LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY starstealingirl)

I finally got a chance to drop by the theater after work tonight to see Jesus Camp. I'm quite tired after a long day, so this entry might be somewhat disjointed, but I couldn't get to sleep without jotting down and sharing a few thoughts about the film.

I have to say, I was unimpressed by the film. I'm not sure what point the filmmakers were trying to make regarding this camp and the evangelical Dominionist movement in general-- hell, after reading interviews, I'm not sure they know what point they were trying to make-- but while I personally found parts of the movie disturbing, I felt that the filmmakers failed to create any kind of emotional common ground to tie the varying threads of the film together.

In particular, while I am glad that the directors felt the need to include a dissenting voice such as Mike Papantonio's to the film, I think that it was not the right dissenting voice to include. Papantonio's fears about rising Dominionism are (as this community has pointed out again and again) well-founded, but his emotionally detached proclamations about the erosion of the separation of church and state fail to get at the question that, I think, most viewers of this film are asking: What about the children?

Indeed, what about them? Are they being brainwashed, or abused? Having been raised in an evangelical megachurch (if a somewhat less scary one), my question as I watched the film was: where will these kids be in ten to twenty years? Some of them will, no doubt, become fully indoctrinated by their church-- and what will be the political and psychological impact of that? And what about the ones who aren't? What about the ones who can't let go of their doubts or their sense of cognitive dissonance? What about the ones who, feeling the constant pressure to have louder and more intense experiences in church, as well as the everpresent burden of their (real or imagined) sins, eventually burn out emotionally? They are the walking wounded. Is the journey they go through to leave that environment more, less, or equally tragic than the emotional trajectory of the ones who swallowed everything they were taught?

That's what this movie should have addressed, and I think the filmmakers should have made a greater effort to answer them. I think the adults interviewed in the film should have been asked more questions about their own childhood religious upbringing-- that the viewer should have had a greater glimpse at how Dominionists indoctrinated from a young age grow into adulthood. More importantly, I think that this movie would have tied together better, and been more emotionally effective, if the dissenting voice(s) came not from a political commentator, but from people who have walked away from similar religious upbringings.

Now, if you'll permit me to use the movie as a jumping-off place for rampant generalization: I think the emotional woodenness of much of this film is reflected in the greater cultural/political debate where Domionism is concerned. Papantonio responds to the fervor of the religious right with indignance and with facts-- and I think that, as a whole, liberal-types who are concerned about Domionism favor this approach as well. But Papantonio's indignance seems like too little in the face of these incredibly intense scenes of children with tears in their eyes, bodies shaking with emotion. Dominionists and their ilk are not interested in facts, because they feel they have something greater: they have community, and meaning, and specialized language/unifying metaphors to bring them together. I think that we who oppose Dominionism have yet to answer the emotional intensity of their movement with a strong emotional appeal of our own-- and until we do, we cannot reclaim the political and rhetorical ground we have lost. As far as language goes, "separation of church and state" cannot compete with "the great war of good and evil against Satan"-- although "freedom of religion/freedom of expression" might. It is, in fact, important to know your shit, but mere facts are not nearly enough.

And in seeing Jesus Camp, it's obvious that there is a lot of emotional ground to cover, if one does it correctly. Let's not let Dominionsts be the only ones to ask, "What about the children?"