Posted on 09/29/2003 8:25:13 AM PDT by presidio9
Cecil B. DeMille was smarter than Mel Gibson. In 1927, when DeMille filmed his version of the life of Christ, "The King of Kings," he covered all the theological bases by placing on the payroll a Protestant minister, a Catholic priest and a rabbi. Gibson, director and co-author of "The Passion," billed as the most authentic version of the life and death of Christ ever filmed, refused to have the high priests of official religion vet his vision and, the way things are going, they're going to crucify him.
Though "The Passion" won't be released until Ash Wednesday in April, it has already sparked a storm of controversy because of fears that Gibson will resurrect not the good word of the New Testament but the old libel of the Jews as "Christ killers."
Responding to Gibson's unrepentant defense of the film in last week's New Yorker, Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, accused the director of entertaining "views that can only be described as anti-Semitic."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Please take the time to learn about the subject being discussed, and you will avoid displays of ignorance in the future. By absolutely no means does Catholicism deify Mary, and to suggest otherwise is an insult to Catholics. I know you intended no insult, but you need to be more careful in religious discussions. Thanks so much.
Actually, I do know what I'm talking about. Many Catholics are commonly encouraged to pray to Mary, even adore her, and in my book, that's not only wrong, it's deification. Catholicism might not go as far as explicitly saying, "Mary is God," but making someone the object of prayer and adoration (worship) is deification.
Perhaps you yourself don't pray to Mary. Great. Maybe you have never run into Catholics who do. But I know many who do.
So why don't you be more careful when chastising people for expressing what they know. It's an insult to thinking people.
Again, you are incorrect on this. So are some of the "Catholics" that you know. But, officially, the Catholic Church recognizes only one God. We affirm this once a week with our Prayer of the Faithful, which begins "We believe on one God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth..."
I think where you may be confused is the so-called "Special Role" that Mary holds for Catholics. We believe that Mary alone was born without sin. We believe that she represents a special example to all Catholics, because she lived her life without sin. And we believe that when she died she ascended bodily into heaven in a prelude to our own resurrection at the end of the world. But that is it. Some Catholics may indeed "pray" to Mary, but she has no more ability to grant prayers than your dead aunt. She was a mortal. Had she not been, Jesus would have been born of two deities and therefore not human at all. When Catholics "pray" to Mary, they are asking the Blessed Mother to pray for us, because we believe that her own prayers are especially effective. Get it? You may come accross ignorant Catholics who thought Mary was some sort of a minor god, but they are incorrect. You will never see any Catholic official endorse any sort of Marian divinity, because it doesn't exist and it is not part of Catholic theology. Period. So people who "pray" to Mary are no longer practicing Catholicism. Get it? Their behavior is no more "Catholic" than that of Pro-Abortion politicians like Teddy Kennedy.
I hope you have learned a little more about Mary's role in Catholicism. What you thought you knew was incorrect. Again, I don't think that it was your intention to insult Catholics, but the whole "deification of Mary" issue is an old slander that Protestants have used for years to attack Catholicism. It is similiar to accusations that we either worship the Pope or that he is our true political leader. All intelligent Catholics find these opinions to be ignorant and insulting. It is not my intention to chastise you, but merely to educate you on my religion since your current viewpoint is incorrect. When you voice it, you reinforce incorrect stereotypes.
Any marketing benefit Gibson gets is merely a serendipitous result of his courage and integrity.
The only bad thing about that film was that Willem Defoe looks somewhat Neanderthal. Made for a weird-looking Christ; but his acting was good.
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