In this film, titled “jesus camp”, we see religious fundamentalist indoctrination in action. In this film, it is shown how the organisers of the camp “Kids on Fire” plan on indoctrinating children in the camp with the “right message”.. They (especially Becky Fischer, a Pentecostal minister) want to create a parallel to muslim training camps in Palestine (which in reality don’t exist anymore than in any other place) but with the right message of evangelical Christians.
In this film we see quite clearly how in this age, fundamentalism is occurring in the modern world, and this is evident both in the Christian and the Islamic world (only the former is explored in the film). We see indoctrination occurring from the domestic level itself. The mother of Levi (a child who enrolls in Kids on Fire) is actually give
...n anti creationism lessons. Not only that, global warming is made merely a political issue rather than a global problem.
We see almost an ideological hegemony of religion being imposed on the children. Their brains are hegemonised to the level that they cannot even think against their practices. One child (Levi) argues that there is no problem with me, its with the other children who do not fulfill their purpose i. e. to serve God, and that they should. A girl named Tory considers only Christian music to be good, and Britney Spears etc. not to be artists at all. This shows how deep the hegemony spreads, for even music and other arenas are fundametalised.
We see in the movie how such children generally have parents who are highly inclined towards their religion. This shows that fundamentalism is a contagious problem
The radio commenter in the movie actually argues that why are only children the army of God? His conclusion is that it is because they do not posess the powers of rational thought, and once that is stripped from them they for the perfect people, in the words of Becky “we will take America back”. We see this problem extending not only to the level of a sub culture, but to the state level itself.
A political advisor named Ted Haggard, a hardcore evangelist who has alternate day meetings with George W. Bush . Bush is proclaimed as the savior etc. as was done by placing a dummy of his in front of the children of the camp and they were told to bless the president. We see that a narrow viewpoint is being enforced. Through a long process a justice in the Supreme Court of America is also appointed by Bush who is himself an evangelist. This is a deeply disturbing problem according to the commeter.
Not only this, we see how “Collective Effervescence” is used to create an almost surreal environment for the childrens so that they are effectively indoctrinated. These problems therefore, are highly detrimental because they promote fundamentalism. Not only that, they ultimately destroy free will and promote violence as was demonstrated by the cup breaking ceremony. In conclusion, it can be said that the movie is a faithful depiction of the fundamentalist sub culture and how it can be a negative thing in the modern world.
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