If there was ever a person that could use a trip down to the amazon river or outback, or Antartica, with little to no provisions, and videotape her demise...it would be Becky Fischer. She's the focal point of this disturbing and dark documentary about that Little America that people either ignore or don't take very seriously. And that would be the evangelical movement.
Children whose ages range from around 5 or 6 to 11 or 12 gather every summer for "Kids on Fire", a Bible camp up in North Dakota, run by Fischer, whose sole purpose is to raise an Army for God, using children. After all, as she says, the "enemy" (being Muslims), is doing this all the time and is "winning the race" of bringing up these fundamentalist radicals. They put weaponry in children's hands at the age of 5. Now, Fischer luckily isn't at that point (yet) but she sure doesn't sound too opposed to it.
I can't imagine any REAL Christian watch this film and not be turned on by her antics; after all, the film also revolves around a moderate Christian radio DJ who eventually has her on his show, and is completely bewildered by her agenda and her unapologetic dogma. He uses the key word "indoctrinate" instead of "teach", which she doesn't seem to deny doing.
These are Pentecostal evangelicals, and I'm not sure if others do this, but this is the kind of religion where there is the whole speaking-in-tongues routine, and it is absolutely heart wrenching to see these little children cry and sob and speak in these tongues. The film does pick a few children to focus on, and it's really sad to see how brainwashed these kids are, and how it's not just the belief in God that drives them--but this agenda that people like Becky Fischer has put forth, to start some kind of...religious war.
The film does a fantastic job of not telling you how to feel about what you're watching. There is no narration; there are a few statistics thrown out at various times, but mostly you are simply watching "Kids on Fire" as if you were attending it yourself.
It's funny to me that this movie lost out to Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" for the Oscar for Best Documentary, because this movie was a true documentary, and stuck to facts and exposing truth in a "journalistic" way, and not making themselves the story.
I think this is a good film for Christians to see as well. I think it opens your eyes, and shows you a world of hate, judgment, and intolerance, rather than peace and love. And the worst part is, these are children who will grow up never appreciating childhood, nor will they be happy as adults because their sole purpose is to recruit and conquer. That's certainly not what Jesus intended, nor was it God's idea. This is simply man taking advantage of faith once again, and making it harder and harder for people to believe religion is anything more than an institution of power and despotism.
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