As a movie, I thought it was only mediocre. It was unfocused and could've used a better editor. There were a lot of things in there that could've been cut to make a tighter, more focused, and more powerful package. There are far better documentaries out there. I would not recommend this to anyone who does not already have a considerable interest in the subject matter. As someone who ministers to children, I found the subject matter fascinating.

Despite the fact that the film makers were largely setting out to discredit Christian children's ministry, the film had the opposite effect for me. The faith that a lot of these kids had was very inspiring. I question to what extent the faith of these children was founded on emotionalism. Certainly, that is all there was to the faith of some of these children, but with others it is clear that they had a genuine relationship with God. The boy with the mullet was the clearest example of a child who seemed to have a genuine relationship with God. If he keeps going the way he's been going, I can see that kid growing up to be a powerful general in God's army. But those who founded their faith on emotionalism alone are bound to run into problems when life throws them curve balls.

The film was actually very inspiring to me and I got a lot from it. I don't agree with the way a lot of the things were done by the camp, but there was also a lot there that was good and we can learn from and put to good use.

I wish they would do a followup some years from now. I'd love to see a "where are they now?" for some of these kids.


Were the kids being indoctrinated? That depends on what you mean by that. Were they being taught doctrine? well, yes. So, by definition they were being indoctrinated. But that's not a bad thing. I would hope that all Christian parents indoctrinate their children.

Were they being brainwashed? No, at least not in what I saw.

Could they have been taught to think more critically instead of just accepting everything? Yes. Besides the emotionalism and the injecting of partisan politics, I'd say this is the third biggest problem I had with their style. Children were not encouraged to think their way to the answer, they were simply told it. But then again, we don't know that for sure because we only saw a tiny fraction of the camp. We know other things went on in camp because the lady that runs it talks about the object lessons she will be using and the crafts the kids would be making, but we don't get to see any of that. It's very likely that the more conversational aspects of camp; the small group activities where kids get to talk back and not just listen, were the parts where they were encouraged to think and we just weren't allowed to see that by the film makers. All we got to see was the corporate worship/sermon portion, and not whatever went on during small group times, craft times, etc. So, perhaps critical thinking was encouraged in the other 95% of camp we didn't get to see.

Overall, I recommend this movie to people with an interest in this topic (which probably includes a lot of us here). But for the general viewer, I say skip it. It's just a mediocre documentary. Go rent a good documentary like Mad Hot Ballroom or Born into Brothels instead.