Constantine's Sword

"I also lost a bit of respect for Mr. Carroll due to the way that he portrays the persecution of Jews as a phenomenon entirely unique to Christianity. As if religious minorities aren't oppressed all over the world."

But only Christian Europe built gas chambers for the declared purpose of eliminating an entire people.

Carroll is the only Christian I have read with the decency to admit and express remorse for his faith's 1,700 years of brutal, bloody persecution of the Jews.

Let's hope his book, and possibly his film, spur more Christians to the same remorse.

Constantine's Sword refers to the Christian Cross, the vision of which caused Constantine the Great, to cry out the timeless words " In Hoc Signo Vinces" (in this sign, you will conquer.) transforming a symbol of love and peace into an icon of war. James Carroll, an ex Catholic priest, looked at this side of his religion in his acclaimed book of the same title published in 2001. Having read the 750 pages covering the two millenniums of Christianity, fascinated by the writers ability to weave facts into a tale as absorbing as the best work of fiction, I was intrigued to see whether he could condense such a rich tapestry of history into the time limits of a commercial documentary.

He couldn't; but the film that was made captures the essential message of the book,while adding a new more important role of social commentary on the America that only came into existence after the book was published. With the multi-front assault on the very concept of a "Wall of Separation between Church and State," lead by right wing evangelicals, this film immediately jumps to the forefront of the intellectual resistance to this transformation of America.

Constantine's Sword has two distinct threads. The first is the history of Christianity as a force of oppressive xenophobia, culminating with the abetting of the worst crime of our time, the holocaust. The other thread is in the present, focusing on the resistance of a single family, that of Mikey Weinstein, who challenges the evangelical dominance of a single institution, the U.S. Air Force Academy. Left on the editing floor, dictated by the time constraints of the medium, was adequate connecting tissue between the two. The real story of the aggressive evangelizing of the Air Force cadets is that of the future, with footage not accessible; a future that this film is attempting to prevent.

Compared to centuries of atrocities by Christians against Jews, vividly shown in the film by descendants of some who suffered, the stress of the young Weinstein men at the academy is trivial. What is not trivial, is the change in tone within the current administration that encourages such actions, leaving the unasked question: if this is happening now, what will the future bring. With this film, James Carroll has continued his career of self sacrifice that began by going against his beloved father, a three star Air Force general, in opposing the war in Viet Nam, a breach that was never healed. I can only imagine how it pained him to see vital elements of his book excluded from the film in order to give it visual impact.

They chose a prominent evangelical minister to present the argument for the legitimacy of aggressive evangelizing at the academy, who did so, with charismatic forcefulness. This provided the only moment of ironic laughter from the audience, as the minister was Ted Haggard, who later was publicly disgraced by exposure of his personal sexual hypocrisy. In the 21st century, America's political direction will be shaped at least as much by market share, by exposure to competing messages, as by the intrinsic merit of underlying ideas. The laughter at Haggard's words just may distract from the the profound message of the connection between past and future that Carroll is making. But then again, this segment may bring more people to see a film that otherwise would be too heavy for a night out at the movies.

In a world of sound bite politics, this film is a serious study of a religious revival that is transforming our country, and as a global power, affecting the world. I give it my most enthusiastic recommendation with a single condition- that anyone who is moved by this film, as you will be, also go out and buy the book-- and take the time to savor every word.

Went to see this film with great expectations - Carroll's massive book with the same title is fascinating to say the least - a brilliant writer with exceptional knowledge of his topic. But the film is a far cry from the book; actually, I found the documentary quite tepid, adding little to facts, otherwise, very well known. The antisemite aspects in Christianity are highly complex issues, treated, for some unknown reason, in a simplistic manner in the film (which, again, is not the case of the book, a grand incursion into the subject). Anyone with even a slight interest in history will find the film lame and a bit boring. He attempts to touch on various points and, in my opinion at least, loses himself by aiming at various targets at once.

