Posted on 11/05/2003 8:10:56 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
The Anti-Defamation League will zero in on Mel Gibson's upcoming film "The Passion of Christ" at its 90th annual luncheon in Manhattan on Thursday - and Catholic League President William Donohue says he knows what's coming. "The ADL session on Mel Gibson will reveal no surprises," said Donohue on Tuesday. "All three of the participants have already demonized the man and none has seen the movie." The CL chief complains that event speakers, Boston University theology professor Paula Fredriksen, Sister Mary C. Boys, professor of Judeo-Christian Studies, Union Theological Seminary; and Abraham H. Foxman, the ADL’s national director, have long been hostile towards Gibson's movie about Christ's crucifixion. "When violence breaks out, Mel Gibson will have a much higher authority than professors and bishops to answer to," Professor Fredriksen has already warned. Sister Boys has predicted that Gibson's flick "could be one of the great crises in Christian-Jewish relations." And Mr. Foxman has accused Gibson of being anti-Semitic, only to have to withdraw the charge after reporters challenged him to produce evidence. Donohue cites instead Rabbi Daniel Lapin, whose organization Toward Tradition has as its primary goal generating good relations between Christians and Jews. Lapin has described protests against 'Passion" sight unseen are "morally indefensible." Says Donohue: "There is not one scene in the movie that blames all Jews for the death of Christ—either then or now. And if it did, the Catholic League would condemn it." Adds the CL chief, "Notwithstanding our sharp disagreement with the organization on this issue, we commend the ADL for its brilliant track record in combating anti-Semitism and other expressions of bigotry.
A threat of violence?
Mr. Foxman accuses everyone of being anti-semitic; it brings in the donations.
Maybe Prof. Fredriksen would like to talk to the FBI or Homeland Defense real quick if he has any good information on this. Or, vice versa?! (ROTFLMAO)
A viewer may see the light. They may decide to become followers of Christ. The Marxists have to stop it !!!
Without dark thoughts and self defeating lifestyles, the liberals would find no friends to join them in their misery. They'd find only lonely, dry, dark places to dwell in agony -alone- all alone.
Gibson financed his own movie and found his own distributor so it's going to be released. And people are going to see it and make up their own minds. That's the time for criticism.
Sometime similar can be said of the upcoming of release on Showtime of the Reagans. CBS paid for it. It has no sponsors. Let it be seen and then criticized.
While people have a right to say almost anything at almost any time I find pre-production pressures disturbing.
Gibsons movie is factual. People will believe it.
The Reagan movie would have been lies. People would have believed it, too.
IF CBS would have said from the beginning it was untrue and just Marxist propaganda, it would have been different. They should have been honest.
(1). "When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.---- Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." (Mathew 2: 3 & 13)
(2). "While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sum of money to the soldiers and said, "Tell people, 'His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.' And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." So they took the money and did as they were directed; and this story has been spread among the Jews to this day. (Mathew 28: 11-15)
But Mel Gibson should rejoice in this Jewish persecution of his movie, because Saint Paul has some very encouraging words for Gibson regarding all the commotion that the ADL is creating about his movie "The Passion". They are actually helping to advance the gospel. Here are Paul's words on this subject:
"I want you to know, brethren, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ; and most of the brethren have been made confident in the Lord because of my imprisonment, and are much more bold to speak the word of God without fear---I am put here for the defense of the gospel--- What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense (the way the ADL want the "Passion" to be presented) or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in that I rejoice." (Phillipians 1: 12:15)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.