[aculeus]

Poor Frank Rich once proudly known as the Butcher of Broadway when playwrights and actors could be see their jobs destroyed by one of his nasty drama reviews in Sulzberger's rag now he can only stamp his foot at Mel's highly successful film.

[goldstategop]

Frank Rich is worried less about anti-semitism than about a religious awakening that will bury secular liberalism. That's what he really fears. Anti-semitism is simply a smokescreen to conceal the last acceptable form of bigotry on the Left from Americans, and that's their being revolted by the existence of religious people in America. Up to now they could pretend they didn't exist but when more than 100 million people went out to see the movie, its a not a good day for liberals.

[hchutch]

When someone squeals like this... does that mean a nerve's been struck?

[stanz]

A very innocuous photo for such a miserable man.

[Aggie1]

If films like this are going to be denounced for inciting violence against Jews will Nazi films be denounced for inciting violence against Germans?

I will not see the film as it is inappropriate to portray God the Son in a play taking artistic liberty with what He said and did. Besides, I've read The Book. I really don't understand why so many Christians seem much more excited about the movie but not nearly as excited about The Book. My take on it is it's because Christians aren't necessarily immune from the Hollywood and cultural influence of the times. Feelings and emotions trump thought and reason.

However, from what I have read it follows close to what actually took place. The truth can be brutal and hurt. The Jews and Romans were simply the agents while we were all the cause of His death. Let's not loose the forest because we can't see past the trees.

See Isaiah 53:5-6, "But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all".

And so the issue of the suffering and death of Christ is summed up by Paul: 1Cr 15:1-4, "Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand,by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures".

[betty boop]

We are in the midst of an escalating election-year culture war in which those of "faith" are demonizing so-called secularists - any Jews critical of Gibson and their fellow travelers, liberals.

O my. This fellow has some kind of persecution complex. No one is vilifying Jews for heaven's sake; but it's open-season on liberals because Rich is right: We are in a culture war. The "so-called secularists" are fair game. Rich should just stop crying and whining and realize that men of the Left do not own the "commons" -- the public discourse -- lock, stock, and barrel.

Perhaps this very realization is what has driven Frank Rich into such a frenzy over Mel Gibson and The Passion.

[jpl]

My quarrel is not with most of the millions of Christian believers who are moved to tears by "The Passion."

Oh Frank, your lies are so transparent.

[x]

This is taking the personal a little too far. Frank and Mel could exchange angry letters among themselves, and leave the rest of the public alone. Times readers would have benefited from reading someone who wasn't so directly involved in the controversy.

When a columnist -- like Rich or Dowd -- becomes a machine that simply responds automatically when certain buttons are pushed, what's the point of reading their work?

[mombonn]

Well, I tried to read it, but it was too nauseating. I can't wait to read the replies.

What a moron.

[Edmund Burke]

"The Passion has made me feel less secure as a Jew in America than ever before"....

If I were you, if you want to feel "more secure", I would try keeping a lower profile instead of trying to run the country when, self admitingly you only comprise 2% of the population. Keep your mouth shut and just sit back and enjoy the ride.

[Lancey Howard]

Frank Rich? Doesn't he write strictly for the Upper West Side snob litter?

[Aquinasfan]

With its laborious build-up to its orgasmic spurtings of blood and other bodily fluids, the film is constructed like nothing so much as a porn movie, replete with slo-mo climaxes and pounding music. Of all the "Passion" critics, no one has nailed its artistic vision more precisely than the journalist Christopher Hitchens, who called it a homoerotic "exercise in lurid sadomasochism" for those who "like seeing handsome young men stripped and flayed alive over a long period of time."

This man needs prayers, badly.

[Mr.Clark]

This is just sad, Rich is a joke.

[SoCar]

I'm curious as to what Mel supporters think of this

Nor do some of these pundits seem to recognize Holocaust denial when it is staring them in the face. In an interview in the current Reader's Digest, Noonan asks Gibson: "The Holocaust happened, right?" After saying that some of his best friends "have numbers on their arms," he responds: "Yes, of course. Atrocities happened. War is horrible. The Second World War killed tens of millions of people. Some of them were Jews in concentration camps." Yes, mistakes happened, atrocities happened, war happened, some of the victims were Jews. This is the classic language of contemporary Holocaust deniers, from David Irving to Gibson's own father, Hutton Gibson, a prominent anti-Semitic author and activist. Their rhetorical strategy is to diminish Hitler's extermination of Jews by folding those deaths into the war's overall casualty figures, as if the Holocaust were an idle byproduct of battle instead of a Third Reich master plan for genocide.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Just when you thought the ugliest reaction to the story of Christ was amply demonstrated on the screen, along comes Frank Rich to remind us all that "there is nothing new under the sun".

His response to Gibson's grace is to spit in his face.

I don't suppose that should come as a surprise.

[BlueAngel]

Boy, I almost feel sorry for this guy, satan has gotten into him but good. How does he live with so much hatred?

[dennisw]

to read later

[formerDem]

This Frank Rich seems full of anger, fear and hate. I'll add him to the people I'll say a rosary for.

Love your enemies----nothing irritates them more.

[Rays_Dad]

Bump for later read

[M Kehoe]

As Rich pours forth his bile, I'm glad I'm on this side of the screen.

5.56mm