I don't know if the film is anti-Jewish. But the response to criticism smacks of anti-Semitism.

beliefnet ^ | august 2003 | Amy-Jill Levine

[dennisw]

I have to run ... cannot respond for some hours

[JohnGalt]

Pro-censorship article on FR?

[dennisw]

My concern is not with the United States. My contention is that outside of America this film will be interpreted as anti Semitic. Will provide a useful audio-visual aid to enemies of Jews in parts of Europe, Asia and Muslim countries.

[dennisw]

get real ....you are a one liner bomb thrower

[dennisw]

bttt

[JohnGalt]

The author is suggesting that the artists change his work to conform to their world view.

Traditionally that is called censorship.

[StolarStorm]

I know that the film isn't anti-Jewish. But the attacks on this film smacks of Anti-Gentile.

[pbear8]

Jesus' cross is manufactured in the Temple. this unbiblical and a-historical scene is analogous to asserting that the ovens of Auschwitz were constructed in the Vatican itself under the watchful eyes of Pius XII.

Not having seen the movie I cannot say where Jesus' cross is 'manufactured'. That being said her analogy is classic anti-Catholic bigotry. Ms. Levine is passing around a lot of evil to try and make her point - that no movie about Jesus should ever be made by actual believers.

[Mr. Lucky]

Do you seriously believe this film will be distributed in Muslim countries?

[per loin]

What really smacks of anti-semitism is not the film or the reaction to its critics, but the reaction to those who draw attention to the reaction to those critics.

[sydney smith]

After a while, you get sick and tired of cry-babies. It's not antisemitism, it's anticrybabyism.

[AppyPappy]

Correction: Jesus was killed by the Romans AND the Jewish church authorities.

[niteowl77]

It doesn't stop, does it? Mel, you would have been better off if you had just shown the real story: where Jesus was crucified at the behest of gun-owning, white Republicans. No one would be objecting.

If you had also thrown in a made-up quote supporting the divine ordaination of gay clergy, you'd be in Nobel Prize territory. But no... you had to follow the book.

[MEG33]

We Christians should edit the New Testament.Instead of Jewish,what shall we call Jesus,his family,his disciples and his followers?Shall we say Jesus went to a hindu temple instead of the Temple?

[Ann Archy]

You CANNOT be serious!! These people hate Jews AND Christians!!

I think that the Jewish people are a little scared because so many Jews are turning Christian....mostly Catholic. I think they are very worried about that and so they bring out the anti-Semitism label when really a ton of Jews are anti-Christian. I see it and hear it in my own in-law family and their friends. They say terrible things about Christians bt I can honestly say I never heard any bad things about Jews or any other religion when I was growing up.

[SJackson]

Do you seriously believe this film will be distributed in Muslim countries?

Who knows, but it's a theme that plays well there. Assads first comments to the Pope on the occasion of his visit to Syria a few years ago dealt with the nature of todays Jews as Christkillers (and Mohammedkillers, where he got that from I don't know) and their ongoign persecution of Christians and Muslims

[Ann Archy]

Miss Levine should go read he articles in the New York Times written by Jews and PRAISING the Pope for his help!! REVISIONISTS and PROPANGANDISTS.....and there really isnt any reason for it.

[Terriergal]

I doubt these same people would agree that "the Christians" killed Martin Luther King, Jr., or that "the Black Muslims" killed Malcolm X.

Huh? What do their deaths have in common with the Savior of the World? Who cares who killed them except to figure out who to throw in jail?

Any accurate portrayal of any part of scripture could be portrayed as anti-Jew because the Jews make as mistakes just as the rest of the world does. Showing the whole picture has become taboo. Even in Spielberg's Prince of Egypt they minimize the Israelite's grumbling and fickleness when it came to following God. They cut it off right at the part where Moses would have come down and found them all worshipping idols. The only naysayer was Aaron in the whole film.

[Eva]

The film is only anti-Semitic if Chritianity is anti-Semitic. This criticism does more to fuel anti-Semitism than the film ever could. The ADL comes across as very elitist and bigotted against Christianity, not a very good impression for a group that is supposedly working for better acceptance of Jews.

[nina0113]

You think Saudi Arabia et al. are going to allow this film to be shown?