Mel Gibsons Joke?

Page Six Washington Post ^ | 3/17/04 | Richard Johnson

[hellinahandcart]

Hi jocon. I guess it's one of those esoteric jokes that only a career bookworm can appreciate.

The academic equivalent of "make me a sammich"?

[mlmr]

It's perfectly true that some Jews were involved at high levels in Communist violence against Christians. Trotsky is one famous example. Bela Kun is another. That hardly excuses the holocaust, however. It also partly explains why some Ukrainians and Poles participated in killing Jews (while others came to their rescue). Regretably, the Jews they killed were not the guilty parties. They had earlier been victimized by Communist Jews, but they mostly went after religious Jews, who were easier to identify by their clothing. Christianity as such had nothing to do with it, nor did Judaism have anything to do with the misdeeds of some secular Jews


Where, oh where, in my God's Name, did you read, in my post that I was EXCUSING the deaths of six million Jewish souls at the hands of the atheistic Nazis? I am just embedding that horror fact among the other horror facts that do not have a narrative in our history.

I really never thought of the religious roots of the communists, because they obviously made Communism their religion.

[Ciexyz]

And why is that line controversial?

It's controversial because it's been taken out of context and misued by anti-Semites over the centuries for killing Jews. It's a line that if translated in the subtitles, would have bothered a number of people in the audience. It would have bothered me. It's one of those "difficult" lines that need proper explaining when it's presented.

That said, I do not believe that Mel Gibson meant to be anti-Semitic when he included the line. And since he discovered from target audiences that the line would bother people, he wisely left it untranslated in the subtitles.

[Ciexyz]

"His blood be upon us and upon our children" is a BLESSING.

I never thought of it in that way before, but you are right. There's salvation in the precious blood of Jesus. And Jesus himself forgave from the cross those who crucified him, so the Jewish leadership that plotted his death and whipped up the crowds would have been covered by that blessing. As would the spineless Pontius Pilate and the brutal Roman guards.

[mlmr]

Your tag-line is LOL brilliant.

Blush!

[Old Professer]

Ancient languages can mean whatever you want them to mean.

They are called ancient because they have been forgotten.