[thinktwice]

Don't mess with Mother Church.

[JesseHousman]

...interfaith scholars...

A group of weasely, liberals who believe that Jesus wears Nikes.

[Only1choice____Freedom]

OUCH! Truth hurts.

[Ronin]

I don't see Mel backing down now, and he would be crazy if he did.

All the ADL controversy is doing is making sure that this is the most popular movie Mel has ever made.

[VOA]

bump

[rmgatto]

Let's see the movie and decide for ourselves. Prior restraint is not the American way. Where did the "nine interfaith scholars" get the draft manuscript, anyway? And where is their indignation at all the artistic and real-world perversions of scripture permeating western civilization? What a load of craap these pious psuedo-intellectuals are pushing.

[Petronski]

Well, if the script was obtained with permission, proof of that permission would be an absolute defense.

[Johnbalaya]

The film has been made and it looks like Mel has decided on what the final cut will look like since he's been testing it out to larger and larger audiences. All the ADL can do now is protest and create controversy.

[bobsatwork]

replete with objectionable elements Cite one, please. What the heck is this anyway? The guy is making a movie, not writing history. And I'm willing to bet it will be far less offensive to Jews than the Last Temptation of Christ was to Christians.

[gaspar]

Can't we have a Jewish film on Samuel? Really, with the exception of King David its been all downhill for Jews since his time. We could get experts together to critique the film, and fight over nuance and translation and anti-Semitism and pro-Zionism, and what God told Samuel, and blasphemy, etc., etc.

[PeterPrinciple]

“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.

Notice the words used................they didn't deny it.

[ozzymandus]

I would suspect the ADL considers the entire New Testament to be "anti-semitic". Don't they have anything better to do than attack Christians?

[Skooz]

the scholars “unanimously agreed that the screenplay ... was replete with objectionable elements that would promote anti-Semitism.”

Don't see this movie! Don't see this movie!

[ex-Texan]

If you have not see the film's trailer yet:

"The Passion"

[wideawake]

The essential point is ignored: how did they obtain the script? They won't say.

If my neighbor "borrows" a saw from my garage to use without asking my permission, I may not make a big deal of it. But if he borrows it in order to cut down my shade trees, I might be inclined to make a criminal case out of it.

Similarly, if the "scholars" had used the script for legitimate study instead of using it to publicly berate Mel Gibson as an anti-Semite, Mr. Gibson might have overlooked their theft.

[novacation]

You would think Gibson is a goose stepping nazi by the way he is being attacked. Don't like the movie don't go see it. Get off the guys back. He is a more respected than most Hollywood types.All of this belly aching will only help his movie.He can interpret the death of Jesus any way he likes.

[MrConfettiMan]

“ADL fully stands behind their report” calling on Gibson to revise the film.

I'd say that statement pretty much sums it up.

[TomHarkinIsNotFromIowa]

Turn on the light and watch the roaches run.

[Longshanks]

"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.

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?

[Terriergal]

Amos 8:9-10 "In that day," declares the Sovereign LORD ,
"I will make the sun go down at noon
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
I will turn your religious feasts into mourning
and all your singing into weeping.
I will make all of you wear sackcloth
and shave your heads.
I will make that time like mourning for an only son
and the end of it like a bitter day.

Zechariah 12:10 "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.

Even the Old Testament can sound antisemitic when it rebukes the people of Israel. My guess is this is just hype meant to discredit a faithful retelling of the story.