Controversy Swirls Around Mel Gibson's 'Passion'

ZENIT News Agency ^ | May 30, 2003 | Unattributed

[Russell Scott]

Sounds like a whole lot of Christianphobia going on.

[alisasny]

What does this all mean...

I shall tell you..

WE are looking at a great movie : )

People in the "know" cant handle it...

Bring the movie on..let the paying public decide.


MEL, KUDOS..you done good.

[Coleus]

`

[VOA]

Sounds like a whole lot of Christianphobia going on.

Funny...liberals who wailed about a "pre-emptive" strike on Iraq have no qualms
about making one on a film about The Prince of Peace.

I guess they think that when Christians see this film they'll start acting like...
those practitioners of "The Religion of Peace, Inc.".

[Delphinium]

I can't wait to see it. I think it will cause many to come to Christ. This is real reason why this is causing such a stir.

[Delphinium]

Sounds to me like alot of CHRISTphobia.

[Lurker]

" According to Carroll, "Even a faithful repetition of the Gospel stories of the death of Jesus can do damage exactly because those sacred texts themselves carry the virus of Jew hatred."

I sure hope it isn't an airborne virus. I'd hate to catch it.

L

[ElkGroveDan]

ping

[tet68]

Bears repeating.

, between a decent man and his critics, I'll choose the decent man every time -- until the evidence shows otherwise."

[Mercat]

My 23 year old who's best friend is Jewish believes with me that Christianity is a form of Judism. Paul and the other apostles were talking about the local authorities when they bashed the Jews. Today's observant Jews may be the descendents culturally of those authorities but a lot has happened.

[DoughtyOne]

IMO (always a great way to start hugh...) Gibson's goal is to create something that inspires a deeper understanding, or a renewed personal interest in Christ.  This genre is very difficult to do well.  From some perspective there will always be a problem with just about anything you portray on this subject.  Gibson knew this going in and still pushed ahead.  Good for him.

Let's say he does get part of it wrong.  Rather than damn him for it, I would suggest people use his portrayal as a grounds for discussion, desminating their view on the topic they disagree with.  If these disagreements are raised and discussed in a clinical healthy way, Gibson will have achieved a worthy goal.  Truth or enlightenment will be achieved, views aired on an important topic.  If his portrayal is as tender and loving as I suspect it will be, he will more than likely produce something that touches people on many levels.

There are many people in the entertainment industry.  Any of them could have involved themselves in such a project.  Only Mel did.  Often Mel plays a role where the leading character is a man of seldom equaled strength.  With this project, attempting to reveal insights into the greatest leader of all time, Mel will more than likely do right by Christ.  In doing so he will probably come as close to being one of those men of unequaled strength as he ever will.  I look forward to the finished product.

I have seen some incredibly low and vile attempts to trash Gibson and his family in conjunction with animus toward this project.  At this time it appears to me that Gibson's character will rule the day.  Kudos to him.

[xm177e2]

Writing in the New York Jewish weekly Forward, Orthodox Jewish author David Klinghoffer defended Gibson's efforts and chided his co-religionists for adhering to the historically dubious account of Jesus' death handed down by Jewish officialdom.

Such an account absolves the Jews from complicity in Jesus' death and places the blame on the shoulders of the Romans. "Our loyalty should be to Judaism and to truth," Klinghoffer writes, "not to an officially sanctioned, sanitized version of Judaism or the truth -- which may be neither Jewish nor true."

Exactly. Go back 2000 years, and my ancestors were in small part complicit in Jesus' death. They didn't kill him, but they chose not to save him. Jews had no responsibility to choose to save Jesus, because it was a choice between Jesus or Barabas, a Jew who wasn't in the habit of kicking over tables at temples and getting into arguments with important rabbis. Remember, most of the Jews at the time did not like Jesus, he was stirring up trouble (which is also why the Romans hated him). That isn't to say he was wrong, it's to say that a lot of people did not like what he was saying.

But the Jews did not kill Jesus, the Romans did. And according to Christian theology, everyone on Earth is responsible, not just Romans, not just Jews.

Boston Globe columnist James Carroll, for example, denounced Gibson's film for its literal reading of the Biblical accounts of Christ's passion. According to Carroll, "Even a faithful repetition of the Gospel stories of the death of Jesus can do damage exactly because those sacred texts themselves carry the virus of Jew hatred."

This is a vile thing to say, and it's false. I see far, far more Jew-hatred in atheist Eureaucrats than in Christian Americans.

[tet68]

The report takes issue with director Gibson's decision to focus on Christ's passion rather than presenting a broader vision of "the ministry of Jesus, of his preaching and teaching about God's reign, his distinctive table companionship, his mediation of God's gracious mercy."

....his distinctive table companionship...?????


Amy-Jill I got something that needs expunging, call me later.

[xm177e2]

Boston Globe columnist James Carroll, for example, denounced Gibson's film for its literal reading of the Biblical accounts of Christ's passion. According to Carroll, "Even a faithful repetition of the Gospel stories of the death of Jesus can do damage exactly because those sacred texts themselves carry the virus of Jew hatred."

Let's see: Jesus goes walking around and Jews are upset with him. Therefore the Bible inherently and irrevocably carries the "virus of Jew hatred."

What does Carrol' think of the Koran? Mohammed goes walking around the desert making war on Jewish tribes. Does that mean the Koran is infected with the virus of Jew-hatred? If Carroll thinks so, he certainly wouldn't dare say it. He's an anti-Christian bigot (but you don't need me to tell you that)

[widowithfoursons]

Well, Boston Globe pretty much explains itself. But "Jew hatred"? Christ was a Jew, and every Christian knows and honors Him.

[F16Fighter]

"The ad hoc scholar's group that produced the report...central complaint, however, is that "a graphic movie presentation of the crucifixion could reawaken the very anti-Semitic attitudes that we have devoted our careers to combating."

Dontcha just love anti-Christian "ad hoc scholars" who have a pathological need to deprive the rest of the truth?

I wonder if these same elitists would also be amicable to a WWII movie with a concentration camp gas/shower scene depicted instead as hot-tub parties given by German "hosts"??

I think not.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

"...those sacred texts themselves carry the virus of Jew hatred."

Vile blasphemy.

James Carroll should stick to his usual reading material; "Harry Potter V" is due out next month.

[Eala]

One of the signers, Amy-Jill Levine of Vanderbilt University describes herself as "a Yankee Jewish feminist ... with a commitment to exposing and expunging anti-Jewish, sexist and heterosexist theologies."

With enemies like this, who needs friends? *\;-)

Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to:
1. Seeing the movie, and
2. Adding it to my video collection.

(Said video collection will be including many of the "hoary old" classics -- Ben Hur, The Robe, etc. -- since it seems they aren't being aired on politically-correct broadcast television any more.)

[Slyfox]

A huge bump for Mel, and Jesus.