Posted on 08/11/2003 7:39:54 AM PDT by dennisw
Mel Gets Hell On His Passion
Eric J. Greenberg
Hollywood hero Mel Gibson may be a straight shooter on the silver screen, but his accusation of theft against a group of interfaith scholars is way off target.
So says the Anti-Defamation League and a group of Catholic scholars, who dismiss as Hollywood fantasy Gibsons charge that the scholars used a stolen script to criticize as dangerously anti-Semitic his forthcoming movie about the final hours of Jesus life.
The ADL last week declared its support for the seven interfaith scholars four Catholic and three Jewish only days after the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops washed its hands of the interfaith team and its 18-page report.
The report cites numerous anti-Semitic scenes and violations of Roman Catholic teachings in the The Passion, which Gibson is directing and co-wrote. Gibson said the film, which is to be released next spring, is based on the Four Gospels.
ADL fully stands behind their report calling on Gibson to revise the film.
ADL noted that in the report, made public by The Jewish Week, the scholars unanimously agreed that the screenplay ... was replete with objectionable elements that would promote anti-Semitism.
In a new twist to the controversy, ADL said that contrary to Gibsons claims, his ICON Productions was well aware that the interfaith team had been reviewing the script in late April and early May. At that point, Gibson and ICON indicated their willingness to consider the scholars suggestions, ADL confirmed.
Rabbi Eugene Korn, ADLs director of interfaith affairs, told The Jewish Week that on May 2, Gibson was privately sent the scholars report, which outlines the anti-Semitic scenes and violations of Roman Catholic teachings. But ICON responded by threatening a lawsuit, Rabbi Korn said.
In a letter dated May 9, ICON for the first time hurled the accusation that the scholars had used a stolen early draft of the script.
Meanwhile, the controversy has caused a rift between the Bishops Conference and four of its top interfaith advisers.
The Catholic members of the interfaith team drafted a strong letter to the Rev. Arthur Kennedy, the conferences director of ecumenical affairs, expressing their outrage at USCCB capitulation to Gibsons legal threat. They said the action threatens Catholic teaching and their own credibility. (Their position is posted at www.bc.edu/cjlearning.)
The charge that we stole [the script] is absurd and insulting, said the June 25 letter signed by Mary Boys of Union Theological Seminary, Philip Cunningham of Boston University, the Rev. John Pawlikowski of the Chicago Theological Union and the Rev. Lawrence Frizzell of Seton Hall University.
They disputed as regrettable the Bishops Conference apology to Gibson and as misleading its June 11 press release claiming that the conference did not establish the interfaith team to study the script.
We were in fact assembled by Dr. [Eugene] Fisher [associate director of ecumenical affairs at the Bishops Conference] and Rabbi Korn, the letter stated.
The scholars called on the Bishops Conference to issue a public clarification that they did not steal the script and support their recommendations.
We do not deserve being left high and dry, the scholars said.
The team of scholars has not said how it obtained the script.
Gibsons critics also warned that he is apparently using as sources an 18th century mystical anti-Semitic book by a German nun, Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich, and a tome by Mary of Agreda, a 17th century Spanish aristocrat. This contradicts Gibsons claim that he is using only the Gospels.
Emmerichs book is a diary of the nuns visions, many of which are anti-Semitic, according to Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
Emmerich told of a vision she had in which she rescued from purgatory an old Jewish woman who confessed to her that Jews strangled Christian children and used their blood in the observance of their rituals, Rabbi Hier said.
Mary of Agreda wrote that all Jews continue to be afflicted because of their involvement in Jesus death.
For filmmakers to do justice to the biblical accounts of the passion, they must complement their artistic vision with sound scholarship, which includes knowledge of how the passion accounts have been used historically to disparage and attack Jews and Judaism, ADL said.
Asked by The Jewish Week if Gibson has or will consult with interfaith experts before the movie is released, ICON producer Steve McEveety said in a statement: As is consistent with the filmmaking process, we have, and will continue to consult the resources necessary to create the most accurate and honest presentation of the story as possible.
The gospels are not the word of God. They are the recollections of people, some of which contradict others at various points. There were also other gospels that were not included in the canon because the church judged them inaccurate hundreds of years after the fact.
The gospels leave out the key fact that Caiaphas, the High Priest, was not a legitmate High Priest but was appointed by the Romans. There is also a striking difference between the way the Pharisees are portrayed in the gospels and their recorded statements at the trial of the apostles and the trial of Paul in the Book of Acts, presumably taken from actual court records. The Pharisees were apparently not mentioned in any court records of the trial of Jesus, by the way.
Bzzzzzzzt! Wrong answer.
Bzzzzzzzt! Wrong answer
Which gospels are the word of God? The ones that are in the NT or the ones that were deleted?
The only Gospels. 16.5% of the Word of God.
Spare me the "deleted gospels" crap. The "gospels" of Thomas, etc. were/are not part of the Word of God. Never were.
I'd say that statement pretty much sums it up.
Actually yes. The ADL is a joke, and they with all of their nashing of teeth and tearing at their clothes, all they're doing is creating a huge buzz. Gibson couldn't have bought this type of publicity for millions.
You and Veronica are being ridiculous, the both of you. More Jews are heroes than villans (inlcuding Christ Himself and the apostles) in the story of Christ. Is this not glaringly obvious, historically speaking?
I've got news for you two. The type of inspiration this movie causes is the type that leads to glorification of Israel, it's people and it's tribes, not the other way around. People of the spirit "get it", it seems you don't.
But go ahead and be of the mindset of the hand wringing creeps over at the ADL if you must. I must say that it's a little disappointing though.
I just wish the gospels had mentioned the fact that the biggest villian, Caiaphas, was not an independent actor but was, in fact, a Roman appointee and served at the pleasure of Pilate.
The ADL and its backers need to expound on this new rule they propose. Is telling the Passion story according to the Gospels now forbidden? Where does the Church stand?
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