Mel Gibson's 'The Passion' " MEL GIBSON"

worldnetdaily ^ | Posted: July 23, 2003 | joseph farah

[joobers]

Mel Gibson's 'The Passion'

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: July 23, 2003 1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

I saw a movie this week that moved me, changed me, inspired me and deepened my faith.

I was blessed to be part of a small group of people invited to a screening in Washington of Mel Gibson's "The Passion."

Even better was the fact that Mel Gibson was there to introduce the rough cut and answer questions for an hour afterward.

It was a memorable day, but it was Mel Gibson's art that stole the show.

It's not an easy picture to watch. It's grueling, in fact. It's torturous – as it should be under the circumstances. It's the story of inhuman suffering willingly accepted in the ultimate substitutional sacrifice. It's hard to watch such graphic depictions of a man suffering and dying – even when you know the ultimate outcome. But it is worth it. This is horror we all need to see and understand. This is a death that shouldn't be glossed over.

Before seeing the picture, I had read quite a bit about this movie. I had read it was controversial. I read some considered it anti-Semitic. I had read there was great concern expressed over the story.

I don't understand why.

I consider myself a good friend to the Jewish community in the U.S. and around the world. On an average, I speak to one large Jewish audience per month. I have warned Jewish audiences around the nation and the world about the rising tide of anti-Semitism. I believe it is real. I know it is a threat. I am deeply concerned about it.

But let me tell my Jewish friends: You have nothing to worry about in this movie. Drop it. Forget it. Don't waste another minute concerning yourselves with it. It is a wonderful, inspirational Christian movie that in no way takes any potshots at the Jews as a people.

It is a thoughtful, sobering, accurate recounting of the torture, death and resurrection of Jesus as told in the Gospels. Nothing more. Nothing less. Why this should be threatening to Jews is beyond me – particularly when Jews and Christians are making historic efforts to get along with one another, to find common ground and to recognize and celebrate their common values.

There's nothing remotely controversial about this movie for Christians – not real believers, not Protestants, not Catholics. So, if the Anti-Defamation League chooses to make an issue of this film, it will be the organization's own undoing. In effect, the ADL will be telling Christians their most deeply held beliefs, their faith, their Holy Scriptures are offensive.

To take issue with this movie is, essentially, to take issue with the Gospels, to take issue with the Christian faith and to take issue with a monumental artistic achievement by a filmmaker of increasing stature.

I wouldn't recommend that path to my friends in the Jewish community. It would be a dreadful mistake. It would set back Christian-Jewish relations – now at a high point in this country.

This is a movie that may not be the biggest box-office success ever, but it will resonate in the hearts and souls of millions and millions of Christians when it is released next spring – and, I suspect, for generations to come.

I am impressed beyond words.

Yet, the New York Times has tried to savage the movie. The New Republic is attempting to do it now. Others will certainly jump into the fray, having been stirred to passion by Abraham Foxman and the ADL.

They will all fail. They will all look foolish in the end. This is Mel Gibson's artistic triumph. It is his spiritual triumph. It is an act of faith that I believe will be rewarded.

It's time to get out of the way. It's time to let the artists finish this movie their way. It's time to stop all the idle gossip about it. It's time, simply, to wait – to give this film a chance to speak for itself.

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[maica]

Wow! Joseph Farah doesn't mince his words.

[Aquinasfan]

An article a day on this movie, and the release is still 8 months away...

[egarvue]

To all FReepers: Ok, I have asked this many times on many threads, but not received a response: does Mel Gibson's "The Passion" contain not only the death of Jesus, but the Resurection as well? No one has given me a straight answer, and I can't seem to find a review or article that definately says yes or no? So I'm sending out my pleading question again: does this film show Jesus' Resurrection or not? Thanks in advance for your answer.

[OpusatFR]

Mind Boggling.

We have had to sit there and have the Christian bashers tell us to keep an open mind about Corpus Christi, the blasphamous play that depicts Christ and the Apostles as flaming, The Last Temptation of Christ, assorted ~comedies~ like Dogma and others that trash religious beliefs and then Foxman and the left have the gall to say this is an offensive movie.

[Maria S]

From the article: "It is a thoughtful, sobering, accurate recounting of the torture, death and resurrection of Jesus as told in the Gospels."

