reviewed by Kevin Murphy 

"Shocking."  "Scary."  "The first horror documentary."

Liberal voices have liberally applied hyperboles to Jesus Camp, the 2006 film documenting an evangelical Christian youth camp. Earlier this year it earned an Academy Award nomination—one of a handful of other "incredibly depressing" films, as Jerry Seinfeld quipped at the awards ceremony.

It should come as no surprise that people are surprised by what they see.  The documentary does, after all, depict an extremist slice of religious Americana.  As a moderate Catholic, however, it’s frustrating to be clumped into the same group as these loud Bible-thumpers. The uninformed moviegoer, watching some peculiar group of charismats speaking in tongues and declaring war on Islam, may be inclined to assume that just about anyone who goes to church is equally radical. (Numerous critics have given evidence of this unfortunate tendency.)

Allow me to state the obvious: Extremism will be found in almost any belief system or culture, from Islam to government (e.g., communism) to American society. Coupled with audiences that flock to shock, you have a recipe for successful movies like American History X or Super Size Me, or TV programs like Real TV. Network news shows scrambling to broadcast videos from the latest school shooting and publishers vying for "controversial" blockbusters like Sam Harris’ The End of Faith, the bestselling manifesto of dogmatic atheism, are siimilar cases in different media.

While it is important to educate the public about the dangers of this or that form of extremism, the dramatization of such cases, even as a documentary, can prove a double-edged sword.  A film like Jesus Camp may bring to our attention important issues in a cogent, albeit sometimes sensationalized way, or it may serve as little more than a form of propaganda relying on an audience that too often fails to utilize basic critical thinking skills while they’re watching. Too many viewers, it seems, base their views of an "other" culture based on carefully edited and selected pictures and words, and in the end draw blanket conclusions at the expense of a far different, and quieter, majority.  God knows Christians can be every bit as guilty of this as anyone else.

Pressed at the unfairness of filming only a radical slice of evangelical life, the filmmakers argued that it would have been impossible to cover the spectrum of evangelical Christianity.  And, "What makes a good, intriguing film?" they ask.  I admit, I was captivated the entire hour and twenty minutes. While I think calling the film "the first horror documentary" is a bit melodramatic, there were some unsettling scenes. In one, Pastor Becky Fisher warns the children about Harry Potter: "Warlocks are enemies of God …. Had it been in the Old Testament, Harry Potter would have been put to death!"

In another scene, Pastor Fisher tells of Islamic training camps, describing Muslim children as young as five that are recruited to serve for Allah. Thereupon follows images of Christian boys dressed up in Army fatigues and makeup, acting as "soldiers for the Lord"—children whom Fisher claims are "so usable in Christianity." The irony is thick, disturbing, and embarrassing to fellow Christians. (Later, concluding one of several anti-Islam rants, Becky Fisher raises her hand and cries, "This means war!" The conclusion to be drawn is obvious: extreme Islam, extreme Christianity (Islam…Christianity…?)…what’s the diff…?

Many of us have seen the movie’s preview, featuring a child in tears, hands clasped, repentant and bearing the weight of some immense guilt. There are several instances of this sort of thing in the film, and it is strange to witness such deep-seated emotions pouring from an eleven-year old.  Whether it is genuine guilt, or a form of psychological role-playing on the part of suggestible children hoping to please the adults in their lives, it is difficult to say. Either way, it certainly doesn’t strike me as the sort of thing Jesus would have any of his followers do. 

No doubt, Jesus Camp raises important ethical questions, and serves as a reminder to all adults, who are responsible for children, of the need to assess the form as well as the content of the religious education being offered to their kids. .

The film was engrossing.  I would even say I liked it. It captured, very effectively, a unique cast of "characters"—some likable and empathetic, others hypocritical, but all claiming to serve the Lord in whom they have a deep-seated faith.

