In scenes from the documentary Jesus Camp (left to right), children bless a cutout of George W Bush, 9-year-old Tori praises God with dance, and Becky Fischer challenges the kids.
In America, evangelicals are developing a reputation for manipulation and power games. Could the same thing happen here in Britain? Liz Hogarth reports...
The Oscar-nominated documentary Jesus Camp claims to be a nonjudgemental fly-on-the-wall look at a Christian camp for children at Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, where children as young as 6 are asked to bless a cardboard cut-out of George W Bush to give him spiritual strength. "Mr President, one nation under God," they cry together.
The film also features an anti-abortion campaigner who hands out detailed models of foetuses, reducing some of the children to tears. The organiser of the camp, Becky Fischer, claims it is good to "indoctrinate" her young charges. Ted Haggard, the disgraced former leader of the National Association of Evangelicals and former confidant of George W Bush, also features in the film. He says to camera, "If the evangelicals vote, they determine the election."
The Alliance's Head of Theology, Justin Thacker, says, "From my perspective there are two things, at least, that I found disturbing about the film. One is Ms Fischer's statement that it's OK to indoctrinate children. The second is the way the children are being influenced to support one particular political party."
Doing God
Despite reservations about Jesus Camp from evangelicals on both sides of the Atlantic, secular reviewers may see the film as a worrying precursor of what might happen in Britain. This would not just be the opening of a similar religious camp, but also in terms of a fundamentalist "evangelical" movement gaining a strong foothold in British politics. Is it possible that Gordon Brown would start to "do God" at the behest of a restless evangelical constituency?
To answer that question it is important to examine the so-called Religious Right in the US, the real targets of Jesus Camp. Guardian journalist Stephen Bates has recently produced a well-researched and entertaining book on this very subject: God's Own Country - Tales from the Bible Belt. Bates, not overly sympathetic to evangelicals, contends that large areas of policy have fallen under the sway of conservative evangelicals under Bush. This may be a bit of an exaggeration, but there is no denying the extensive influence and access of Christians who campaign on largely moral issues and champion the Republican Party cause.
The reasons for their perceived success are fairly simple. Firstly, there are far more active Christians in the US than in the UK. Some 79 per cent of the estimated 26.5 million American evangelicals voted to re-elect George W Bush, making it very much worth the while of Republicans to woo their vote.
In addition, the Religious Right is well organised, cohesive and has a constituency that appears to be guided by its leaders. Elizabeth Berridge, director of the UK’s Conservative Christian Fellowship, says, "We have much to learn from them in terms of making the Christian voice more co-ordinated, but it is not a model we would choose to follow. [The Religious Right] pigeonholes Christianity into certain moral issues, and our engagement should be much broader."
Her opposite number, Andrew Bradstock, director of the Christian Socialist Movement, comments, "George W Bush is a Christian, and it might be thought that Christians should automatically support him. I would beg to differ, for in many of his policies Bush appears to fly in the face of biblical notions of social justice and prioritising the poor."
A broader focus
It should be noted, however, that there are indications that a new generation of evangelical believers in the US are looking beyond the Religious Right and its leaders Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, and trying to broaden the focus to include issues of social and economic justice.
Is it possible that Gordon Brown would start to "do God" at the behest of a restless evangelical constituency?
Here in the UK, the likelihood of evangelical Christians banding together to vote for one party is still a long way off, particularly as Christian groups and denominations make a point of not telling people how to vote.
Alistair Burt, Conservative MP for North East Bedfordshire and Shadow Minister for Local Government and Regeneration, is a committed Christian and member of the Alliance's Council. He would definitely not support the idea that one political party has a special relationship with God, saying, "We all have our good points and our flaws." He is also unable to envisage a time when Christians might throw their weight behind one party, as MPs currently have a free vote on many moral issues.
In terms of evangelical influence he admits that the evangelical and even the wider Christian vote is "pretty marginal" and in most MPs' constituencies "hardly ripples on the index, which is sad because it deserves to be better listened to".
The Alliance's Head of Public Affairs, Don Horrocks, claims that one reason for this marginality is that evangelicals don't have an overt political agenda. "The Christian People's Alliance, for example, does put forward specifically religious candidates, but their share of the vote is very small. Historically and culturally America has grown up in a very different way. American Christians are simply much more patriotic and, with reference to Jesus Camp, that also affects how they view their president."
Although UK evangelicals have limited influence, those within the Church of England do have outlets their US counterparts might envy. "In Britain we have constitutional links between Church and State, so there are bishops in the House of Lords, a monarch who is the defender of the faith and an Archbishop who has scheduled meetings with the Prime Minister," says Horrocks. "Having said that, there are many Christians who see the links between Church and State as an anachronism."
A high-profile stand
Interestingly, the Archbishop of Canterbury recently gave an interview in which he said that the Church of England intends to take a far more high-profile stand on moral issues, such as abortion, than it has in recent years.
However, it still seems unlikely that much will change, or that Gordon Brown will start publicising his faith. Bradstock describes Brown's faith as "reserved", and says it will be shown in his actions, such as his commitment to easing the burden of debt in the developing world.
So the simple answer seems to be that a politicised Kids on Fire Camp, as shown in the documentary, is unlikely to be replicated here in Britain. However, that won’t stop reviewers using the words "evangelical" and "fundamentalist" in the same breath to describe the main protagonists of the film.
But there are crucial differences between the two. "In simple terms, fundamentalists tend to make their interpretation of Scripture the ultimate authority," Thacker concludes. "For evangelicals, Jesus alone is Lord, and the only authority is Scripture - not our imperfect understanding of it."
- Jesus Camp has a limited UK release on 23 November
