[Hamza01]

"I would prefer that people think I was nothing but a two-bit bigot than to publicly correct, or denounce my Father. I would take the slings and arrows, and they would be a badge of honor for me, because I acted not out of selfish motives but out of love for the man who gave me life, as flawed as he may be."

Very eloquently said. How dare they try to get Mel to denounce his father in public. He may as well denounce his faith. There is a real malevolence on the part of those who keep pushing this forward for no other reason than to bring Gibson and his family pain.

If Gibson had succumbed to the critics and publicly denounced his father, I don't think I could have had any respect for him as a man. But as you point out, the courage with which he has stood his ground in the face of this onslaught demonstrates his character.

But neither has he endorsed his father's rather kooky views on the Holocaust.

[Torie]

Rather than denounce, how about lovingly dissociate oneself from? I loved my Dad very deeply and profoundly, but he had an anti-Catholic animus. If it became an issue in the public square, I would have said that we all have character flaws, and I more than my father, but this was one that he had, with which I could not accept or excuse. We both however shared a point of view. He was an atheist, and I a near atheist. But my Dad was a very spiritual man, who touched many hears, and had hundreds at his funeral. Life is complicated.

[AlbionGirl]

If Gibson had succumbed to the critics and publicly denounced his father, I don't think I could have had any respect for him as a man.

I agree wholeheartedly, and thanks for the compliment. It really is a visceral thing for me and maybe that's because I'm Italian and in Italian culture, the family is sacrosanct. And taking hits on the behalf of any one of it's members is a badge of honor.

[af_vet_1981]

But neither has he endorsed his father's rather kooky views on the Holocaust.

That is correct (although I believe he should rebuke his father and not suffer sin upon him). Mel Gibson admitted to Diane Sawyer that 6 million Jews were died in the Holocaust, according to this transcript. She asked the question for him and he answered "Sure."

ABC News

Hutton Gibson: "These people [World War II Nazis] are efficient. They know how to do things, and if they had set out to kill six million Jews, they would have done it. But all we hear about is Holocaust survivors. 'Oh, we knew it happened. Here is a survivor, there is a survivor. My father and mother were survivors.' They weren't that efficient.

There were too many survivors.

And they claim there were six million in Poland. After the war, there were 200,000, it is said. Therefore, he must have killed six million of them. They simply got up and left. They were all over the Bronx and Brooklyn and Sydney, Australia, and Los Angeles. They have to have some place to go where there is money. No, they don't work anywhere where they can get out of it. They are great pencil pushers and they are the superior people, and therefore they are entitled to the top jobs, supervisory stuff and so on."

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Transcript: The Passion February 22, 2004 Reporter: Diane Sawyer Producer: Primetime

• DIANE SAWYER: Gibson's father, Hutton Gibson, age 85, who has written books and a newsletter with some decidedly provocative terms of phrase. He has called the Pope "Garrulous Karolus, the Koran kisser". And in that New York Times magazine interview, he seemed to be questioning the scope of the holocaust, sceptical that six million Jews had died. What does Gibson think?
• MEL GIBSON: Do I believe that there were concentration camps where defenceless and innocent Jews died cruelly under the Nazi regime? Of course I do, absolutely. It was an atrocity of monumental proportion.
• DIANE SAWYER: And you believe there were millions, six million, millions?
• MEL GIBSON: Sure.
• DIANE SAWYER: I think people wondered if your father's views were your views on this.
• MEL GIBSON: Their whole agenda here, my detractors, is to drive a wedge between me and my father and it's not going to happen. I love him. He's my father.
• DIANE SAWYER: And you will not speak publicly about him beyond that.
• MEL GIBSON: I am tight with him. He's my father. Got to leave it alone, Diane. Got to leave it alone.