Ever since I had my appendix removed I have been watching a lot of movies, a good thing for the movie buff side of me, but an annoying side to the energetic, ''aggressive excersizer'' (doctor's words) side of me who cannot ride a mountain bike until November. I rewatched some old westerns, laughed at some Arrested Development (albeit painfully, the ol' tummy is still sore), watched Jesus Camp, and have yet to view Curse of the Golden Flower.

There is very little rewarding to say about the experience of watching Jesus Camp. It leaves you feeling slightly nauseated, vehemently perturbed, and immensely apathetic. If you are a Christian in America and watch this movie you come out of it wondering what in God's name are we doing in America.

The movie focuses on the children's ministry of Becky Fischer, interspersed with the radio show of Mike Papantonio, one of the Air America hosts, interviews with homeschoolers and their parents, and a visit to New Life Church to hear Ted Haggard, pre-meth and pre-prostitute. The movie is eerie in an ideological way, you know manipulation is taking place even though you cannot place your finger on it. My wife Sarah squirmed and cringed as much as she has during the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan or the trip-up scene at the end of Hot Fuzz. Yes, squirmed, during a documentary about a Pentacostal children's camp, and there was no blood and no scary moments---only political and religious spin-doctoring to children and adults alike.

This movie made me lose heart completely in the Religious Right of America and the basic aim and tenets of the cause. I objected strongly to the movie equating fanatic Pentecostals to Evangelicals, but the quotes from Ted Haggard support the pairing even if I do not. And he was the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, so what do I know? I know that I no longer ever want to be called an evangelical until the association changes the way they align themselves with the Religious Right. Comments on specific parts of the movie are best left to the individual viewer, and the Papantonio segments provide good counter-point to the aim of the Relgious Right in America.

At least at first glance. In the end, Papantonio's view, as a Christian himself, of an America firmly entrenched in separation of Church and State with a robust liberalism is presented as a preferable option to a quasi-theocracy under Evangelicalism and the Religious Right, but still comes up well short in answering the question of Church and State to begin with. I think the problem for both the Religious Right and the Religious Left is that they make their idol America, but in different ways. The Religious Right conjures up an idyllic America that is ''one nation, under God'' (which in itself is a phrase added to the Pledge in the 1950s as a piece of propoganda during the Cold War) being descended upon by barbarians in the forms of secularism, athiesm, global warming, and evolution. This is an absurd myth. So to is the Religious Left's fascination with a liberal society and all of the watering-down and censoring that unfortunately goes with it.

The Religious Right and the Religious Left, after watching this movie, are shown as both putting America before Christ. My verdict, along with my wife's after discussing this movie, is that Christians need to put their stock and citizenship in the Kingdom of God, and not the kingdom(s) of men. As Paul instructs Timothy in his first letter to him, we are supposed to pray to we are able to lead peaceful and quiet lives pursuing his kingdom. Politicking and protesting should be done for the Kingdom, as Christ did when he turned over the moneychanger's tables, and not for some mythological view of theocracy or Utopia.