In spite of the filmmakers’ debatable claims of objectivity and even-handedness—in their favor, Pastor Becky Fisher herself approved of the film—the film doesn’t forward the secular public’s increasingly "challenged" understanding of Christianity, either in theory or in praxis.  For a believer, Jesus Camp will at times strike one as alternately compassionate and demonizing. Secularists viewing the film, however, are very likely, like Rosie O’Donnell, to draw from it a disturbing correlation between evangelicalism and the terrorist sects of Islam, and that’s neither fortunate nor fair.

Just how many people, one can’t resist asking, have died today—this month, this decade—in terrorist attacks perpetrated in the name of Christianity?

Anti-Catholic, Documentary | 1 Comment »

directed by Roberto Rossellini

reviewed by John Murphy

"St. Francis is the mirror of Christ rather as the moon is the mirror of the sun. The moon is much smaller than the sun, but it is also much nearer to us; and being less vivid it is more visible."

— G.K. Chesterton, St. Francis of Assisi

The Flowers of St. Francis is a lovely little film directed by the great Italian neo-realist, Roberto Rossellini, and co-written by—wait for it!—Federico Fellini. A collaboration between cinema’s pre-eminent neo-realist and its pre-eminent surrealist should pique the curiosity of any cinephile, while devotees of St. Francis, arguably the Church’s most enduringly popular saint, will find much to enjoy in this simple, touching film.

Told in a series of vignettes that echo Christ’s parables, The Flowers of St. Francis captures something of the whimsy of Francis’ ministry. He remains one of the most accessible and benevolent of the long litany saints in the Catholic tradition, at least in part because Francis felt the joy of faith, even in times of trial and hardship. A scene in the
film neatly summarizes his attitude; one of Francis’ followers asks him, what is perfect happiness? After seeking alms from an oafish homeowner, Francis and his follower proceed to be beaten, verbally abused, and tossed out into the mud and snow. This is perfect happiness, Francis tells his friend, to suffer in the name of Christ.    

Any movie about a saint risks over-piety, risks turning a human person into a sacrosanct object, as if the saint’s blinding nimbus casts in shadow any individual features. That’s certainly not how Francis saw himself, and it’s not how he’s portrayed in the film. Rossellini and Fellini approach their subject with love, which is not exactly the same as reverence. The brothers (who were all played by members of the Franciscan order) laugh, make fools of themselves, joke with each other—but the effect is always familial, always in the spirit of love and charity.

There are moments of darkness and light in The Flowers of St. Francis, a narrative chiaroscuro that reflects the constant struggle and tension of modeling one’s life on Christ. There are sequences of physical comedy (poor Brother Ginepro being tossed around like a rag doll by a band of marauders) that wouldn’t seem out-of-place in a
Chaplin film. Then there are passages of powerful simplicity and pathos, such as Francis’  encounter with a leper in a desolate field on a dark night, that remind the viewer that love must first conquer fear. Faith is alive in this film, and it’s not always easy.  

The main lesson I drew from this moving treatment of Francis’ ministry is that faith is to be lived. Francis, with grace and love, made his life a beautiful prayer for God. He praised God by praising His creation. This film, like the subject that inspired it, feels like the fruit of that love. 

Note: Martin Scorsese, no cinematic lightweight, wrote an insightful "personal appreciation" for the 2005 DVD release of The Flowers of St. Francis. I’ll let il maestro speak, as he is a more reliable authority than yours truly:

"What Rossellini did, with such grace and such apparent ease, was to make a movie about a group of men for whom existence is a neverending struggle — a struggle to be good, a struggle to stay true to the word of God. At times, the struggle becomes comic, and I still marvel at Rossellini’s daring in these scenes — the way Francis and his brethren jump through the puddles, or the cooking of the soup, which wouldn’t be out of place in a Laurel and Hardy short. Of course, it’s all done in a very loving  manner, and that’s why it is at once so magical and so true. We’re all ridiculous at times — even those of us who are declared saints."   

Religious, Saints | No Comments »