Becky Fischer

Nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 79th Academy Awards, the film brought controversy to the camp which led to its eventual closure.

Jesus Camp is about the Kids on Fire School of Ministry, a charismatic Christian summer camp located just outside Devils Lake, North Dakota and run by Becky Fischer and her ministry, Kids in Ministry International.

The film focuses on three of the children who attended the camp in the summer of 2005—Levi, Rachael, and Tory (Victoria).

The film cuts between footage of the camp and a children's prayer conference held just before the camp at Christ Triumphant Church, a large charismatic church in Lee's Summit, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City.

All three children are already very devout Christians.

Levi has preached several sermons at his father's church, Rock of Ages Church in St. Robert, Missouri.

He is homeschooled, his mother explaining that God did not give her a child just so he could be raised by someone else eight hours a day.

He learns science from books and videos that attempt to reconcile young-earth creationism with scientific principles, and that climate change is mere political speculation.

Levi preaches a sermon at the camp in which he declares that his generation is key to bringing Jesus back.

Rachael, who also attends Levi's church (her father was assistant pastor at the time), is seen praying over a bowling ball during a game early in the film, and evangelizes to strangers, telling them that Jesus loves them.

She does not think highly of non-charismatic churches (or "dead churches" as she calls them), feeling they are not "churches that God likes to go to."

Tory is a member of the Children's Praise Dance Team at Christ Triumphant Church.

She is observed dancing to Christian rock music, and says she has to check herself to make sure she is not "dancing for the flesh."

At the camp, Fischer stresses the need for children to purify themselves in order to be part of the "army of God."

She strongly believes that children need to be in the forefront of turning America toward conservative Christian values.

She also feels that Christians need to focus on training kids since "the enemy" (radical Islam) is focused on training theirs.

She compares the preparation she is giving children with the training of terrorists in the Middle East.

"I want to see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people are to the cause of Islam," she tells the camera.

"I want to see them radically laying down their lives for the gospel, as they are over in Pakistan and Israel and Palestine."

In one scene shot at Christ Triumphant Church, a woman brings a life-sized cutout of George W. Bush to the front of the church and has the children stretch their hands toward him in prayer for him.

In another scene, Fischer rails against Harry Potter, and says that it is a gateway to joining the occult, in an attempt to scare the children into avoiding it.

She argues that if Harry Potter was a real warlock, and lived during the old testament era, that the Jews would have stoned him to death.

In another scene, Lou Engle preaches a message urging children to join the fight to end abortion in America.

Children are shown a series of plastic models of developing fetuses, and have their mouths covered with red tape with "Life" written across it.

Engle is a founder of the Justice House of Prayer and a leader of Harvest International Ministries, a network of charismatic-oriented ministries with which both the church and Fischer's ministry are affiliated.

He prays for Bush to have the strength to appoint "righteous judges" who will overturn Roe v. Wade.

By the end of the sermon, the children are chanting, "Righteous judges! Righteous judges!"

There is also a scene at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado where Ted Haggard preaches a sermon against homosexuality.

Before the service, Levi mentioned how he admired Ted Haggard and was looking forward to meeting him.

After the sermon, Levi informs Haggard that he has already preached sermons and wants to be a preacher when he grows up.

Haggard advises him: "I say, use your cute kid thing until you're thirty, and by then you'll have good content."

Afterward, Levi, Rachael, Tory, their families and several other children take part in a Justice House of Prayer rally held by Engle in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Throughout the movie, there are cut scenes to a debate between Fischer and Mike Papantonio, an attorney and a radio talk-show host for Air America Radio's Ring of Fire.

Papantonio questions Fischer's motives for focusing her ministry efforts on children.

Fischer explains that she does not believe that people are able to choose their belief system once they pass childhood, and that it is important that they be "indoctrinated" in evangelical Christian values from a young age.

Fischer also explains that democracy is flawed and designed to destroy itself "because we have to give everyone equal freedom".

Jesus Camp was screened at Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Festival against the wishes of the distribution company, Magnolia Pictures.

Jesus Camp is a 2006 American documentary film directed by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing about a charismatic Christian summer camp, where children spend their summers being taught that they have "prophetic gifts" and can "take back America for Christ".

According to the distributor, it "doesn't come with any prepackaged point of view" and attempts to be "an honest and impartial depiction of one faction of the evangelical Christian community".

Jesus Camp premiered at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival, and was sold by A&E Indie Films to Magnolia Pictures.