Since The Passion of the Christ is in theatres...part 2

[noticed by Al Speegle in The Door Magazine's Chat Closet]

So what's the problem? Why is Mel getting pounded for making this movie? It's too easy to claim that Mel is just another victim of routine Christian-bashing. What is going on is a disconnect in how different people see the movie.

Mel (and most Christians) see this movie in an intensely personal way -- "Jesus did this for me, because of me, to save me." And they're right. That's what the movie is about. It's a theological, artsy movie dealing with the cosmological vanquishing of sin by the Sin-Bearer, Jesus, God Incarnate. That is Mel's message and his only message. If you are a Christian (as I am) you see this easily.

Whereas most Jews see the movie very differently. Jews see this as yet another medieval Passion Play, featuring evil Jews running a kangaroo trial for Jesus, evil Jews scourging Jesus, evil Jews turning Jesus over to Pilate, evil Jews screaming for the blood of Jesus, evil Jews calling down the blood curse on themselves, evil Jews building the cross. And they have a point. Now that I've seen the movie, I think they have a very serious point. Scene after scene shows a large crowd of Jews baying for blood. The vast majority of the movie's Jewish characters are in this crowd. Which gives a very distorted view of reality, because in fact, the proportion of Jews involved in the death of Jesus was probably very small. In the Jerusalem of that time, the vast majority of Jews would happily have elected Jesus their king in the hopes that he would crush the Romans and set up a theocracy, the Kingdom of God, here and now. Jesus would have refused that option, but the Romans and the Jewish aristocracy were terrified that he would accept it. All this is clearly spelled out in the only decent historical documents we have for this episode, the four Gospels in the New Testament.

A historical fact is that Passion Plays in medieval times were flash points for anti-semitism. The Passion Play is an intensely emotional experience, and it sometimes led rather directly to the murder of "Christ-killers." That is not likely to happen here and now, not in modern America. But I am less sure that it won't happen in eastern Europe, or Russia, or anywhere else in the world where anti-semitism still lives. Since Gibson's movie does not address the issue of anti-semitism, or even take any steps to counter it, anti-semites can easily take away a message of hate that Gibson never intended. That's a shame. Mel was warned, but he didn't listen. To be fair, his critics chose some poor tactics, but he chose to mostly ignore them.

---from About Mel Gibson's Passion Movie by Randall Ingermanson