As the credits rolled after the documentary film Jesus Camp and the raised eyebrow on my face began to dip south, I started to realized the fundamental flaw in characterizing the film as a documentary. This film is a certified horror movie. Scariest thing I’ve seen all year.

The documentary, by directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, chronicles only a very thin slice of evangelical Christians in the United States. Most of the film focuses on the children’s ministry of one Becky Fischer, who actively evangelizes to children and encourages them to spread the gospel amongst their family, friends and community.

The scene of the film is rather horrific, the number one worst day of the Bush presidency: Sandra Day O’Conner’s announcement that she is stepping down from the Supreme Court. The stage is set for what evangelical Christians consider paramount to their agenda of re-establishing a Christian government in the United States. The cameras then descend on one of Fischer’s children’s conferences where kids are indoctrinated with the Christian faith.

What’s really horrific about this film is the extent that these poor children have been completely mind-warped by this twisted woman. The film revolves around a boy and a girl, Levi and Rachel, who actively press strangers about the Christian fate, even asking one man, “If you died right now, where do you think you’ll go?” At parts in the film, the kids are even encouraged to speak in tongues as adults press their hands on them to encourage the “holy spirit.”

I don’t know where to start with this movie. It’s an excellent documentary and I think the filmmakers were very fair to Fischer and her cause. Even though she has been forced to shut down the “Kids on Fire” summer camp due to negative reaction to the film, she herself has stopped short to condemn the film. She feels the film helps communicate her message of faith and our children to the world. I couldn’t agree with her more, I’m getting her message loud and clear.

She begins the film watching some of the filmmakers raw footage and remarks, “Liberals must be shaking in their boots when they see this!” I wouldn’t label myself a “liberal,” though I was shaking, but not because of my fear of the rising tide of evangelical youth prepared to spread the word or God to the masses. I felt very sorry for these children, who no longer play with action figures and dolls, play in baseball leagues and softball, they are forced to handle more difficult concepts like abortion and culture war in their parent’s and pastor’s despicable plot to impose their political will on this nation.

I am thankful that I never had to experience the kind of spiritual agony these kids must endure. I can’t tell you how many times I could imagine every word through these children’s mouths came from someplace else. They are mindless androids, and denying them the right to learn and make their own decisions is, as one commentator in the film suggests, a mortal sin.

If you’re dying to see this film, please pick it up. But don’t turn the light off…