Apparently the Resurrection is somehow depicted in the movie.

[Maria S]

"We have had to sit there and have the Christian bashers tell us to keep an open mind..."

Maybe it's time we started fighting back?!? For starters, by going to see this movie in droves when it finally does come out...and if it's worthwhile, telling everyone we know to go see it, too.

[NWO Slave]

Click HERE to download the trailer of the film

NOTE: This file will take about 45 minutes to download with a dial-up connection.

Save it to your My Documents folder and when it is finished downloading, bring up your My Documents folder and click on ThePassion MOV icon.

Click your cursor on Select the program from a list and choose the RealOne Player.

If you don't have the RealOne Player installed on your computer, here is how you can get it.

Click HERE to download the Free RealOne Player for Windows

Click HERE to download the Free RealOne Player for Mac OS X*

Make sure that you have the WinAmp Player installed on your computer before you install the RealOne Player.

Click HERE to download the free WinAmp 3.0 Player

[Dahoser]

The Passion of St. Luke ends with the death of Jesus. I expect Mel's movie does likewise.

[TontoKowalski]

An article a day on this movie, and the release is still 8 months away...

Yeah, you can really tell it's going to be a flop... just like the Hollywood elite have declared.

[TontoKowalski]

I thought I had read that in the Catholic faith, the Passion ended with the crucifiction, and that the movie would end there as well. But the review from the man who's seen it says "and resurrection."

For my Catholic Brothers and Sisters: Does the Passion include the resurrection, or does it end with the Crucifiction?

[WestPacSailor]

I don't think we can hold Hollyweird solely to blame for the c**p we've been seeing lately at the movies. I mean, SOMEBODY thought Dumb & Dumberer was worth a) making, and b)paying to see. As long as there are people out there willing to pay to see garbage, they'll keep selling it.

I, for one, plan on seeing "The Passion" as soon as it opens.

[OpusatFR]

You know, that is an excellent question. As a Catholic I haven't distinguished the two in my mind. It is distinguished in the gospels. Your question would make a good meditation for me to think about what the Apostles dealt with at His death and the ~finality~ of the tomb. How did Peter feel and what did remember about Christ stating that the temple would be torn down and rebuilt in three days. Our Blessed Mother's loss, Judas' greed and relativism, and all of them wandering in the shock and fear of this horrible torture. I can imagine Satan's fear and abject grovelling before the King who descends to announce the end of its reign on earth.

There is a whole lot to your question!

[FITZ]

Maybe that will be Mel's next movie.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

I think it was a brilliant move Mel took his film to Washington D.C., the nation’s hellhole of corruption. There is certainly a message there.

[Explorer89]

ping for where to get the preview

[Tax-chick]

Does the Passion include the resurrection,

"Passion" means "suffering," so I would think that ends with the crucifixion. Whether that's true of the movie, I can't say.

[Tax-chick]

The sufferings of Our Lord, which culminated in His death upon the cross, seem to have been conceived of as one inseparable whole from a very early period. Even in the Acts of the Apostles (i, 3) St. Luke speaks of those to whom Christ "shewed himself alive after his passion" (meta to mathein autou). In the Vulgate this has been rendered post passionem suam, and not only the Reims Testament but the Anglican Authorized and Revised Versions, as well as the medieval English translation attributed to Wyclif, have retained the word "passion" in English. Passio also meets us in the same sense in other early writings (e.g. Tertullian, "Adv. Marcion.", IV, 40) and the word was clearly in common use in the middle of the third century ...

From the "Catholic Encyclopedia" at newadvent.org . Note that Protestants use the word in the same sense as Catholics, to refer to the physical and spiritual sufferings of Our Lord.

[wolficatZ]

Dialup versions of the trailer have been up for over a week

http://www.themoviebox.net/trailers/moviebox_trailers/passion_tr_page.htm

Get with the program

[SoothingDave]

For my Catholic Brothers and Sisters: Does the Passion include the resurrection, or does it end with the Crucifiction?

Not usually. Versions from two different Gospels are read on Passion (Palm) Sunday and on Good Friday. The Resurrection is not proclaimed until the Easter Vigil.

So if it truly is a "Passion" play, it should end with the Crucifixion. This would make it suitable for Lenten reflection, which I imagine is the point of the undertaking.

SD