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You talk about the range of evangelicals you came across. Would Mike Papantonio [a radio talk-show host who appears throughout the film, and at one point debates Fischer] self-identify as an evangelical?

Grady: No, he's not evangelical. He's a Methodist, he goes to a mainline church, but he's quite devoted to his church.

Did you try to contact, shall we say, liberal evangelicals—people like Jim Wallis or somebody like that—to set up a dialectic within the evangelical community, instead of between evangelicals and non-evangelicals?

Grady: Well, we definitely wanted to have a conversation within the Christian community at large, maybe evangelical or people who hail from the mainstream or mainline religious affiliation. We definitely felt like we wanted to have that dialogue. We ended up, I guess you would say, "casting" Mike, because he is a radio personality, and we already had the radio device going in the film. So for us it was very organic and it made sense, creatively. It wasn't forced.

Radio host Mike Papantonio

Ewing: We also didn't want to set up some kind of talking-head, point counter-point, in the film; that's not the style of film we make. But I feel that Mike was a good choice because he echoes what a lot of liberal evangelicals have said about the politicization of the evangelical movement. And of course we follow the liberal evangelicals as they have slowly started to come out, publicly—and there's not that many, in the press—and say that they're uncomfortable with the political nature of the evangelical movement.

While Mike is not officially a born-again Christian, he does echo a lot of the concerns that these gentlemen have, and we thought this was a more creative way to vent those concerns, because he is a Christian. He just thinks that the politicization of the church is going to be the downfall of it, and he doesn't like that association. So officially, no, he's not a born-again, but he does, I think, speak very well for the concerns of Christians that don't like the political nature of the evangelical movement, or at least of the far right part of that movement.

One reason I ask is because one online columnist, in an item on Jesus Camp, said, "Does anyone know an evangelical who voted for John Kerry?" Well, I do. So this film may perpetuate a certain stereotype?

Ewing: But really, Peter, if you look at the numbers, the vast majority vote Republican. So to find the needle in the haystack, you know, I don't know if that's our responsibility. I don't know if that's very accurate, to portray that there's a lot of liberal evangelical Christians that vote Democratic, either. If you look at the numbers, conservative people, religious, will usually vote conservative politics.

Grady: And there's nothing wrong with that.

Ewing: No!

Grady: And I don't think that's even Mike Papantonio's beef. I think his concern is that the church is not the place to be having those conversations.

Ewing: And he doesn't think that a religious group should be affiliated with a political party either. So I think right now, people definitely see the two as hand-in-hand, and I'm kind of glad to see that some evangelicals are coming out and going against the grain and saying, "You know what? We're not all in agreement." But that is sort of a newer trend of pastors who have the courage to come out publicly and speak out against this giant behemoth.

Grady: And in fact, when they do speak out [as Greg Boyd recently did], it gets on the cover of the New York Times, because it's unusual. But I think it's part of a general trend that's happening in this country, and I think that our film happens to have good timing. Hopefully it'll ride the wave of this conversation and will be a catalyst for more conversation, amongst all Christians.

What about the criticism that some have made, that the film, by focusing on Becky Fischer and her community, focuses on a more extreme form of evangelicalism? For example, she tells the children that Harry Potter is evil, but many evangelicals have openly said that the Potter books are good?

Ewing: I think it's hard, as a filmmaker, to be all things to all people, and we look for compelling stories, smaller stories that can help tell a greater story. We look for compelling characters who are articulate and fascinating. And we were interested in what Becky was doing. We identify her as a Pentecostal, and I think it's impossible to make a film that represents all Christians. I just think that that's a criticism that we're going to get, regardless.

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