Veronica, please see my Post 345.
Is this another instance of two vastly different ancestral cultures looking at the same thing and coming to totally opposite conclusions?
In every such article, vitriol is directed at Gibson and categorical statements and innuendoes are thrown out.
"Gibson thinks every non-Catholic is going to hell.".......I have no idea what he believes and I have never heard him say that. Can a link be provided to document such an accusation?
"Gibson...favors the Tridentine Mass, a relic."........Ummmm, sounds ominous. I wonder what evil rite the Tridentine Mass is? Let's see. According to the link, it's a Mass dating back to the early Church in the 6th Century, codified in the 16th Century and, in 1988, Pope John Paul II, in the instruction Ecclesia Dei Adflicta, stated that there was nothing wrong with attending such a Mass. Yep, sounds pretty bad. Just like the politician that accused his opponent of ambulating right in front of a 13 year old girl.
"He is clearly and palpably anti-Semitic. His movie is an act of aggression against Jews".......Based on what? On the fact that Passion Plays in 19th Century Czarist Russia had a very deliberate "Jews killed Christ" message which translates into the belief that any dramatization of the Passion by 21st Century American Christians have a deliberate "Jews killed Christ" message?
"Charles notes how Satan walks and lives and breathes among the Jews in the movie".......Well that's a good one. The American Christians see Satan walking in a crowd in a city and they think, "Satan walks upon the Earth and he could be right next to us."
It's a crowd in Jerusalem almost 2000 years ago. Except for the Romans, everyone there from Jesus, to Mary to the Apostles to Caiphas to the Pharisees to Caipha's rent-a-mob is Jewish. Who else is supposed to form a crowd in Jerusalem 2000 years ago? Scandinavian Vikings?
What was the message in "Faust"?......That Satan walks and lives and breathes among the Germans?
What was the message in "Damned Yankees"?......That Satan walks and lives and breathes among those who are not New York Yankees fans?
"He doesn't mention that young Jewish children actually turn into demons at one point in the movie".......In one interview I saw, Gibson commented that he wanted to show Satan can disguise himself as even an innocent thing and what could be more innocent than a child. The adjective "Jewish" was never brought up.
Again, if you are going to portray "children" in a movie set in Jerusalem 2000 years ago, should you cast Norwegian children?
A Google Search of "Jewish children, demons" yields no dark secrets except some interesting facts about Jewish demon superstitions.
Without the perception, real or created, of anti-Black racism in America, Al Sharpton would be a nobody.
Without the perception, real or created, of anti-Semitism in America, Abe Foxman would be out of a job paying over $400,000 per annum.
The "Jews Killed Christ" dogma that was an intentional part of the anti-Semitic propaganda of 19th Century Czarist Russia is not a part of American Christian tradition. The American Christian believes that his own personal sins killed Christ. The American Christian does not believe that Caiphas and his rent-a-mob portray the entire Jewish people. They are merely the "Bad Guys in Authority" that are necessary in every such drama.
The "Jews Killed Christ" Eastern European libel would not have ever occurred to the millions of American Christians flocking to see this movie.
However, thanks to the Abe Foxman's of America, the Eastern European "Jews Killed Christ" libel has been taken out of it's well deserved obscurity and given more coast to coast and world-wide mass media publicity than that the authors of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" could ever have dreamed of.