In regard to the rise of the Fundamentalist Christian Right, which is progressively taking over America and its Government, I would suggest another documentary, the excellent "Camp Jesus" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486358/), which is way better than "Constantine's Sword" at getting the message across - in Carroll's case, stick with book and skip the film, which doesn't do justice to Carroll's genius.

The documentary "Constantine's Sword," directed by Oren Jacoby, grapples with the age-old question of why, throughout the course of human history, so much bloodshed and violence have been committed in the name of God.

In this case, the person making the inquiry is James Carroll, a former priest turned author who wrote the book on which the film is based. Raised a devout Roman Catholic, Carroll came to question aspects of his religion during the height of the anti-war movement of the 1960s – a movement which the Church officially condemned – and when he began to research the role the Church itself had played in fostering and implementing anti-Semitic violence in the almost two thousand years of its existence (he doesn't go much into the Catholic-on-Protestant/Protestant-on-Catholic violence occurring at the same time). He cites the conversion of Constantine as the moment when Christianity turned into a violent religion and notes how the portrayal of the Jews as "Christ-killers" set in motion centuries of Church-sanctioned and Church-fueled anti-Semitism. He points to the crusades of the early 1000s, the widespread persecution and extermination of Jews during the Middle Ages, and even the far more recent cozy relationship between the Vatican and the fascist dictators of the 1930s and '40s – and the Church's lack of effort in halting the Holocaust - as evidence of his thesis.

Interestingly, Carroll focuses almost exclusively on acts of violence perpetrated by Christians on Jews and Muslims and ignores acts of violence perpetrated by those groups against others (i.e., the Hebrew genocide of the Canaanites found in the Book of Joshua, modern-day Islamic jihadist attacks on Israel and the West). Perhaps, due to his papist background, Carroll simply feels more personal responsibility for Catholic-approved atrocities and doesn't feel comfortable examining the other side of the religious-violence coin. However, even if that is indeed the case, it still results in a strangely unbalanced look at the subject. Then again, since when is it the job of every documentary to cover every single aspect of the subject it's documenting? Plus, he does make the case that, until Christianity owns up to its violent history, conflicts with other religions will only intensify in the years to come.

Currently, one place in which Carroll sees religion and military power coming together is in the United States Air Force, where officers and cadets – including Jews, Muslims and nonbelievers - are being coerced into becoming Evangelical Christians. He travels to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs to document that situation. Carroll feels that a military defined by this kind of sectarian religious zeal will only further convince the other side that we are indeed engaged in some kind of modern-day holy war with Islam, a Twenty-first Century crusade. At great personal risk to themselves, a group of plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the Air Force for the right not to be proselytized to – an act for which they've received condemnation from the powers-that-be and even death threats. This, in many ways, is the most disturbing and eye-opening section of the movie - not least of all because an obviously pre-scandal Ted Haggard gets quite a bit of air-time commenting on the subject, since it was he who filed a counter-lawsuit on the part of evangelicals to be allowed to continue preaching the evangelical gospel to a captive audience of military personnel.

Carroll ends his film with the four sobering words, "No war is holy" - and with a title card revealing Haggard's eventual fall from grace for consorting with a male prostitute and snorting crack. I guess sometimes the good guys do win after all.

Tragic marriage of religion and nationalism has born malevolence all over this shaky planet. This, not completely successful documentary, tries to grapple with the Catholic church and it's shameful history of anti-Semitism. In the same time it brushes upon a stunning situation in Air force academy in Colorado, where evangelical zealots pressure cadets to convert to their inane version of Christianity. The trouble with this movie is that while this fresh and interesting development gets about 12 minutes of movie time, the tired and often heard and repeated story about anti-Semitism in the church takes all of the rest. Why putting these two topics together without giving them equal time? It was especially amazing seeing the demented smile on the face of a joke of a preacher, Ted Haggard,notorious crystal-meth popping, male prostitute loving, face of a mind boggling evangelical movement.