Krauthammer: "Gibson's Blood Libel"

Washington Post ^ | Mar. 5, 04 | Charles Krauthammer

[churchillbuff]

Gibson's Blood Libel

By Charles Krauthammer Friday, March 5, 2004; Page A23

Every people has its story. Every people has the right to its story. And every people has a responsibility for its story. ...[snip]

Christians have their story too: the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Why is this story different from other stories? Because it is not a family affair of coreligionists. If it were, few people outside the circle of believers would be concerned about it. This particular story involves other people. With the notable exception of a few Romans, these people are Jews. And in the story, they come off rather badly.

Because of that peculiarity, the crucifixion is not just a story; it is a story with its own story -- a history of centuries of relentless, and at times savage, persecution of Jews in Christian lands. This history is what moved Vatican II, in a noble act of theological reflection, to decree in 1965 that the Passion of Christ should henceforth be understood with great care so as to unteach the lesson that had been taught for almost two millennia: that the Jews were Christ killers.

[Texasforever]

I agree about Liberty Forum and would add a few ADL adherents into the mix. This thread is embarrassing.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Everybody keeps bringing this thing up about Mel's hand. Meaningless. It's JUST .... a .... hand.

No, it isn't just a hand. It is the filmmaker's hand. It is the hand of a non-Jew. It is the hand of someone who was never a Roman soldier. It is the hand of a human being who is acknowledging his own sin, his own guilt, his own role in this story.

like the WHOLE movie .... make Jews look like monsters.

Oh really? Does Jesus (a Jew, and God himself, to boot) look like a monster in the movie? How about his mother? What about the girl who tries to bring him water? Nearly every protagonist in this film is a Jew.

But I guess that doesn't count, 'cause you don't want it to.

[Sabertooth]

Everybody keeps bringing this thing up about Mel's hand. Meaningless. It's JUST .... a .... hand.

No. It's been explained to you close to ten times now that Gibson's hand shows you that he accepts his culpability for putting Christ on the Cross.

Tell your wife that, would you?

To Krauthammer and a whole lot of Jews the other much more powerful symbols (since symbols seem to mean so much to you) .... like the WHOLE movie .... make Jews look like monsters.

Perhaps that's because they desire to see believing Christians as monsters who see Jews as monsters.

We aren't, we don't, and the Jews will have to be happy with that.

You don't see it. Freepers don't see it. Charles Krauthammer and half the Jews on earth .... DO.

They see their own delusion. They claim to see into the hearts of Christians and to be able to discern in them their worst fears. That's a Jewish probelm (for half of them, according to you), and we Christians will patiently understand, and forgive, while our mistaken Jewish friends work though it.

[CWOJackson]

Hey, lighten up. At least President Bush isn't being blammed for this.

[Dianna]

It's JUST .... a .... hand.

No it isn't JUST a hand. It symbolizes Mel's belief that HE is responsible for the death of Christ. Yet you continue to say that the movie shows Jews as mostly responsible.

Facts have been continually posted here. The movie showed that the mob was paid to be there. We saw that there were priests who tried to stop Caiphas. We saw Jews on the side of the road crying. We saw Simon demand that the Romans stop beating Christ. Those are facts. You are arguing that feelings trump facts.

[mercy]

I'll buy that. I believe it.

I also don't think Mel had to be so endlessly, repetitively graphic. No single human eye in history ever saw what the camera showed us in this film. Except Christ and even he did not see it like this. But that is not what is being discussed in this thread.

[ambrose]

No single human eye in history ever saw what the camera showed us in this film. Except Christ and even he did not see it like this.

And how do you know this?

[Sabertooth]

This is the very first thread that has turned into a flame war on this subject that I have seen. Why now?

My guess is that it's because of Krauthammer, and the intensity of his rant.

He's got a lot of credibility all around, so for some of this it's like a punch in the stomach. For others, it's a call to arms because he's validated their misdirected fears.

[Concerned]

CWOJACKSON WROTE TO TEXASFOREVER: "Hey, lighten up. At least President Bush isn't being blammed for this."

Don't give the RATS any ideas. I'm sure that had they thought of it already, they would have blamed Bush for Jesus' death! Shhh!

[ambrose]

Agreed. But the vitriol displayed by the Liberty Forum types perplexes me the most, since they profess to follow Jesus' teachings.

[hellinahandcart]

Well, extrapolating from what *I* have seen, Christians leave this movie feeling that it was not the Jews who were responsible for the Crucixion, and that Christ voluntarily laid down His life for all of us.

There are still believing Christians in Europe, and if this movie has a similar effect on them, it could actually serve as a counterbalance to the threat from the European intelligentsia & Muslims.

[mercy]

It counts to me. It does not count to many Jews. The preponderance of Jews are made to look like monsters. In this movie the only good Jews are Christians already. So it looks like all non christian Jews are monsters. This could have been avoided and it was not the case at the time of Jesus' death. Quite the reverse but the movie does not show this. The Gospels make this clear. The movie does not.

[DestroytheDemocrats]

"Not "anything", the Bible. Do try to keep up."

Krauthammer's opinion was not about the bible it was about a mere movie. You keep up. That's the problem here. This is a movie and everybody is treating it like a sacrament.

A movie is a work of art. It is an interpretive creation. NO work of art is above criticism. Not even a work of art by a Christian dealing with Christian themes.

[Agnes Heep]

For centuries Jews were persecuted for denying Christianity. Now they're being persecuted for denying Mel Gibson. Try and say that isn't progress!

[mercy]

Because it would have been impossible.

[LdSentinal]

There seems to be a connection between Andrew Sullivan and now Charles.

They fear that the right-wing will do more harm to them than will the terrorists.

Absurd and very disheartning.

[mercy]

Gotta go to bed. Thanks for all the ad-hominem attacks from you loving christians ... and the decent discourse from guys like Sabertooth.

[Texasforever]

You could be correct about the 50% number however; you are talking about 2 very different religious dogmas here. Here is what I was raised with and came to believe. The fact is that Jesus was crucified. Jesus was crucified in Judea. Jesus was judged by a Roman at the urging of the only other population at the time which were Jews in the political hierarchy. Not all Jews called for his crucifixion. Jesus was sent to earth by his Father to die on the cross. The Jewish tradition does not recognize Jesus as the Son of God so they do not accept the fact that God sent him here for the very purpose of death and resurrection. Christians understand that distinction because they believe Christ was ordained to die and be resurrected. Jews have no such faith so they fear blame for killing a man and project that fear onto Christians. If God sent Jesus to die then all of those involved in his death had no choice in the matter because it was already ordained. The only person that could have stopped the crucifixion was Jesus himself.

[ambrose]

A movie is a work of art. It is an interpretive creation. NO work of art is above criticism. Not even a work of art by a Christian dealing with Christian themes.

Hey, I think Roger Ebert may be one of the few individuals to give Last Temptation and The Passion four stars... He was obviously judging them for the "art", not adherence to scripture.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

It counts to me. It does not count to many Jews.

At some point, mercy, it becomes their problem. If they won't see what is there when it is pointed out, there isn't much you can do.

Silencing Christ is not an option.

And, I will bring up a second time: Even the Jewish (and Roman) "monsters" (as you call them) in this film are forgiven their behavior by God himself. That's a pretty big point to miss, but if one is determined to miss it, miss it they will.