Lee Grady is a man of my Acquaintance and an article he just wrote is exactly what I would say. So, read it in full. This is what real evangelism is all about. Then next generation.
Lee Writes:
Jesus Camp is the Oscar-nominated documentary—now on DVD—offers a candid but politically charged portrayal of a brave charismatic lady.
I didn’t have the stomach to see Jesus Camp when it arrived in theaters last year. The controversial documentary had already been labeled “scary” by political liberals and “slanted” by evangelical Christians. But as soon as it made it to DVD I decided to watch it, albeit cautiously, knowing that this is a film about a Christian children’s ministry produced by two women who do not claim to be Christians.
The “star” of this documentary is Becky Fischer, a vivacious charismatic preacher who has served as a children’s pastor since 1991. She allowed producers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (no relation to me!) to film her meetings for a year and to do extensive interviews with children who attended her Families on Fire summer camp in Devil’s Lake, N.D.
This is not the kind of stuff anyone would expect to see in a mainstream movie. The children in Fischer’s meetings speak in tongues, swoon under the power of the Holy Spirit and weep as they ask God to end legalized abortion. They also preach, dance to Christian rock music and witness to strangers in bowling alleys using gospel cartoon booklets.
Becky Fischer has reminded us all that if we are going to bring spiritual change to America we must focus on the next generation.
“Can boys and girls change the world? Absolutely!” Fischer shouts in front of a screaming crowd of elementary school-age kids wearing Christian T-shirts.
Jesus Camp is an uncanny introduction to life in the real world of charismatic faith, captured on film and introduced to an audience of mostly nonreligious Americans who had no idea until now that such people even existed.
Becky Fischer is their worst nightmare. She gives kids hour-long sermons (complete with lots of attention-getting props) about the evils of sin. She denounces Harry Potter by saying, “Warlocks are enemies of God!” And she encourages kids to gather around a cardboard cutout of George W. Bush so they can pray for him. (Some outraged viewers mistakenly thought the kids were worshipping the president.)
At the end of the film some of the children are shown protesting abortion in front of the Supreme Court building in Washington. Their mouths are taped shut to remind passersby that the most innocent victims of abortion can’t speak.
Although Ewing and Grady claim they had no political agenda in making Jesus Camp (they describe the film as “honest” and “impartial”), their overall message implies that evangelical Christians are indoctrinating children to be militant crusaders for the Religious Right. For example, there is footage of a home-schooling mom who tells her son that global warming is a myth. In another scene, charismatic preacher Lou Engle shows kids plastic models of developing fetuses and reminds them that one-third of all their potential friends have been aborted. Some unnecessarily eerie background music subliminally suggests that a conservative conspiracy lurks behind Fischer’s ministry.
Jesus Camp is both sensationalistic and polarizing. Some Christians will love it because it shows 10-year-olds having genuine experiences with God. Other Christians will hate it because they disagree with Fischer’s methods or because they think the children are being manipulated to blindly parrot their parents’ beliefs.
And many nonbelievers will react in outrage when they realize that Christian children are actually taught to oppose evolution and abortion. Yet Fischer reminds viewers that Islamic radicals train children as young as 5 years old to carry weapons. Why, she asks, should Christian children not be trained to spread the gospel?
Some people have criticized Fischer for allowing the filmmakers unlimited access to her ministry. Perhaps she was naïve to do that—but I can’t be the judge. She admits today that she was stunned when she saw the final cut of Jesus Camp and realized how politics had been injected into the script.
“I have never viewed myself as political in any way,” she explains in a statement on her Web site. As a result of negative publicity associated with the film, Fischer was forced to discontinue her summer camp and now stages her ministry events in other venues.
Yet Fischer has refused to denounce the movie and actually encourages people to see it. “For Christians who see the film,” she adds, “I hope they will come away with a new awareness of how dedicated and committed children can be for Jesus Christ when they are given the chance and are seriously discipled in the Christian faith.”
Regardless of what you think of Jesus Camp or of Becky Fischer’s views on speaking in tongues, evangelism or Harry Potter, I believe she deserves our respect and support. She has dedicated her life to training kids to love Christ, and she has reminded us all—with the help of an unusual secular documentary—that if we are going to bring spiritual change to America we must focus on the next generation.
J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma Magazine.
To learn more about Becky Fischer’s ministry, Kids in Ministry International, log on at www.kidsinministry.com
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