I just saw this Documentary film tonight. It was both intensely moving and frustrating. Andrew Denton, an Australian comedian and television interviewer goes to a "christian media convention" in Texas to find out why fundamentalist Christians believe what they do and where faith takes people and to examine the effect of these beliefs on American Political Policy.
As well as walking the floor and interviewing some of the kookier characters, Denton also conducts lenghty interviews with a trio of elderly southern Gentlemen, a hollywood actress, a guy who got religion after becoming so strung out on drugs that he lived in a cave till his wealthy family bailed him out and a cerebal young christian media producer with a PHD in theology.
One thing that stood out to me was that with the exception of the producer all of these people had encountered intense emotional pain in their lives. One of the elderly men for instance was forced to spend 3 days as a young man identifying dead bodies because of an oil refinery accident. When he said that the bodies began to talk to him it was evident that he had probably been suffering from some kind of nervous shock when this happened. The man took it as a spiritual sign and devoted his life to evangelism from that point on. These people were all articulate, sincere and likeable. This is why their completely blind faith and at times whopping bigotry was so immensely maddening. This film is a must see if it ever gets distributed in the US
some reviews are
http://www.smh.com.au/news/film-reviews ... tml?page=2http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=1868
