I first became aware of the importance of this film  when Chris Rodda wrote about the bruhaha Bill Donohue and his ilk raised when it was shown to cadets at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. After I saw the film, I better understood why.

The son of an Air Force general, in 1969 a twenty-six year-old Carroll was ordained as a priest, serving as a chaplain at Boston University until 1964. During that time he studied and wrote poetry.  In 1974 he abandoned the priesthood -- but not his faith -- to become a fulltime writer. The author of several books - many centering the need for a more enlightened but practical Catholicism - he now is a regular columnist for theBoston Globe. He has called for greater democracy within the Church while writing on how religious zeal can all-too-easily fuel militarism. And in both the book and film, Carroll explores how darker forces within Catholicism appropriated the Cross as a symbol to inflame an anti-Semitism that contributed to the Holocaust.

Carroll's journey starts with his father, an influential Air Force general and takes him from this formational experience to his introduction to Mikey Weinstein, an academy graduate whose two sons, both raised Jewish, explain how Evangelicals such as Ted Haggard are working with certain faculty to convert non-Evangelicals to their brand of belief. One particularly ugly extension was their being accused of Deicide because of their Judaism.

But the question Carroll raises is how did a peaceful faith whose adherents identified themselves to each other using the symbol of a fish, transform itself into an empire that uses the Cross and sometimes militantly so - especially towards Jews?

Carroll's mother was a tremendous fan of Constantine's mother, St. Helena, finder of Christ's Cross, lost for almost three hundred years after The Crucifixtion.  He takes us through Germany where he grew up - and where some of the worst incidents of anti-Semitism ever transpired. Carroll also introduces us to Italian Jews who make china for the popes and whose family barely survived the Holocaust.  It is during this part of the film where Carroll makes a point similar to that of our friend Chris Hedges on what often leads to religious inspired hate:  unbending orthodoxy.

It is not lost on Carroll that the Cross has a strong resemblance to the sword. He recounts Constantine's vision prior to the battle against his rival Maxentius at Milvian Bridge in 310 AD.  The would-be first Holy Roman Emperor saw a cross in the sky emblazoned with he message "By this thou shalt conquer" (Constantine won both the battle and the war).

Although Carroll does not come out and directly state it, it was shortly thereafter when Christianity became institutionalized within the Roman Empire under Emperor Constantine the compromising of principles began to set in.

Many on the Religious Right all-too-readily embrace the neoconservative myth that nations need a fundamentalist orthodox understanding of faith to survive. Carroll, like Chris Hedges, refutes that notion. He explains that while Vatican reactionaries love to blame pagan beliefs for nightmares such as the Third Reich (a theme constantly echoed by philosopher Leo Strauss), in fact Hitler's horrors made possible because they were fueled by almost two thousand years of anti-Semitic pronouncements rendered by many in the Church.

Carroll's story comes full circle when he describes recent turmoil at the Air Force Academy as reported by recent turmoil. a the Air Force Academy.  Once again, it is the fusion of Christianity and military might that conflicts with the rights and desire of non-Christians to follow their conscience.

Watching Constantine's Sword reminded me of James Madison aversion to conflating faith with government. Madison knew that the power of government corrupts religion. Like Carroll, he understood that a line was crossed when the Roman Empire went beyond the need to end the persecution of Christianity -- and institutionalized it.  Government became the enforcer of the faith and faith the legitmizer of the  government and a lacky to power.

Carroll affirms Madison's admonition. As the film shows, Air Force officers are abusing their authority to convert cadets through intimidation and peer pressure; poor substitutes for a conversion of the heart and mind.

Demagogues such as Bill Donohue managed to prevent this film from being shown at the Academy. But Donohue cannot prevent you from seeing it.  And be sure to invite your friends.