But there's little said in the mainstream media about Evangelicals - unless it's about their political clout, which these days is mighty and frequently wielded. That's in part because the Evangelical movement is strongest in the nation's midsection, while the major media are consolidated on the coasts.

But two New York-based filmmakers, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, ventured into the Evangelical movement and came out of it with "Jesus Camp," a thought-provoking documentary about some of the youngest members of that movement. (The movie opens Friday at the Broadway Centre Cinemas.)

Ewing and Grady last made the documentary "The Boys of Baraka," and it was an 11-year-old preacher in that film who sparked the filmmakers' interest in children of deep religious devotion.

"We found a lot of children's ministries among the Evangelicals," Ewing said in a phone interview this week. "And Becky Fischer's name came up."

Fischer, the director of Kids in Ministry International, operates a weeklong summer camp in North Dakota dedicated, as her Web site says, "to impart vision to children and adults of how God sees children as his partners in ministry worldwide."

Ewing said that when she and Grady contacted Fischer, "she didn't seem surprised at all. She said she always knew or suspected someone would come up one day."

Ewing and Grady filmed for the week at Fischer's camp and profiled three Missouri kids who attended. Ewing said she was struck by how fundamentally decent the kids were.

"The kids are obedient and very articulate and respectful of their parents, and are compassionate and not obsessed with popular culture," Ewing said. "They don't seem to have flimsy morals."

In the film, Fischer contrasts her intense ministry to the indoctrination she says takes place in Muslim children - and the camp scenes leave open the question whether these Evangelical children are being similarly indoctrinated.

"You can say that they're being indoctrinated, that they are being homeschooled and cut off from the world," Ewing said. "But you also have to say that they are beautiful, sweet, kind children. And I don't think that's a coincidence."

Reactions to the movie "are so mixed and varied, our heads are spinning," Ewing said.

Fischer, on her Web site, writes that she likes the film "with reservations" - and she is using her exposure in the film to promote her ministry.

But Pastor Ted Haggard is not pleased. Haggard - who leads one of the nation's largest megachurches, the 14,000-member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., and is president of the National Association of Evangelicals - is shown toward the movie's conclusion, meeting one of the kids and imparting some rather cynical advice about preaching.

Haggard, who has urged his followers to boycott the film, blasts "Jesus Camp" on his Web site: "You can expect to learn as much about the Catholic Church from 'Nacho Libre' as you can learn about Evangelicalism from 'Jesus Camp.' This movie manipulates facts like a Michael Moore film and works the camera like 'The Blair Witch Project.' It's one more 'documentary' that seems to miss the point intentionally."

"I think that's his vanity," Ewing countered. "He pretty much exposed himself as a real cynic. He doesn't look too good, but that's his doing."

Ewing said she might want to revisit her young subjects in a few years, like Michael Apted with his "Up" films, to see how the kids are doing.

It's possible these children could go from home-schooling directly to an Evangelical-run college, such as Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., and "be funneled right through, right into adulthood."

However, Ewing said, "puberty is the ultimate equalizer. When they turn that corner, all hell could break loose, no pun intended."

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* SEAN P. MEANS writes the daily blog, "The Movie Cricket," at http://blogs.sltrib.com/movies. Send questions or comments to Sean P. Means, movie critic, The Salt Lake Tribune, 90 S. 400 West, Suite 700, Salt Lake City, UT 84101, or e-mail at movies@sltrib.com.