Posted on 11/09/2003 7:36:25 PM PST by holy joe
National director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Abraham Foxman is apparently so obsessed with stopping Mel Gibson’s upcoming movie, “The Passion of Christ,” he’s inadvertently exposed the reason why he’s been so vocal in his opposition.
Recently, the ADL held its annual meeting in New York, and Foxman was in hyper-hit mode. In a panel discussion titled “Mel Gibson's The Passion: A Conversation on Its Implications for Jews and Christians,” Foxman warned the world of a dangerous practice that could cause “hate crimes against Jews.”
What “dangerous practice” was he speaking of? What was the treacherous practice that was causing trepidation and creating concern that “hate crimes against Jews” might occur?
Well, the threat he was speaking of happens to be the cornerstone doctrine of the Christian faith – the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ – best known to believers as Easter.
Foxman declared that “hate crimes [against Jews] go up Easter week worldwide.” He then surmised that the reason this occurs is because in Christian churches around the world a “sermon is given about the passion [of Christ].”
So, evidently Foxman’s solution for eliminating anti-Semitism is not just to snuff out Mel Gibson’s film but also to extinguish Easter as Christians know it.
Foxman wasn’t finished with his yak blitz yet. He proceeded to launch his most underhanded attack on Gibson to date, saying, “I think he's [Gibson’s] infected – seriously infected – with some very, very serious anti-Semitic views.”
These words puked out of the leader of an organization that purports to stand for tolerance. Like an angry villager in a Boris Karloff movie, Foxman looks as if he has become the kind of monster his organization has been pursuing for 90 years. He’s spewing deceitful accusations and showing everyone exactly what hate speech sounds like.
At the ADL gathering, two other panelists got into the Gibson attack groove. But their angle was that of harassment.
Paula Fredriksen, professor of theology at Boston University (and one of the original so-called scholars who condemned the film based on an out-of-date misappropriated script), claimed that she had received “drive-by e-mail.”
And professor of Judeo-Christian Studies at New York's Union Theological Seminary Sister Mary C. Boys said that she had received harassing phone calls, hate mail and e-mails from Gibson supporters.
Guess spam is more than some libs are capable of bearing. Or maybe Foxman, Fredriksen and Boys just have a really, really stubborn case of chronic secularism.
I have a suggestion for Foxman and chums: Accept the inevitable because despite your theatrics, “The Passion of Christ” is set to open at the start of the Easter season. And all signs lead to cinematic triumph and box office glory.
To Foxman and his ilk, the very existence of Gentiles is a "hate crime against Jews"
I cannot wait to see this movie. I'll buy the video asap.
BTW, the Jewish didn't kill Christ. The Romans did. DUH !!!!!
I think Foxman falls into that category known as "self-hating Jews." They're ultra-liberal, either non-practicing or barely so, but see "anti-semitism" everywhere, in any person who does not adhere to the totally secular liberal creed. And they hate practicing, orthodox Jews almost as much as they hate everybody else.
First off, the crusades are maybe not your best example, seeing as they were targeted more at the Muslims who actually controlled the lands in question and deaths of Jews were incidental. But, to answer your question anyway, most of the people we are talking were completely illiterate and could not read one word of the Bible on their own. That makes following all the handy-dandy instructions inside a little difficult, especially with corrupt rulers who fit reason to their personal ends and not vice versa.
Interesting, I did not know that.
There are cases of people whose lives were saved being very resentful toward their rescuers; perhaps that is his psychological dynamic.
What is going on here? Jews are being attacked in Germany. Synagogues are being torched in France. Around the world, Jews -- such as Daniel Pearl -- are hunted and killed as Jews. The prime minister of Malaysia tells an Islamic summit that "1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews. . . . We are up against a people who think . . . they have now gained control of the most powerful countries. . . . We cannot fight them through brawn alone" -- and gets a standing ovation from the heads of state of 57 countries. And amid all this, the Anti-Defamation League feels the need to wax indignant over a few lines on a Web log?
I think that what Foxman is doing to Gibson concerning Passion of Christ is not helpful to anyone of good will. His throwing around of the term "anti-semitic" like some cheap frisbee cheapens that word and the very real meaning it should have. Sort of the like the boy who cried wolf once too often.
It's as if he wants to incite the sensitivities of people who have been supportive of his organization to bad will concerning Gibson's making of this film. Controversy increases revenue for an organization such as the ADL and it's hard not to contemplate this as being a reason he has relentlessly attacked the Gibson project this past half year.
The ancestors of the ADL also tried to extinguish Easter with lies. You'd think that after 2,000 of failed attempts they'd try another tactic.
"When they were departed, some of the guards came into the city, and told the chief priests all things that had been done. And they being assembled together with the ancients, taking counsel, gave a great sum of money to the soldiers, Saying: 'Say you, His disciples came by night, and stole him away when we were asleep'. And if the governor shall hear this, we will persuade him, and secure you. So they, taking the money, did as they were taught: and this word was spread abroad among the Jews even unto this day". (Mathew 28: 11-15)
No,no.
You're supposed to say, "If they murdered Jews, they weren't true Christians."
That's the way the dodge works.
Why stop there? Why not say the Church is the Whore of Babylon and the Pope is the Anti-Christ?
Oh, and the Jesuits run the government
That's the standard rhetoric of slope-headed, backwoods preachers, isn't it?
I hope they take the film literally, it is, after all, the Truth, taken straight from the Christian Scriptures. Yours is the most paranoid, anti-Christian hate post I've come accross yet. Frankly, I think there is a guilt complex behind all this hatred for this story from the Christian Bible. After all, it's not as though Mel Gibson is producing fiction here. Nor is he dredging up ancient history, this story is known and taught to every single Christian on earth.
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