Becky Fischer is the Pentecostal preacher featured in the film Jesus Camp which will be released next Tuesday on DVD.
Technorati Tags: Say What?!?
In case you haven’t seen the movie, it is a documentary that focuses on Pastor Fischer and her main ministry called Kids in Ministry International which runs a “Kid’s On Fire Camp” located right outside of Bismark, North Dakota. It presents the ministry as a sort of “Hitler-youth” brain washing camp, and, sadly, it seems to live up to the documentarian’s representation. I was frightened when I saw the movie. Had I not known going into the movie that it was an actual documentary, I would have said that this was Christopher Guest’s best to date. Yet, in post-release interviews, Fischer is quoted as saying that she was happy in the way that it turned out because it was a fair representation of her ministry. Of her ministry, perhaps. Of what authentic Christianity should look like, not even close.
In honor of the upcoming DVD release, Becky is this week’s winner.
It’s no wonder, with that kind of intense training and discipling, that those young people are ready to kill themselves for the cause of Islam. I wanna see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people are to the cause of Islam. I wanna see them as radically laying down their lives for the Gospel as they are over in Pakistan and Israel and Palestine and all those different places, you know, because we have… excuse me, but we have the truth
I guess I understand what she is saying: that people should be passionate about Christ. Agreed.
But to juxtapose this passion to the Islamic extremists is, I believe, going way to0 far. The entire movie is built up on this “war” mentality. There are the “good and righteous” Christians who “have the truth” and the rest of the world who either need to join in on our side of the “war” or stand the risk of being part of the rubble caused by our political, ethical, moral, and religious rabble-rousing.
While I believe that we are in the midst of a war, I am also well aware of St. Paul saying that we battle not against flesh and blood. Apparently, Fischer does.
This is a clear example of the idea of a “sacred/secular” split brought to its necessary (though unfortunate) conclusion.
We should be calling for peace and Fischer is calling for war. We should be calling for forgiveness and Fischer is calling for demonizing unbelievers. We should be calling for love and Fischer is calling for a “righteous hatred.”
“The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” ~ St. James
In the same way that Auschwitz totally destroyed modernity and the modern project in the social realm, I hope that this movie totally destroys modernity and the modern project in the religious realm….because, as this movie shows, it still exists.
