James Carroll's "Constantine's Sword" Documentary DVD (2008)
Narrated and Based on the Book by James Carroll
BuzzFlash.com's Review (excerpt) Knowing that the right wing theocrats hand-picked Sarah Palin as their vehicle for gaining control of America and turning it into a Christian Dominionist nation, this documentary by James Carroll (who wrote the book of the same name) is especially compelling and insightful.
Click here to watch the trailer.
Carroll is one of our favorite and most thoughtful of mainstream columnists(Boston Globe). Having been raised Irish Catholic and once been a priest, he has a remarkable insight into how religion and politics converge.
"Constantine's Sword" is a reflection and historical journey into how many denominations of Christianity evolved into a warring religion from the peaceful teachings of Jesus. Carroll focuses on the Roman Emperor Constantine who elevated the cross into a symbol that sanctified war, and made killing justified in the name of Christ and God.
Carroll is the narrator and traveler who takes us on an expedition into how Christ's message became distorted over time, leading up to where the movie starts: the evangelical hot bed of Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the evangelical takeover of the U.S. Airforce Academy in that city. He then moves backwards in time to about 350 years after Christ's death, interweaving his journey with personal remembrances of growing up in an observant Catholic family.
Sarah Palin is the Trojan Horse that the End-Times crowd demanded McCain put on the ticket as the price to pay for unleashing their mailing lists and full-fledged support on election day. They are counting on McCain not making it through his first term, with Palin assuming office as a true believer who is even more indoctrinated into Armageddon theology than Bush.
Carroll is a reflective, deliberating guide through the death and torture that are most reflected in the Crusades. But the Holy Wars have never really stopped there. They continue to this day, but under other carefully-crafted pretenses.
And Sarah Palin is prepared now to go to war with Russia. McCain will start wars because he doesn't know how to do much except engage in conflicts. Palin will start wars because it's God's will.
One of the best lines in this provocative documentary is Carroll noting that the Vatican didn't condemn the massive aerial bombing of Vietnam, but would have vociferously denounced the war if the U.S. planes had been dropping condoms on North Vietnam instead of high-powered explosives.
This documentary is just being released on DVD in the fall of 2008.
It has profound implications on the theology behind a Palin administration, which is likely to happen within the next four years if McCain is elected.
It would be back to the middle ages, when wars were Crusades, which is just what Bush and Palin think of our Iraq conflict.
After all, the Crusades were aimed at conquering the Holy Land from the infidel Muslims. It doesn't take a stretch to see the modern counterpart.
The Cheney oil wing of the party fits right in, because Big Oil rides the coat tails of the evengelicals in conquering Muslim lands, since only the Divinely inspired Christians should be gifted with God's natural resources.
It should also be noted that Carroll offers fascinating insights into how, in the name of Christ, Jews were persecuted for centuries by Christian faiths.
In essence, modern day Christianity is left with two basic divisions: the peace denomination that believes in the loving message of Christ that preceded Emperor Constantine; and the war mongering denomination of Christianity that starts wars in the name of Christ, committing uspeakable atrocities in his name -- and expanding empire in the process.
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