the biz like to refer to as, and this is a technical term so bear with me, "crazytown".
 
I figured from the previews and things I've heard from people that it's too crazy to be normal. The camp I worked at was pretty good, si I know they're not ALL nuts. And hell, my camp was in the Bible Belt. (I assume the Jesus Camp one is as well?)
 
I'm watching this right now. I'm about half way through.

I grew up going to bible camp, and was a camp counselor for a few years, and the camp I went to promoted love and understanding.

This bible camp is pretty much an abomination.
 

Cajungal

Staff member
^Yes. I've seen some clips of it, and it's pretty disturbing. I've been to both Catholic retreats and Protestant Bible camps, and I've never personally witnessed anything this creepy.
 
I figured from the previews and things I've heard from people that it's too crazy to be normal. The camp I worked at was pretty good, si I know they're not ALL nuts. And hell, my camp was in the Bible Belt. (I assume the Jesus Camp one is as well?)
Nope. It's in North Dakota. It's a little camp that gets rented out to lots of different groups, making it all the sadder that some assholes saw this film and vandalized it thinking they were, I don't know, really "sticking it" to the nuts in this movie instead of the owners and other people who used the camp.
 
^Yes. I've seen some clips of it, and it's pretty disturbing. I've been to both Catholic retreats and Protestant Bible camps, and I've never personally witnessed anything this creepy.
As had I for a Catholic retreat. It was one of my favorite outings I had in my teenage years, despite the religious nature (I had great doubt about my religion at that time).
 

Cajungal

Staff member
^Yes. I've seen some clips of it, and it's pretty disturbing. I've been to both Catholic retreats and Protestant Bible camps, and I've never personally witnessed anything this creepy.
As had I for a Catholic retreat. It was one of my favorite outings I had in my teenage years, despite the religious nature (I had great doubt about my religion at that time).[/QUOTE]

Man, me too, but I never really had the courage to talk about it in front of all the people who were just so in love with their faith. My fault, really... but I got to talk about it with a priest years later. I thought it would be insulting to him, because I felt like I was suggesting his job was meaningless or something. But he was very understanding and really helpful... actually kind of gave me a push OUT of the church without making me feel bad about it, too. I guess stuff like that isn't as interesting to watch/listen to as the stuff in this documentary. I found a lot of footage on youtube. The homeschooling bits were hard to watch.
 
It was also painful seeing that sweet little girl reading a Chick Tract.

And the mother saying that science doesn't explain anything.... oy vey.
 
It was also painful seeing that sweet little girl reading a Chick Tract.

And the mother saying that science doesn't explain anything.... oy vey.
The willful ignorance is very sad. Whether it is about how our world works or how people interact others and their views.
 
It was also painful seeing that sweet little girl reading a Chick Tract.

And the mother saying that science doesn't explain anything.... oy vey.
The willful ignorance is very sad. Whether it is about how our world works or how people interact others and their views.[/QUOTE]

I'm trying to figure out if that's a swipe at me or not....
 
It was also painful seeing that sweet little girl reading a Chick Tract.

And the mother saying that science doesn't explain anything.... oy vey.
The willful ignorance is very sad. Whether it is about how our world works or how people interact others and their views.[/QUOTE]

I'm trying to figure out if that's a swipe at me or not....[/QUOTE]
Oh, no. I was certainly not trying to do that. If it seemed that way, I apologize.
 
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