[Aquinasfan]

I'm speechless. I mean, I shouldn't expect more from the Globe but... damn. This is high crap. Crap has been elevated to an art form.

[Aquinasfan]

You have to see this. It's pathetic, but funny.

[wideawake]

Alex Beam is merely spouting, word for word, the Jesus Seminar's own press.

He's an unthinking mouthpiece who has literally no conception of what he's discussing.

[elenchus]

How about this article:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/951145/posts

The original polling information is at:

http://www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PagePressRelease.asp?PressReleaseID=127&Reference=F

[Tax-chick]

Egad. Words fail me.

[big gray tabby]

What kills me is that he won't come right out and say that he hasn't seen the movie.

What a tool.

[Kwilliams]

"Whatever Gibson's intentions, the film will be perceived as anti-Semitic, because the Christian Bible holds that Jesus was a Jewish prophet rejected and betrayed by his own people."

What?

[PaulJ]

the film will be perceived as anti-Semitic, because the Christian Bible holds that Jesus was a Jewish prophet rejected and betrayed by his own people.

I guess The Bible needs a politically correct make-over.

[Pietro]

The Jesus Seminar has been thouroughly debunked by serious theologians as well as historians, I reference the Christian Research Center.

I'm also reminded of the words of St. Paul who said that if Christ did not rise from the dead then Christians are the most unfortunate of all peoples (sorry for the paraphrase).

I think Mel's movie is important precisely as a stick in the eye to all these wishy-washy Christians that are comfortable w/ platitudes but uncomfortable w/ the idea of everlasting judgement. They don't want to see the reality of Christ's suffering because it will shatter their world of complacency.

[carton253]

It is crap... what a hatchet job... on Gibson, on this film, on Jesus, and on Christians.

[Savage Beast]

Whether or not Hutton Gibson is a crackpot I wouldn't know, but judging from this article, it appears that Alex Beam certainly is.

[mhking]

This writer is full of used food.

I saw the trailer, and I would arguably say that the film has the potential of being one of the biggest Christian outreach vehicles in the history of contemporary media. The sheer power that is radiated from that short excerpt blows everything the televangelists are doing out of the water. TBN, Daystar, Sky Angel and The Word Network pale in comparison.

What I got from that was a true indication of the depth of the sacrifice that Our Lord made for us all.

Many people don't understand the sheer brutality of Ancient Rome. Many don't understand how Jesus bucked the established system among the Jews of the day. Many people don't understand the true ramifications of what happened 2,000 years ago. This film will change that for untold numbers of people.

In the larger scope of things, that fact alone will completely overshadow any notion of how much this film makes or does not make monitarily.

That so many people find fault with Gibson, simply for having the wherewithal to even attempt to tell this story, speaks volumes in terms of how powerful this message has the potential to be.

[steplock]

"Whatever Gibson's intentions, the film will be perceived as anti-Semitic"

Could it be because of POS like this "reporter"?

Reporter's email is :

beam@globe.com

[BibChr]

...the storied Jesus Seminar, whose members, mostly serious Biblical scholars from diverse fields, spent 10 years sorting out what ''really'' happened in the events described in the New Testament

Oh, good heavens. "Storied," all right: the idea that the Jesus Seminar was in any sense an exercise in dispassionate, fact-oriented scholarship is quite a whopper of a story in itself.

See How to Make Your Very Own Jesus.

Dan

[Alberta's Child]

In a related story, Alex Beam also criticized Steven Spielberg for his decision to release Schindler's List.

"No matter what his intentions," Beam said, "this film comes across as very anti-German."

/sarcasm off/

[FourPeas]

You know, I never planned to see Gibson's movie, mostly because watching suffering and brutality is so disturbing to me that I have nightmares for weeks to follow after watching a graphic movie. Still, considering the volume of pieces like this that seem to pop-up everywhere, I'm seriously considering "voting" with my pocket book and purchasing a ticket anyway even though I'll skip the actual showing.

[Future Snake Eater]

I attended church when they began their work. I -- and millions like me -- am attending church now that they have finished. Do you think I am surprised to learn that some question the story of the virgin birth? Or, more astonishing still, that some doubt Jesus walked on water?

But for some real truth, read The Globe, right?

No, Mr. Beam, it doesn't surprise me that you and others like you don't believe in a word of the Bible.

What these people don't understand, what Mel Gibson and his ilk don't understand, is that the literal truth of Jesus' story isn't what animates Christian belief. Many of us are awed by the figurative beauty of a story that created a system of values and beliefs that has survived for 2,000 years...

You obviously fail to understand everything, based on this statement. Go back to Sunday School, grown-up church is too advanced for you, obviously.

[Petronski]

Both hilarious and sad: the "Jesus Seminar" is a spiritual authority, but Gibson's father is a "crackpot."

That sounds about right for Boston.

[KarlInOhio]

assigned to the red and pink categories in The Five Gospels

Huh? Did I miss one? Was King Arthur in Monty Python and the Holy Grail doing the counting?

[stuartcr]

It's pretty obvious that's why they are ALL called religious beliefs....not religious facts.

[txzman]

What do you expect from an uninformed, uneducated ("beliefs not facts") liberal with an axe to grind? Don't levae out anti-christian.