A clip from the upcoming movie “Constantine’s Sword,” originally scheduled to be shown Wednesday during a forum on world terrorism at the U.S. Air Force Academy, was not shown by agreement of the three panelists and the school’s superintendent.
Approximately 600 cadets and Academy staff attended the afternoon panel discussion entitled, “USA’s War on Terror: Not a Battle between Christianity and Islam.”
The panelists included former U.S. ambassador Joe Wilson; Mikey Weinstein, a 1977 graduate of the Academy who once sued the Air Force claiming evangelical Christians on the academy staff were pushing their beliefs on cadets; and Reza Aslan, a Islam scholar.
Johnny Whitaker, spokesman for the academy, said Weinstein wanted to show a clip from “Constantine’s Sword,” during the discussion.
“Constantine’s Sword” is based on the book of the same name by author James Carroll, which some reviewers said forced Catholics to re-examine the church’s role in anti-Semitism.
But the Catholic League opposed the showing of the film clip.
Catholic League President Bill Donohue said the film is based on “an anti-Catholic book written by an angry ex-priest who has no credentials in the area.”
Donohue said Lt. Gen. John F. Regni, the Air Force Academy superintendent, called him and the two had an “honest and fruitful exchange.”
During their conversation, Donohue said Regni was emphatic the forum was not about religious intolerance but rather about the war on terror.
Whitaker said the clip from “Constantine’s Sword” was reviewed and did not contain any “Catholic bashing.” Rather, Whitaker said, the clip was about religious warfare.
He said during yesterday’s panel discussion, Aslan noted some people of the Islamic faith believe the current conflict in Iraq is a “religious war,” something the the United States denies.
Whitaker said the three panelists and Regni decided not to show the “Constantine’s Sword” clip because it was felt it would detract from the overall discussion.
Donohue said he was delighted the Air Force Academy “made the right decision” not to show the footage.
“Because clips of the offensive film were cancelled, I consider this matter closed,” said Donohue. “And in fairness, I will write to all those public officials I wrote to yesterday asking them to ignore my request for an investigation of this matter. It is not longer necessary.”
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
