No Nutritional Value: Constantine's Sword

[trinityvixen]

I feel sort of bad equating a documentary with a C-level tween vampire flick from the 1980s, but Constantine's Sword is (pardon the pun) so toothless and obvious as to be the documentary equivalent of unflavored rice cakes. Documentaries can be calorie-free, too.

The basic premise is a disillusioned former priest discovering the history of anti-Semitism within the Roman Catholic Church and trying to make sense of it. Where did it come from? What kept it going? Except that he never does get into the whys and wherefores of anti-Semitism, he just gives a lot of examples of its manifestation in Catholic and Protestant societies. So the effect is less an uncomfortable examination of the basis of one of the most long-lived and vile prejudices ever to afflict men and women and more a summary of the unpleasantness and evil the Jewish people have endured over their many millenia of worship. "HOLY CRAP, THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IS ANTI-SEMITIC" is hardly news. I bet this guy would keel over and die if anyone pointed out that there are anti-Semitic Jews.

Heart's in the right place, but the film and the author/narrator goes nowhere fast. It's one noteworthy contribution was in demonstrating how much of an utter douchebag Ted Haggard is. On the subject of men and women forcing Protestant values on cadets at the Air Force Academy, Haggard, that Constitutional scholar (and serial homophobic closet case and abuser of authority) of note, says something to the effect of freedom of religion = freedom to have to put up with his church's bullshit all the time whether you like it or not. Way to miss the point there, Pastor Ted. Ted Haggard wants you to know that it's totally cool to believe what you believe, but he and his are free to harass you about what they believe and you can't do anything about it and they're not going to stop short of you setting fire to them. In which case they would probably forget their principles and start taking Christ's name in vain as their rubber skin melted off to reveal the lizard/plant/pod/alien underneath.

I can't believe anyone ever listened to this ratfuck little taint. He's got this bug-eyed aspect and a smile so permanently fixed to his Crypt Keeper-face that even the Joker would appear to be frowning next to this dicksmack. Not surprised at all to hear that he got his jollies on drugs and male prostitutes. Ted Haggard just looks like the guy who spends his free time sniffing powder out of any available asshole. Jesus.

Comments

[linaerys.livejournal.com]

I rather liked the book. I think James Carroll is a wonderful writer. It's definitely about the history and the opportunities the Catholic church had to change the dogma to help societies be less anti-Semetic. But it's also interesting as a book because it is from the perspective of someone who is a Catholic in a very deep way. So I think I mostly enjoyed seeing everything from that perspective. I didn't know there was a documentary though.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

The interesting piece to me about the author's background was that he couldn't be dismissed as Catholic-hating, although I'm sure, offscreen/off the page, he was. That appears somewhat fair--he did dislike the Church's practices so much that he left--but disliking the decisions is different from hating the institution. So he had to struggle not to reject the teachings he still, obviously, held to heart.

But what purported to be a "Why is this a persistent problem?" turned more upon the history. The history is fascinating, don't get me wrong, but unraveling that history into method of bias transmission would have been stellar. I shall have to read the book to see if it's more informative, but the documentary is a little light. Especially for well-read, informed people who know most of the history (if not the specifics) already.

[wellgull.livejournal.com]

If you do read the book, let me know how it is?

I've a lot in the queue right now so even if I did secure a copy I doubt I'd get to read it for a while...

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

If I remember to pick up the book, I will pass along a review or the copy, depending on how I come across it, no worries.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Proper use of the word aspect FTW!

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Woo hoo!

Is that one people tend to use incorrectly? I'm suddenly channeling Heathers, where the one teacher doesn't care about the dead student except that she used "myriad" correctly in her suicide note.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I had an English teacher who would take off a grade if you used "aspect" to mean anything but face or "facet" to mean anything but part of a jewel. Of course, both of those words are correctly used to mean "thing," it's just imprecise (and slightly sloppy) writing.

So I shouldn't say proper use of aspect, I should say use of original meaning of aspect. Which is still cool.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Hey! I'm cool! I'll take it!

[wellgull.livejournal.com]

Why does a certain class of English teacher insist on denying that human thought and language are fundamentally reliant on metaphors? Sure, it's a good idea to avoid overused clichés, and be aware of the original meanings of words, but these kinds of bugaboos don't make writing any clearer...

[slackwench.livejournal.com]

What's wrong with male prostitutes?

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Nothing is wrong with them. But you just know that this supposedly upright, pillar of morality, who preaches so hard against the gay is secretly hankering for cock behind the scenes.