Posted on 02/29/2004 5:59:33 PM PST by Coleus
'Passion' shakes North Jersey clergy to the core
Sunday, February 29, 2004 |
One Catholic priest in Morris County was so appalled by Mel Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ'' that he described the film as "religious barbarism.''
But a Protestant minister in Harrington Park was so moved that afterward he drove to a park, where he prayed and sat silently for almost an hour.
Meanwhile, a rabbi from River Edge said the movie could bring Jews and Christians closer, despite the film's insistence that it was the Jews who pushed for the execution of Jesus.
Arriving in theaters last week on Ash Wednesday, "The Passion's'' harrowing vision of the final 12 hours of Jesus' life has struck a nerve in the landscape of American faith, inspiring countless believers, polarizing others, and giving fresh focus to interfaith activism.
The bloody, two-hour movie has outraged some Jews with its portrayal of the Jewish high priests as vicious, scheming power barons. And it has turned off some Christians who believe the film's sole focus on Jesus' violent death misses the essence of Christianity.
The film has also delighted millions of conservative Christians - who showed their growing clout by packing theaters coast to coast, helping make the movie a box-office bonanza.
Yet among clergy, the movie's supporters and critics can't be neatly divided along denominational lines.
The Rev. Jack Lohr, a pastor in Franklin Lakes who preaches a liberal brand of Christianity, said the movie startled him personally and raised fundamental questions for all Christians.
"For us who claim to have taken up the cross to follow Jesus, the film challenges any convenient or comfortable reading of the cost of discipleship,'' said Lohr, of the Presbyterian Church at Franklin Lakes. "I shall never again be able to sing the sweetly sentimental lines of 'The Old Rugged Cross' without a dreadful sense of irony.''
And the pastor at one of the most progressive parishes in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson said the film woke him up to the realities of Jesus' death in a way that trumped years of Bible readings.
"It made me realize I've had a pretty sanitized view of what Christ did for me,'' said the Rev. Kevin Downey of St. Mary's in Pompton Lakes. "I've read the story so much, and felt I knew the story so well, that after a while, you take it for granted.''
One thing's for certain, "The Passion'' isn't going away. The movie took in $23.6 million on opening day, a box office showing that suggests the film could wind up in the same esteemed league as such screen classics as "Ben-Hur'' and "The Ten Commandments.''
But unlike those earlier religious blockbusters, "The Passion'' draws razor sharp theological lines that attract and repel.
The movie dwells almost entirely on Jesus' torture and execution, emphasizing that he chose death on the cross to bring salvation to mankind. The movie's violence is now notorious. Jewish leaders call for his death, mocking and spitting on him. Then Roman soldiers take over, whipping him over and over until the flesh is ripped from his back. Finally, his hands and feet are nailed into the cross.
The Rev. Kenneth Lasch, a veteran Catholic priest, said he was repelled.
"I saw it as religious barbarism ... in my opinion, God did not send his son to die,'' said Lasch, of St. Joseph's Church of Mendham. "God sent his son to live, to be faithful. And in being faithful, it cost him his life.''
Lasch, who saw the movie Thursday, also said the film's uncompromising, in-your-face approach reflects a growing divisiveness and belligerence within the major religions.
"As I was sitting at the end of movie I thought, 'This is not bringing us together,''' he said. "This is increasing the separation.''
Others share his fears.
Rabbi Neil Borovitz said he couldn't help but think about "Fiddler on the Roof,'' the classic musical about life in an Eastern European shtetl. The show, which had a revival open on Broadway the same week "The Passion'' reached the theaters, ends tragically with pogroms against the Jews.
"It was the claim of the Jews killing Jesus that inspired people to slaughter thousands of innocent people,'' said Borovitz, of Temple Sholom in River Edge. "I think Mel Gibson has taken a similar approach in this movie, and it's very bothersome.''
But Borovitz also holds out hope. He attended the movie Wednesday with Catholic and Protestant clergymen that he has known for years. And he points to a fresh round of interfaith activism in Bergen County that will make "The Passion'' the main topic of conversation. On Thursday in Teaneck, for example, two scholars, one Catholic and one Jewish, will speak to religious educators and clergy on the complexities of the crucifixion story and how to explain them to students and other lay people.
Borovitz said he respects the story of the Resurrection as the central narrative of Christianity. But he said Gibson has told the story in a provocative, manipulative, and mean-spirited way.
"I feel much more comfortable with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops or the National Council of Churches teaching this story than I do with Mel Gibson,'' Borovitz said. "But Mel Gibson is going to reach more people than they will, and that's what concerns me.''
