This is basically a documentary about how Christian nationalism, and how this concept and the Bible don't actually see eye to eye. However, I can't necessarily say that it is a good documentary because I don't feel that it provides enough of a commentary as to what is going on. Like, at the beginning we have a number of people speaking who believe that the Bible supports violence, and provide bible verses to support that view. This is confusing because it is starting to come across as a documentary that supports right-wing Christianity.
Mind you, my realisation changed when I discovered that one of the people they were talking to was Preston Sprinkle who, while he is conservative, doesn't subscribe to that brand of Christianty. In fact he has written a number of books about how we have got it wrong with dealing with the LGBTQ community. From the standpoint of this documentary though, it has more to do with his book on pacifism than on the way we treat non-Christians as the enemy, and act violently and aggressively towards them.
Anyway, the main purpose of this documentary is to demonstrate that it is actually nothing new. Like, Christianity was on the fringes right up until Constantine claimed to have had a vision before going to war against one of the other Emperors. He then proceeded to make Christianity the dominant religion in the empire. However, the problem is that for a pacifist religion, running an empire doesn't quite work. As such, a lot of theology came out around the idea of the just war, and this has come down to our time.
The problem with the just war theory, and fighting a war against Satan, and claiming that the enemies of the church are a part of the war against Satan is that it leads to the justification of violence, which doesn't sit quite well with loving your neighbour. Mind you, the last president that actually took a pacifist stance, Jimmy Carter, only lasted one term. So, it makes you wonder if you can actually be a political leader when a part of your job is going to war.
Another problem that arises is the idea of creating a safe environment. We need police to make sure that we live in a safe society, and to be honest there are a lot of countries out there that have police forces, but they are only violent when it needs to be. Like take England for instance, where the police wander around unarmed. Some teachers have argued the need to keep the country secure, but this leads to the idea of fighting your enemies before they can get to your country, which is the doctrine the US follows. However, that leads to some controversial wars.
As I said, it is an interesting documentary, but the problem that I found is the lack of a narrative. Sure, the idea is probably for us to listen to the people that are talking and to come to our conclusion, but I would have liked there to have been a narrator to build up the argument better.
Mind you, my realisation changed when I discovered that one of the people they were talking to was Preston Sprinkle who, while he is conservative, doesn't subscribe to that brand of Christianty. In fact he has written a number of books about how we have got it wrong with dealing with the LGBTQ community. From the standpoint of this documentary though, it has more to do with his book on pacifism than on the way we treat non-Christians as the enemy, and act violently and aggressively towards them.
Anyway, the main purpose of this documentary is to demonstrate that it is actually nothing new. Like, Christianity was on the fringes right up until Constantine claimed to have had a vision before going to war against one of the other Emperors. He then proceeded to make Christianity the dominant religion in the empire. However, the problem is that for a pacifist religion, running an empire doesn't quite work. As such, a lot of theology came out around the idea of the just war, and this has come down to our time.
The problem with the just war theory, and fighting a war against Satan, and claiming that the enemies of the church are a part of the war against Satan is that it leads to the justification of violence, which doesn't sit quite well with loving your neighbour. Mind you, the last president that actually took a pacifist stance, Jimmy Carter, only lasted one term. So, it makes you wonder if you can actually be a political leader when a part of your job is going to war.
Another problem that arises is the idea of creating a safe environment. We need police to make sure that we live in a safe society, and to be honest there are a lot of countries out there that have police forces, but they are only violent when it needs to be. Like take England for instance, where the police wander around unarmed. Some teachers have argued the need to keep the country secure, but this leads to the idea of fighting your enemies before they can get to your country, which is the doctrine the US follows. However, that leads to some controversial wars.
As I said, it is an interesting documentary, but the problem that I found is the lack of a narrative. Sure, the idea is probably for us to listen to the people that are talking and to come to our conclusion, but I would have liked there to have been a narrator to build up the argument better.
