DVD Review: “Jesus Camp”

The name of the movie really says a lot. This films takes us inside one of these camps, where a number of Evangelical Christians essentially train their children to be soldiers in God’s army in the upcoming culture war. The issue at hand is treated very respectfully, and the film walks the very fine line between enlightening and ominous. I found the disturbing part not to be the religion itself (they focused on Pentecostals, whose penchant for speaking in tongues I found a bit unnerving), but the political motivations they were trying to accomplish. There was one scene, in which children’s pastor Becky was admiring the religious devotion of Islamic suicide bombers, that reminded me of a line from Lewis Black: “When we lose our sense of humor, we come dangerously close to what we hate about our enemies.” It’s some chilling stuff. The DVD itself contains a handful of deleted scenes and a very informative commentary track from the directors, but little else.