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Meet the six-year-olds of God’s army willing to die for Jesus
5th October 2006, 7:00 WST
 They
cheer when asked if they would give their lives for Jesus, pray over
a cardboard cut-out of US President George Bush and sob as they
plead for an end to abortion. And they are as young as six.
The children are the subject of an
incendiary new film about a Christian fundamentalist Bible camp in
North Dakota in which the youngest members of the community are
urged to become members of “God’s army” to “take back America for
Christ”.
“This is war! Are you part of it or
not?” screams the camp’s founder Pastor Becky Fischer, who believes
the only way to prevent America from falling into the hands of Satan
is through indoctrination.
Not surprisingly, the documentary,
Jesus Camp, has whipped up a storm of controversy in the US.
It has split the Christian
community, drawn the condemnation of leaders of the country’s
millions of evangelicals and shocked liberals already worried about
the growing influence of religion on politics.
They particularly fear Pastor
Fischer’s determination to inject her young acolytes with the same
kind of religious fervour as their Muslim counterparts in the Middle
East.
“I want to see young people who are
as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people are to
the cause of Islam,” she says in the film. “I want to see them as
radically laying down their lives for the gospel as they are in
Pakistan and Israel and Palestine and all those different places
because, excuse me, we have the truth.”
The fantasies of J.K. Rowling are
banned at the Kids on Fire Summer Camp. “Had he been in the Old
Testament, Harry Potter would have been put to death,” Pastor
Fischer declares in the film.
Canon Frank Sheehan, of the Centre
of Ethics at Christ Church Grammar School in Perth, said he was
disturbed by the religious extremism depicted in Jesus Camp.
“We need to be concerned by the
literalism that pervades a lot of American religious thinking. It’s
so dumb,” Canon Sheehan said. “Many fundamentalists use the language
of spiritual warfare and talk about victory and crusades. This comes
from an unsophisticated view of the Old Testament. I think it is
important to note that many evangelicals are not fundamentalists.
You can love the Bible without distorting it by taking all of it
literally.”
Canon Sheehan argues that religion
has always been manipulated and exploited by violent people,
especially in a nervous, post 9/11 world. “We need vigilance on the
part of those who are entrusted with religious authority. But the
rest of us need to promote moderation and inclusiveness,” he said.
Coincidentally, television
personality Andrew Denton has also made a documentary, On God’s
Side, about the connection between religion and politics in the US.
It premiered at the Sydney Film Festival and is due to open in
cinemas next month.
Pastor Fischer was initially
horrified when she saw the way in which she and her camp, which
curiously is located on Devil’s Lake, had been portrayed in the
documentary. But she is unrepentant and happy to take part in the
film’s promotion.
“I couldn’t have paid for this kind
of advertising,” she said.
No date has been set on the
Australian release of Jesus Camp.
Mark Naglazas, Movie Editor
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=29&ContentID=8718
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