Posted on 08/02/2006 12:45:17 AM PDT by tessalu
LOS ANGELES - Mel Gibson said yesterday he is not a bigot or an anti-Semite, and that he apologizes to "everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words" he used when he was arrested for drunken driving early Friday. "Hatred of any kind goes against my faith," he said in a statement released through his publicist Alan Nierob. "I Advertisement "I'm not just asking for forgiveness," Gibson said. "I would like to take it one step further and meet with leaders in the Jewish community, with whom I can have a one-on-one discussion to discern the appropriate path for healing." It was the second apology the 50-year-old Oscar winner has issued through Nierob since his arrest. Gibson said he is "in the process of understanding where those vicious words came from during that drunken display," and hopes members of the Jewish community, "whom I have personally offended," will help him in his recovery efforts. "There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of anti-Semitic remark," Gibson said. "But please know from my heart that I am not an anti-Semite. I am not a bigot. Hatred of any kind goes against my faith."
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
The nation of Israel has allowed Arabs and Muslims to live there, just as the same as any other and to have a good life. I have an Arab friend in Haifa, and I do want the best for him too.
Yes, I would forgive Mel Gibson.
He needs to be condemned just as much as any guy going off the rails and then be allowed to dust down and start all over again.
This is a case of 'you who is without sin cast the first stone'.
Or am I turning into a wet liberal?
Sorry, Mel. There's no such thing as "forgiveness" in the public eye. You will be hated for this the rest of your life, and no matter what you do, your actions will always be remembered.
Too bad he's going to the leftist Jews for forgiveness. Can you imagine all the hand wringing that would being going on over at ADL if Mel Gibson went to, let's say, Rabbi Lapin to do his penance!
The trouble is, I think, that what Mel wants is "instant healing," based on words, not deeds.
I think he is reaping what he deserves.. Jesus was a Jew.. and he forgave the jews for crucifying him. Isn't he essentially stating that he hates Jesus by saying he hates the jews?
If Mel is being sincere he is ruined in Hollywood. If he would only offer a non apology through a Hollywood intermediary and say it's all George Bush's fault he would be held in the highest esteem amongst the dregs of tinsel town.
Everyone here is entitled to an opinion, and this is why I like Free Republic. This is as it should be.
Since so many people are trying to analyze and figure out what is inside Mel Gibson, I'll offer my two cents:
Mel was raised in a family where one parent (his father) was clearly anti-Semitic, as reported in the past, that parent doubts the Holocaust, etc., and a child cannot be exposed to such bigotry during their formative years without being influenced in some way, and that influence can manifest itself in any number of ways.
I think in Mel's case, that he has been (by his own admission) fighting the demon of alcoholism all his life. I think that Mel, like any one of us, has a mixture of good and bad within him. We are all sinners, each and every last one of us, and without the Grace of God, via the Blood of Christ, we are utterly without hope or help.
Mel produced a film ("The Passion of the Christ") which is a powerful evangelical tool which has brought many people to Christ, and he could not have made such a film if his own faith were a facade, I wonder also if his pouring himself into that film project was a way of trying to compensate for the anti-Semitic influence of his father, which he no doubt has been carrying around inside him all his life. After all, it is no secret that Jesus is a Jew.
Mel had too much to drink last week and he got pulled over by the cops. He is smart enough to know, even in a drunken state that such an arrest can be devastating to someone in the public eye, someone who is a Hollywood household name.
He reacted with anger, indignation, embarrassment, with every sort of explosive emotion he possessed.
And the childhood exposure to his father's anti-Semitism came roaring forth. Alcohol is, truth be told - the great uninhibiter.
Now Mel is facing, in the public eye, his own flaws and demons and he knows, oh believe me, he KNOWS that he needs to get help or his life will literally and ultimately be over. He has asked for forgiveness, he wants to somehow make things right, and only an ice-cold soul would suggest that he should be shunned, condemned and forgotten.
Mel needs prayer, and he is my Christian brother. I am compelled to pray for him, and I am.
Maybe so, but once again, those are words, not deeds. I'm afraid he's going to have to live this one down, which takes time, and action.
Actually, all faiths disagree with other faiths. Catholic theology disagrees with Protestant theology. Christian theology in its many variations disagrees with Jewish theology. Jewish theology disagrees within itself. Christian theology disagrees even more within itself--witness the 100 or so denominations, sects, and cults.
Christian schisms did not arise from love; hatred has always been part of the vested interests of the clergy. Witness the violent suppression of "heretics".
You're turning into a groveling, wet liberal.
Exactly!
Hey don't mince your word, say what you mean!
kind regards.
LOL...I usually do. :-)
First it was he didn't say it, then it was he said it and he's sorry, then it was he's an alcoholic who has blackouts and doesn't remember anything he said and if he said it he didn't mean, but he's sorry. What's this one, the tenth apology/grovel?
The man is a life long alcoholic, who has also said he used various forms of drugs and was addicted to them too, had had a bunch of until now, unreported DUIs in the past three years, and now wants everyone to forgive him for saying a lot of horrid things when he was drunk. WHAT ABOUT THE NASTY GARBAGE HE SAID WHEN HE WAS SUPPOSEDLY SOBER?
He's an anti-war ( especially against the WOT !) nut, who has made many nasty, derisive, vile statements about President Bush.
So how come anyone ever thought that he was a conservative...because he made THE PASSION? Because he starred in two movies ( THE PATRIOT and the one about Wallace ), that are SO much pap, revisionist garbage, and 99% FICTION, but somehow "talked to" some people here? Is that all it takes to be seen as a CONSERVATIVE on FR? If so, we're in BIG trouble!
You give the public credit for a much longer attention span than they have exhibited to date. All this righteous indignation is sickening. He is not the first, nor the last celebrity to make an ass of himself in public. People are reading way too much into the whole incident.
I am very sure the majority of people making the most noise about this have disliked him since he made that film. He committed the crime of being extremely successful and they are happy now that they have something they can use to "destroy" him with. It is all a petty, shallow and immature little game. In that regard it is like all the other silly little games played in Hollywood.
Who knows whether Israel has "a right to exist." Does the USA have a "right to exist"? Do China and Bulgaria and North Korea have a "right to exist"?
My point is that it is not about "rights". It is a matter of whose "realities". There are evolution-deniers equally from christists and islamicists.
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