Jesus Camp

Jesus Camp was both frightening and for some reason intriguing at the same time. I had always known there were extremist religious groups even in the United States but I have never really experienced them first hand or seen an inside look into what makes them so threatening to society. I think this film is a great insight into the evangelical Christians in the United States and captured their true nature and beliefs without over-dramatizing their story through the documentary format. The film did a great job of telling their story through the members of the religious group and only having one contrasting character to their beliefs in the form of a radio show host. I found this to be a good contrasting character to the group because he was not trying to act as if he was an expert in in politics of religious studies, he was merely speaking for society as a whole and questioning the acts and beliefs of a group not many people understand and that many people find dangerous. I found many of the members of the church very compelling as well. The kids all had very interesting personalities and motivations. I felt bad for them in a way because their parents or role models were pushing this religious belief system on them subconsciously against their will. The follow-up article detailing what happened to many of the characters was not as surprising or insightful as I would have thought. I assumed that most of the people involved in the film would end up worse off in the future and maybe have some kind of crisis due to the impact of the religion. The article did not go into as much detail as I would have liked but it played out similar to how I would have thought, one of the kids broke away from the group, one kid ended up continuing to be a part of the group, and the leader of the camp is still involved although has faced many hardships. I expected more dramatic outcomes for these people but their stories still do not surprise me. As far as Becky Fischer, the leader of the camp, is concerned, her story is still slightly tragic and I almost feel pity for her. She did not follow up with reporters after the film but it was revealed that due to the success of the film, her camp was vandalized and she could no longer rent the camp grounds. I almost feel pity because this was her life goal but then I think about what she was doing there and the destruction was inevitable. I think the best way to sum up the story is a quote made by one of the directors of the film: "it made me realize the far left and far right have a lot in common". I guess in a way there is just as dangerous of a group acting on the other side of the coin as well.