JESUS CAMP-- HORROR FILM, SERIOUS SOCIOLOGICAL DOCUMENTARY OR DARK COMEDY?

When I asked one of my friends to come see an advance screening of Jesus Camp yesterday, he said he had to catch a plane somewhere. It took a few calls but I finally found someone to go with me, although he warned me that it was a Christian triumphantist movie that he read would be scary. I had been invited by People For the American Way; it couldn't be straight triumphantist.

It almost was. I mean, it's a documentary that follows a few very young kids from middle class homes in Missouri as they go off to get evangelicized brainwashed for the summer with a grotesquely fat lady pastor, one of the film's "stars," who starts the film-- with no sense of irony-- screaming about how Americans are fat and lazy and don't have the strength to fast... like Muslims. She also bemoans the fact that Muslims instill their young with the power to die for their religion.

Clearly psychotic, the movie revolves around this mentally deranged lady, who should be spending time at Weight Watchers group therapy, instead of preparing young children for a life of severe delusionalism who, she hopes, will become suicide bombers for J.C. "I want to see them as radically laying down their lives for the gospel as they are in Palestine, Pakistan and all those different places," says the fat crazy lady. "Because, excuse me, we have the truth."

When she has nothing to say she starts bellowing "in tongues." She encourages the poor kiddies to do the same. The fat lady, by the way, loves the movie and is helping to promote it. Delusional people, obviously, don't realize they are delusional.

The kiddies in this movie are taught to worship George Bush-- or at least a cardboard cut out of him. They are taught to hate abortion. They are consciously brainwashed with a while vocabulary of perversion of the essence of Jesus Christ's message to man. Nowhere in the film is there anything about Christianity, just a lot of hate-filled bullshit about how self-professed "Christians" need to take over the country for J.C. Their enemies are scientists talking about global warming, anyone who favors public education or, of course, legalized abortion.

Last November I wrote about how the Bush Regime was harassing a mainstream Christian church in Pasadena because a guest pastor preached an anti-war sermon. The harassment seems to be turning into full-blown persecution, ironic in light of what comes out about Bush's relationship with the militant Christian right, more a political movement exploiting classic cult dynamics than anything to do with legitimate religion. One of the film's looniest characters is an hysterical, high-ranking, so-called "minister" named Ted Haggard (who consults Bush every Monday). He's more like a Republican ward healer than someone with something to do with Christianity but if there's anything to Jesus Camp and the super-churches like Haggard's sprouting up all over suburban America, this is the "religion" the Republicans want to enforce on America. Haggard, perhaps a mad man, but a powerful one with direct access to Bush, brags in the film that "If the evangelicals vote, they determine every election." A scary, even unlivable, prospect indeed.


UPDATE: SURE THERE ARE RELIGIONIST EXTREMISTS, BUT MOST PEOPLE OF FAITH AND NOT INSANE FASCISTS

Today People For the American Way released a new study based on a survey regarding religion, values and politics. It refutes
refutes some widely held assumptions about how Americans’ religious views and values influence their political behavior. The survey, part of a multi-year research project, was released on the eve of a conference on "values voters" convened by the Family Research Council and featuring a who's who of religionist wingnutia, from neo-Nazis like Ann Coulter and Marilyn Musgrave (KKK-CO) to the kinds of delusional cult leaders in the Jesus Camp documentary (Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Gary Bauer, Don Wildmon), and the hypocrites, scoundrels and political charlatans of the extreme right (Sam Brownback, Mike Pence, Macaca, Sean Hannity, Gingrich and, of course, Bill Bennett).
 
"There's been a lot of talk about values voters, and a lot of that talk is just plain wrong," said Dr. Robert Jones, executive director and senior fellow of the Center for American Values in Public Life.  "Most Americans do not think restricting access to abortion and keeping gay couples from getting married are the most important issues facing voters. When Americans think about voting their values, they're thinking primarily about candidates' honesty and integrity." Uh, oh-- even with Cunningham in prison, Ney and DeLay headed there and investigations on-going for dozens of Republicrooks associated with the Republican one-party state, even values-voters may be forced to think instead of react when they get to the voting booths in November.
 
Even among evangelicals, issues like addressing poverty and providing affordable health care handily trump restricting access to abortion and banning gay marriage.
 
The study claims "that hasty conclusions about the size and permanence of a partisan 'God gap' have been premature. While the most frequent church attenders are still most likely to vote Republican, the gap has shrunk dramatically, and it appears that Democratic candidates have an opportunity to attract majorities of every other group, including weekly worship attenders. 'It is simplistic and inaccurate to suggest Democrats have lost their ability to win support from religious Americans,' said Jones."