I recently rented “Jesus Camp,” which is a documentary about a Pentecostal summer youth camp in North Dakota.
During the first few minutes of the movie, Becky Fischer, a fourth generation Pentecostal preacher had my attention. Somehow she lost all creditibility when she started speaking in tongues (and encouraged the kids to do likewise). For the rest of the time with the movie, she and her supporters seemed little more than a bad joke gone wrong.
Critics of the movie charge that Fischer is indoctrinating the kids with a political message way too early. I would tend to agree with them. Preteens don’t need to worry about overturning Roe vs. Wade. And yet throughout the movie they are fed a meal of the Christian Right’s politics with an extra helping of emotionalism thrown in for good measure.
Being familiar with the Christian Right movement, none of the actions in the movie were surprising to me. I had heard or seen this before.
During the movie it was awkward to see a young girl proselyze by making cold calls to people she met on the street. I think her heart was right, but she was going about it the wrong way.
Conversions are made primarily through close relationships and not through door knocking.