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The Harry Potter issue? We heard a lot about that, actually. We listened to a lot of Christian radio programs. I think I even heard on the Dobson program once, and American Family Radio, conversations about Harry Potter being a real big issue. So it wasn't just in Becky's church that we had heard this criticism of Harry Potter. And of course not all Christians feel that way, but the Christians in our films do. It was something the kids were often talking about, and it was sort of like forbidden fruit, so we wanted to include that.

Grady: And also, that's why it was important to us to include a figure like Ted Haggard, who really represents the more mainstream evangelicals. And obviously as the head of the National Association of Evangelicals, he represents a large chunk of the community. And the people in our film are constituents of him, so there is a connection.

Nine-year-old Tory Binger lets the tears flow

Did anything that happened on camera catch you by surprise, for example, the speaking in tongues?

Grady: It's one of those things that is sort of surprising initially, and you get used to it very quickly. Heidi and I have both filmed spiritual ceremonies of all different kinds of religions. Heidi made a film where they do body piercing and things that are much more shocking, really. But I guess it became a little more exotic because we had never seen Americans being so devout and so charismatic in their worship. But it's one of those things. It wears away very quickly, and I think both of us feel that everyone is entitled to worship however they want. I don't judge anyone for how they want to express their faith.

Ewing: We had a lot more scenes like that, that focused more on the practice of the charismatic faith. And we started to shy away from including a lot of details and explanation of all of these things, because we didn't want to marginalize charismatics. But again, it's just a practice. In the end, they all believe in the same Bible and they all listen to the same radio and read the same publications as evangelicals who don't speak in tongues, so we felt like they had a lot more in common with the greater evangelical movement than they didn't. That's why we didn't start focusing on a lot of their differences.

We actually kind of held back on some of the material we had, that might distract people and confuse people and freak people out too much. We felt that we actually toned it down a bit.

Some of the kids talk about what's fulfilling in life and what's not fulfilling; do you think they have any valid critiques of our society, or do you think they have just been "indoctrinated"?

Nine-year-old Rachael Elhart is one of the featured kids

Grady: The kids that we focused on are, I think, too young right now for us to answer that. Two of the kids are nine, and one is a 12-year-old boy. We have a scene in the film where one of the kids is describing the majority of society as being trashy. I think we need to wait 10 or 20 years to see what he has to say about society. I think at this point, all 12-year-olds or nine-year-olds repeat what their parents tell them. I did.

Ewing: At the same time, I did notice some very admirable qualities to the children in our film. They're extremely articulate, they're smart, and they do good things for other people. They think about others, and they lack vanity I've seen in other kids. So on one hand, they're being raised very well. And it's complicated, because one might not agree with the adult that this person might become, or the direction this child is going. However, as children, they're extremely pleasant, and have a lot of things going for them. So I think, again, this whole film falls into a really big grey area. Which is what I think makes it a good movie.

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