Christianity is in the process of being destroyed by demonic hordes, at least according to the makers of the new documentary IndoctriNation. And while this statement seems itself to come from the world of the fantastic, the surprise only deepens when we find that the servants of Satan are none other than America's public schools and the teachers and administrators who run them.

This movie is symptomatic of two problems roiling America: religious fanaticism and the extreme right-wing tea party movement, along with its corporate backers.

According to the trailer, "90 percent of Christian parents send their children to public school." Adding to the shock, "Many church leaders approve."

To underscore the abuse to which these children are subjected, Charles Stanley, the seemingly insane pastor of the First Baptist Church of Atlanta, follows up, "When you send that child off to school today, you're sending them into a pagan society."

This is less exposé than propaganda against public education. Just to make this clear, IndoctriNation co-director Colin Gunn says in the film's press release, "People are starting to wake up to the damaging effects of a government controlled education monopoly." The homeschooling father goes on to say that the perils of high taxation and welfare dependency won't be solved until "we solve the public schooling problem."

Of course, it doesn't necessarily stand to reason that as soon as the education of children is left entirely up to religious lunatics that poverty ("welfare dependency" in insane-speak) and other social ills will disappear.

While no one could possibly expect that these people are going to somehow abolish public education, the filmmakers have something more feasible in their sites, underscored by the movie's slick trailer and the press release, both of which feature President Barack Obama and administration officials. They aim to effect a certain negative outcome in the 2012 presidential and Congressional elections. The film is part of the Republican attempt to defeat Democrats at the polls next year. There aren't enough religious extremists in America to elect a Republican by themselves, but that party can't win without them. The GOP's candidates know this, whether it's the the sexist, the far-right flip flopper, the opportunist Texan evangelist or someone else.

There is a more fundamental problem illustrated by this film. If 90 percent of Christians don't have a problem sending kids to public schools, 10 percent think public schools are demonic pits. This means there are tens of thousands of people who really, truly believe not only that every word of the Bible is absolutely true, but that secular society is decidedly not a virtue.

This is a problem in many ways, most obviously in regard to people's understanding of the world. It is a threat to the secular nature of this country as a whole.

To celebrate the greatness of secularism obviously doesn't denigrate regular religious people. Mainstream Jews, Muslims and Christians, whether Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist or other, together with atheists and agnostics all make up the democratic and cultural mainstream of our nation. And while there is friction, we all generally get along. This is the beauty of America now, and more so in the future as differences are more and more accepted.

Anything that challenges this has to be combatted. Thus, the fight against extreme religious backwardness has to be combatted, not only for the good of those who don't believe, but also for the good of those who do. How can a Roman Catholic function in a non-secular society if dominated by laws made by fundamentalist extremists? How could a Muslim? Secularism should at least be important to the fundamentalist Christians themselves; how would they function in a Sharia or Vatican run society? Or a militant atheist society that bans religion outright?

Films like IndoctriNation are dangerous, as are the people behind them. As the whole point is to defend democracy and seuclarism, the right to make these films shouldn't ever be restricted, nor should anyone be banned from believing what they believe, or even using the political arena to push their ideas.

But those who value secular democracy have to recognize that there is a movement that wants to push on all of us a theocratic state, only the first battle for which is the defeat of the Democrats in 2012. These aren't the people leading the Republican Party, but the leadership of the GOP is only too happy to use them to gain power, potentially opening further a Pandora's box.

We all have to be in the ring.

Photo: IndoctriNation poster art.