Turning Christians Into Sideshow Characters

If you want to know what the left really thinks of Christians, HBO has a "documentary" produced by Nancy Pelosi's daughter that says it all:

Watching Alexandra Pelosi's documentary Friends of God, showing on HBO all this month, brings to mind the carnival attractions of a bygone era.

Instead of "See the bearded lady and Jo-Jo the dog-faced boy," it's "See the Christian wrestlers and the Goth Christian teens with their nose rings and fuchsia-colored hair, talking about getting a religious 'high.' " Pelosi takes a diverse and dynamic community (estimated at between 50 million and 80 million) and turns it into a cavalcade of the bizarre.

Blue Staters often picture evangelicals as a tribe of shallow and slightly loony fanatics. Pelosi's documentary reinforces these prejudices. With minimal effort, the daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could have found a few evangelical scientists, stock brokers, dedicated inner-city teachers or counselors at drug rehab centers.

Instead, she offers HBO viewers the Christian Wrestling Federation, Christian miniature golf (where players putt through the empty tomb of the resurrected Jesus), a truck-stop prayer group and a Bible theme park, where an actor in robe and sandals dispenses parables. At a drive-through church, those seeking the spiritual equivalent of fast food can pray with a lady behind a plate glass window from the comfort of their car.

It's the tried-and-true technique of filmmakers with an agenda — find the most embarrassing and absurd examples of whatever you want to lampoon and get them on camera.

It should be no surprise that Pelosi would produce something like this, or that HBO would run it. They consider evangelicals to be little more than human oddities worthy of ridicule.

Granted, there are plenty of weirdos on the Christian side, but they are far outnumbered by the honest, solid citizens that make up the vast majority of American Christians.