The documentary Kidnapped for Christ, which was shown at the 2014 Level Ground Film Festival and won “Outstanding Documentary” is powerful, mostly because the film that we see is not the film the creator thought she was making when she began filming.
The story goes like this–young documentary filmmaker and Christian Kate Logan goes down to the Dominican Republic to what she thinks is a religious reform school for out of control children and intends to make a documentary about her experience. What she finds at Escuela Caribe is a whole other story. Instead of a structured and caring place for troubled teens, she finds a place where youth from Christian homes who are gay or are acting out as a response to sever trauma or depression are kidnapped (with their parents permission and assistance) and subjected to militarized and abusive spiritualized behavior modification “therapy.” Just like that, Kate’s film takes on a life of it’s own.
What stood out the most to me in the film were the contrasting views of community. The first view was seen in the secretive and hierarchical community of the school staff who fully believed that by dehumanizing these youth they were doing God’s will and making these students “better.” The role of community in this setting was one of collusion, which further allowed for a culture of abuse and harm to proliferate instead of naming it for the evil it was. In this setting, community and its structures became justification for harm.
I, like the director Kate, was angered and maddened by this community’s perspectives and standards. How is it possible to use God and theology as the basis for harm?
In contrast to this community was the community of one of the students (David) back home. David had been sent to the school because he had come out as gay to his parents. His absence was so felt within his community that when it was discovered where David had been sent, a large group of people raised money and worked out a plan to rescue him. This community was one of love and acceptance. They loved this man so much and felt his absence so strongly, they undertook great risks on his behalf. This is love.