God on My Side

For non-Americans the US Christian Fundamentalists movement (or whatever they call themselves because I think some of them don't like being called fundamentalists) is a fascinating thing to behold. Sort of like visiting an unfamiliar and weird country and being glad you don't live there, but also glad you went.

Andrew Denton is famous in Australia for his interview shows (such as the Money or the Gun, and his current Enough Rope). He is one of the best interviewers I've seen because he gets his guests to talk about the intimate details of their lives, including their flaws, in great depth. He is like a father confessor.

He also has a real knack in letting people explain themselves without judgement. His non-emotive questioning is the trick and he uses it well in this documentary. I already knew a bit about the evangelical movement (although the Rapture was not something I'd heard of until a few years ago) but it is the wonderful explanations that he gets from convention stall holders themselves that is the real treat. The Jews promoting Israel to the Christians (so they can visit where Jesus walked) is amusing, and the European guy trying to be diplomatic about the singularly American Christian beliefs was so amusing it kept a smile on my face well after leaving. Just make sure you sit through the credits to see more footage and a joke from Denton.

A gentle documentary more suited for TV, but well worth wasting an hour and a half on.

Andrew Denton in his inimitable style opens the contrived persona of American fundamentalist protestantism for all to see. Denton has this wonderful, gentle and humane way of asking extremely personal questions of people which they readily answer and only after they see the rushes and have excoriated themselves before the viewing public do they see where their words have led.

True to his intelligence, Denton waits until the end of the film before springing the real scary stuff on us--the stuff about Israel needing to exist before the "end-time" arrives. What an awful alliance or should I rather say an alliance made in heaven, Zionist Israel allied with fundamentalist America. The weirdness of this alliance is articulated by Denton when he points out to an unknowing believer that the Jews cannot be saved according to his Bible because they are not Christians and as such will be among the unsaved at the end-time.

Out of all this religio-philosophy grows the mother of all conspiracy theories and that is, the Fundamentalist Christians are doing all they can do to end the world, as one of Denton's interviewees says, "In my generation". A very strange juxtaposition of religion and reality at the beginning of the new millennium!

Andrew Denton is renown in Australia for his interviewing style. He excels in getting his subjects to reveal incredibly intimate things about themselves without realising what they are doing. He's a very non-threatening and likable person but incredibly intelligent and quick witted. He will often be three or four steps ahead of his interviewee and adjusts the direction of his questions accordingly. I watched this in a batch of religious documentaries which included Bill Maher's Religulous and Richard Dawkins' Enemies of Reason. It's a standout because, unlike the other two, Denton's unassuming nature allows him into the inner sanctum of the religious zealots. At no time throughout any of the interviews does Denton claim to be "of faith", however his subjects all assume he is. He doesn't contradict them but lets them display just how ridiculous the faithful can be. For example when some stall holders want to bless him, he stands there politely taking the blessing. How you come away from viewing this will depend on your faith. If you're a believer you'll see Denton as trying to make fun of religion and the unsuspecting believers. Non believers will be frightened by the dedicated extremism displayed by these normal people.