Many pastors found the movie so compelling they're seeing it again.
The Rev. George Kaden, of Community Church in Harrington Park, saw the movie Wednesday and drove to Van Saun Park in Paramus for 45 minutes of reflection. He is seeing the movie again today with his family.
"It's a film that challenges us to look in our own hearts and ask ourselves about our relationship with God,'' Kaden said. "Each person has to come to grips with what they are seeing and what they are wrestling with in their personal life.''
Others said the movie is transforming the season of Lent, the period of introspection that began on Ash Wednesday and culminates on Easter Sunday.
The Rev. Steve Giordano will preach about the movie in his sermon today. Giordano, of Clinton Avenue Reformed Church in Bergenfield, cited the movie's opening scene in which Jesus decides to face the cross rather than run from it.
"That's the same question that we face at the beginning of the Lenten season,'' Giordano said. "Are we going to accept the challenge of making a significant spiritual season, or is it just going to be business as usual?''
This article contains material from The Associated Press.
I don't care that he doesn't like the movie. It's a movie. I care that he either doesn't know his priest stuff or has rejected it somewhere along the way, yet he still has his priestly gig, which gives him enough credibility to make him attractive to journalists.
"Prior to making Dog Days (Hundstage), released here in 2002, film-maker Ulrich Seidl built an international reputation with a series of distinctive and original documentaries exploring intimate aspects of peoples lives. In Jesus, You Know he follows six believers into the sanctity of the church, and with their permission films their individual conversations with Jesus. Sometimes beginning as prayers, but frequently turning into confessions, these normally private portraits are deeply revealing. Whilst demographically dissimilar, the worshippers seem united by loneliness and sadness a young woman trying to work out her relationship difficulties; a young man troubled by the eroticism he finds in the Bible; an older woman sounding stoic but clearly worn down by her husband and family. But as always, Seidl finds the humour in the material and his subjects too, in their contradictions and in their juxtaposing of the seemingly banal with the fundamentally significant. This is direct and daring film-making, all the more so because of its quiet and unforced tone. That Seidl is shaping the material there is of course no doubt; his skill is in doing so without seeming to intrude always present, never seen, and in that respect nicely attuned with his subject."
You'll all be lining up to see that one, won't you! I can't wait for the countless threads about it, including countless threads about the money take of this "product" (since you don't accept the industry reference "entertainment vehicle".) Oops, excuse me again, I should have said "the money take of the act of love"!
No. There's lots of room for capital punishment in the Torah. The Talmud makes capital punishment much more difficult, but it doesn't eliminate it entirely. My Rabbi teaches that a Sanhedrin that executed one man in 70 years was considered bloodthirsty, but that does imply that there were some executions going on. I don't think they were many crucifixions though. But we do have the Gospels though and we ought not to question the information they present.
ML/NJ
Yes, that is correct. We're talking the basic of basics here.
I'm not Christian so correct me if I'm wrong. Correct me on the theological point that is, not on my beliefs. 8>)
LOL
What bothers me isn't that this priest has this belief -- I mean, it doesn't matter to me. What bothers me is that he would be -- or at least act -- so shocked that people would actually believe what (I think) is the traditional Christian belief.
That's what bothers me too. Along with the nagging question of HOW these journalists manage consistently to overlook thousands of believing ministers and priests, and find one of this sort.
It does seem that a lot of people are shocked, not so much at the movie as at the people going to see it. They probably thought we'd all caught on to the idea that God is only an archetype and Jesus was only a role model. They were mistaken.
I realize that your motives in making such a statement are laudatory in trying to diffuse the responsibility of those who actually put Jesus to death. But we must be careful of taking Christ's death out of space-time history into such never-neverland of 'timelessness'.
His death and resurrection were actually events in time. They occurred at a specific place and at a specific time with real people and real nails and a real cross. You and I clearly weren't there.
It is fair to say "they were just like us" or "I would have had the same predilections that they did" -- if that's the way you feel. But to say "I persecuted Jesus" is to confuse the message of the cross and resurrection of Christ.
By the way, don't forget that Jesus' followers did not kill Him. There were those in that day - with the same nature as you and I -- who followed Him faithfully to cross, to the grave and to the uttermost parts of the world.
Well and truly said. The historical record speaks for itself.
"I saw it as religious barbarism ... in my opinion, God did not send his son to die,'' said Lasch, of St. Joseph's Church of Mendham. "God sent his son to live, to be faithful. And in being faithful, it cost him his life.''
Ping
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