I've known about this movie for some time, yet I've avoided watching it.  However, after being asked to respond to it by one of the more outspoken atheists on iThink, I knew that I needed to just get it over with.

Funny how we put off things that we know we ought to do, but don't want to do because of the evaluation process that will likely spring from it.  It's simpler not to have to think about certain things, to re-examine our own choices and preferences in the light of a very different, but not necessarily incompatible or incorrect, set of choices and preferences.  I think that subconsciously I knew that I would end up challenged and threatened by this film, yet still called to embrace the people in it as brothers and sisters in Christ, even if I have disagreements on doctrinal and applicational issues.

My tradition of faith is Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS).  Affectionately referred to by some within and outside our confessional polity as God's "frozen chosen" - a reference to our stronghold of support in the upper midwest, & the colder climates of Europe, as well as our dearth of emotional expression in worship.  And in about every other situation as well.  The faith tradition was launched by Martin Luther in the early 16th century in Germany.  Lutherans have been heavily influenced and affected by the more stoic lack of expression characteristic of some Germans, Scandinavians, Swedes, etc.  We lack the warm-weather infusion of emotion more common to the Italians or even the French.  We lean towards intellectual rather than emotional expression. 

Jesus Camp is challenging in that it focuses on the polar opposite of our denomination in terms of worship experience.  The Pentecostal & Holiness traditions that emerged in the latter 19th century and early 20th century focus heavily on emotional expression rather than rigorous doctrinal thinking.  This movie highlights this distinction - not that these people are necessarily stupid, it's just that for them, the life of faith is an emotional experience as well as a spiritual conviction.  I think many would be inclined to say that a life of faith without emotional experience and expression is in grave danger of not actually being a life of faith.  For our part, the LCMS tends to view these groups with a skeptical eye at best.  We poo-poo the lack of intellectual discipline and doctrinal emphasis in their circles.  Their emotional outburts leave us bewildered at an almost genetic level.  Their often-times legalistic insistence on signs & manifestations of the Spirit's activity strikes us as a dangerous return towards the slavery of the Law that the Apostle Paul so joyously and emphatically celebrates our freedom from in Jesus Christ. 

LCMS Lutherans and the holiness movements tend to avoid each other with great suspicion, wary of completely dismissing the other as un-Christian, but seriously concerned that this might actually be the case.

So this movie was good for me.  Which is undoubtedly why I was avoiding watching it.

I watched it with three voices running through my head.  There was the LCMS born & raised voice that spent most of the movie wanting to run away screaming at all the unfamiliar behavior and attitudes and theology.  There was the Biblical voice, which attempted to compare what was said and done with Scripture, and which by and large found that these people can't be completely written off as unScriptural - they have a great deal of respect and love and familiarity with Scripture, even if they choose to emphasize and embody it in ways that are different and at times even theologically incorrect.  And finally, the third voice was that of the people I interact with on iThink.  People who don't get Christianity.  At all.  People who at one time *did* get Christianity, and were really hurt or burned or disappointed by it, and now are bitter and hurt and angry at it.  People that this movie must - as one of the main characters says near the end - must scare the dickens out of, to think that there are people who believe these things in such a radical and impassioned sense. 

These voices will be talking with one another for quite some time as they sort through the movie.  I'll share those conversations and conclusions as they shake out.  In the meantime, I strongly encourage you to go and rent this movie.  If you're a Christian, I think it's important to watch this movie.  If you're not a Christian, I think it's useful to watch this movie.  The directors do a pretty good job of just letting the people speak for themselves, in their own words, without much editorializing or counter-preaching.  It seems clear the directors don't share the convictions of these people.  But they made an honest effort to try and portray these people accurately - for better and worse.