Replies

I have not seen the movie yet (I will probably not see it until it comes out on DVD) so I will not say anything about the movie.

However, I am a bit concerned over the attitude, displayed by some people on this board, that anyone who expresses any misgivings whatsoever about the impact of this movie, its scriptural and historical accuracy, or Mel Gibson's motivations, is immediately an "anti-Christian bigot." Ironically, it's usually the very same people who complain that they can never criticise Israel without being called "anti-Semitic."

I am also angered by the hysterical comments from some allegedly "Orthodox" Jews (Eli Yisah and Tzvi Weinreb) who ought to know better. I know that viewing this movie is not goint to make me doubt my own religion and run out to become a Christian. What an insult to my faith and my commitment, to claim that it could be swept away by a movie and therefore I shouldn't be allowed to see it!

I think it was Dennis Prager on Fox News the other night who put it very well, basically saying that one cannot expect Jews to not have any trepidation about this film, while at the same time acknowledging that it is a bit far out there to believe that the movie is going to provoke anti-semitism. He said (and I paraphrase) that due to the very nature of the film, Jews going to see it will naturally expect to see Jews portrayed badly, while Christians going into the theater will expect to feel personally responsible for the violence on screen.

It all comes down to one thing, imho, and that is that the left feels threatened by a strong relationship between Christians and Jews and will do whatever it can to break it down. This happens to be a convenient catalyst toward that end.

My husband and I are probably going to see this at a Saturday matinee. I want to see it, but at the same time I am afraid. No one likes to be confronted with their own guilt, which is exactly as I see it, and no doubt most evangelicals do as well.

"However, I am a bit concerned over the attitude, displayed by some people on this board, that anyone who expresses any misgivings whatsoever about the impact of this movie, its scriptural and historical accuracy, or Mel Gibson's motivations, is immediately an "anti-Christian bigot." Ironically, it's usually the very same people who complain that they can never criticize Israel without being called "anti-Semitic.""

I think a lot of it is blowback from the ACLU/Hard Left attack on Christianity in all quarters in America over the last four decades. "The Passion" has put that which the cultural Marxists have fought so hard to bury right back in the middle of the American consciousness. It is at the core of the Culture Wars—and it is indeed a war, and American Christians fight back.

"I know that viewing this movie is not going to make me doubt my own religion and run out to become a Christian. What an insult to my faith and my commitment, to claim that it could be swept away by a movie and therefore I shouldn't be allowed to see it!"

I applaud your objectivity and caliber. The entrance of this movie into the American cultural experience has perhaps presented some risk to the Jewish/Christian alliance in advocacy for the Nation of Israel. But it also has provided opportunity to overcome that. May we choose wisely. I know we will.