I love Jesus! Not as the savior of humanity, but as one of the most powerful and influential liberals of all time.

That's why I lose it when I see the fundamentalist conservative 'Christian' movement in America using his likeness and reputation to further their decidedly un-Jesus-like agenda.

Most recently, our friendly neighborhood fanatics have taken to promoting a movie, the Chronicles of Narnia, claiming that its popularity is evidence that their brand of 'Christian pop culture' is taking over America.

If these were 'true' Christian principles at issue here, I doubt I would mind much since they'd naturally consist of such things as love, understanding, peace, good will and the like.

Unfortunately, the religious right has consistently advanced 'false' Christian principles -- maddeningly heavy on prejudice, intolerance, hatred, heavy and frequent judgment, and various sorts of lethal vengeance.

Regardless, after taking my kids to see the holiday flick -- a recent tradition in our household -- I can report, to my delighted surprise, that Narnia seems more like the 5th installment in the Harry Potter series (ironically demonized by the religio-wingnuts for its 'anti-Christian' setting) than a rehashing of the conservative Christian spiel.

In fact, you drop a few keywords from the movie and you're left with a good ol' fashioned,  simple-yet-compelling story of 'good vs. evil'.

So why all the winger Christian hype?