The scale of their power doesn't hinge on their ability to reason, it hinges on their numbers and their conviction. Earlier one of the boys had mentioned 80 million americans fall into this category.
The idea that the movie sabotages itself in some way because it shows the threat as being based in irrationality makes no sense to me. (For the record I haven't seen the movie).
Where it truly sabotages itself and shows its propagandic colors relates to how they paint those 80 million with a broad brush. In his review, Adam said:
“I think that anybody who argues that this film is blatantly anti-Evangelical propaganda saw a different movie than I did.”
I saw a different movie than Adam did.
I would agree that the filmmakers definitely want to appear impartial, but they clearly are not; the tonal choices alone -- the music especially -- clearly show their hand, as Sam and Adam discussed. I have to commend both of them highly for not being as blind as most critics were, the majority of which not only praised
Jesus Camp but described it as “objective” and “impartial”. Please.
I have no qualms with the actual footage shown, or even how it’s cobbled together (for the most part). It is what it is, and any Evangelical who thinks and acts like Becky Fisher and her clan would do well to watch this film; it may be the first time in their lives they’ve been able to, in a sense, objectively view their own conduct. (My heart sank as I watched those kids.) It may make them truly self-aware in ways they haven’t been before, and at the end of that process honestly ask themselves “Is this life and world-view really imitating Jesus?” And if that happens, then the filmmakers truly have done a good service.
All that said, this is propaganda, and is explicitly so for one reason: the on-screen statistics.
Ewing and Grady carefully cite and place numerical statistics about American Evangelicals throughout the film. They continually juxtapose these statistics about the very broad Evangelical culture up against what takes place at one specific camp, thus implying that all evangelicals act, think and believe like this. This isn’t just crassly manipulative; it’s intellectually bankrupt.
An example (from memory): one home-schooling mother states her own personal views ("science doesn't prove anything") and then the film shows the statistic "75% of all home-school families are Evangelical", thus implying that all Evangelical home-schooling parents believe and act just like this one mother does. This is stereotyping of
the grossest order, and the film does this again and again and again.
It is the equivalent of showing an African-American gang committing violence and then showing a statistic "There are over 40,000,000 Black people in America today." In essence, what
Jesus Camp does is more commonly known as propaganda. Leni Riefenstahl would be proud.
Just like any minority or sub-culture the Evangelical community is diverse, ranging from people like Becky Fisher to, yes, the National Association of Evangelicals that has long been a pro-environment advocate that has directly challenged the Bush administration about its policies as well as also challenging them on issues of torture. Differences in the Evangelical culture have become more public within the last couple of years as old-school leaders like Dobson and Falwell have famously clashed with more progressive minded -- and influential -- Evangelical leaders like Rick Warren (who indeed is not only representative of a huge segment of Evangelicalism but is also radically different from radicals like Becky Fisher).
Ewing and Grady’s fear-mongering would have you believe otherwise, and the tactics they use to do it have long been condemned when used against any other minority or group. So, too, should they be condemned here.