Mel Gibson's Film "The Passion Of Christ": Controversy and Opposition from Jewish Groups Rage On !

" It will be my pleasure to use whatever facilities we have available at The Christian Broadcasting Network to help you publicize this outstanding work. Without question, this is the finest work that has ever been done on this subject. More than anything your portrayal of the suffering of Jesus is with a few exceptions in total accord with the biblical narrative. It is therefore wonderfully authentic. "
Pat Robertson, Chairman and CEO , Christian Broadcasting Network

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Mel Gibson's film, "The Passion of Christ", will open on February 25,2004 , to about 2,000 theatres across the US.


Click here about the film and Here and HERE

It is generally accepted that Mel Gibson's "The Passion of Christ" is faithful to and based primarily on the four Gospels. The movie focuses on the last twelve hours of Jesus' life from the garden of Gethsemane to the crucifixion.

Full Name: Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson.

Born January 3, 1956.

Films acted in include: LETHAL WEAPON, HAMLET, CONSPIRACY THEORY, BRAVEHEART, THE PATRIOT, WHAT WOMEN WANT, SIGNS.


Jewish groups claimed that Mel Gibson's "Passion of Christ" may incite anti-semitism.

Many Christian right wing fundamentalists disagreed. In fact, majority of Christian groups are supporting Mel Gibson against the Jewish groups' campaign to discredit "The Passion of Christ" film.

It is an interesting development of sorts. On one hand, many of the Christian fundamentalists, referred at times as Zionist Christians, are strong supporters of Israel in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. They stood side by side with Jewish groups in the propaganda war against the Palestinians/Arabs/Muslims.

On Gibson's film, the Christian fundamentalists stood on the opposite side of the fence with the Jewish/Zionist groups. Many Christian groups see the film as a vehicle and an opportunity to market their faith. Read here TV Evangelists Jerry Falwell's and Pat Roberson's comments and others, after seeing tbe film.

Websites supporting the film have sprung up. Read Here and Here

The controversy surrounding Mel Gibson's film only confirms and exposes the centuries-old fault line separating Christian beliefs and Judaism. The outcry from the American Jewish groups, such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) only makes the matter worse. Latent religious feelings are brought out into the open, especially on the internet chat rooms.

The hypocrisy of Hollywood and the studios are exposed, as media commentators and Christian groups compared the different reception given to the 1988 move "The Last Temptation of Christ" and Mel Gibson's "The Passion of Christ". Mel Gibson admitted he may not find work in Hollywood again after this film.

Read Here comments by those who saw the screening of the film

Following are articles on the controversy.

MUST READ ARTICLE !! Here David Klinghoffer's article " Mel Gibson's 'The Passion' follows the Scripture"
Excerpts:

It's a controversy that will continue to affect relations between Christians and Jews unless some way to cool it can be found. The Anti-Defamation League charges that this recklessly stirs anti-Jewish hatred and demands that the film be edited to eliminate any suggestion of Jewish deicide.

One possible cooling agent is an honest look at how ancient Jewish sources portrayed the Crucifixion.

According to people who have seen a rough cut, Gibson's film depicts the death of Christ as occurring at the hands of the Romans but at the instigation of Jewish leaders, the priests of the Jerusalem Temple.

But like the Christian Gospels that form the basis of Gibson's screenplay, Jewish tradition acknowledges that (Jewish) leaders in first-century Palestine played a role in Jesus' execution.

If Gibson is an anti-Semite, so is the Talmud and so is the greatest Jewish sage of the past 1,000 years, Maimonides.

The Talmud was compiled in about the year 500, drawing on rabbinic material that had been transmitted orally for centuries. From the 16th century on, the text was censored and passages about Jesus and his execution were erased to evade Christian wrath. But the full text was preserved in older manuscripts, and today the censored parts can be found in minuscule type, as an appendix at the back of some Talmud editions.

Read here "The Talmud -The Secret Rabbinical Teachings "

A relevant example comes from the Talmudic division known as Sanhedrin, which deals with procedures of the Jewish high court:

"On the eve of Passover they hung Jesus of Nazareth. And the herald went out before him for 40 days saying, 'Jesus goes forth to be stoned, because he has practiced magic, enticed and led astray Israel. Anyone who knows anything in his favor, let him come and declare concerning him.' And they found nothing in his favor."

The passage indicates that Jesus' fate was entirely in the hands of the Jewish court. The last two of the three items on Jesus' rap sheet, that he "enticed and led astray" fellow Jews, are terms from Jewish biblical law for an individual who influenced others to serve false gods, a crime punishable by being stoned, then hung on a wooden gallows.

In the Mishnah, the rabbinic work on which the Talmud is based, compiled about the year 200, Rabbi Eliezer explains that anyone who was stoned to death would then be hung by his hands from two pieces of wood shaped like a capital letter T -- in other words, a cross (Sanhedrin 6:4).

These texts convey religious beliefs, not necessarily historical facts. The Talmud elsewhere agrees with the Gospel of John that Jews at the time of the Crucifixion did not have the power to carry out the death penalty.

Also, other Talmudic passages place Jesus 100 years before or after his actual lifetime. Some Jewish apologists argue that these must therefore deal with a different Jesus of Nazareth. But this is not how the most authoritative rabbinic interpreters, medieval sages including Nachmanides, Rashi and the Tosaphists, saw the matter.

Maimonides, writing in 12th century Egypt, made clear that the Talmud's Jesus is the one who founded Christianity. In his great summation of Jewish law and belief, the Mishneh Torah, he wrote of "Jesus of Nazareth, who imagined that he was the Messiah, but was put to death by the court."

Maimonides states that "Jesus of Nazareth . . . interpreted the Torah and its precepts in such a fashion as to lead to their total annulment. The sages, of blessed memory, having become aware of his plans before his reputation spread among our people, meted out fitting punishment to him."

It's unfair of Jewish critics to defame Gibson for saying what the Talmud and Maimonides say, and what many historians say. Oddly, one of the scholars who has denounced Gibson most vigorously -- Paula Fredriksen, a professor of religious studies at Boston University - is the author of a meticulously researched book, "Jesus of Nazareth," that suggests it was the high priests who informed on Jesus to the Roman authorities.

The best option now is to acknowledge that other sources besides the Gospels confirm the involvement of Jewish leaders in Jesus' death and clear the anger from the air.

Considering that Gibson's portrayal coincides closely with traditional Jewish belief, it seems that leaving him alone is the decent as well as the Jewish thing to do"

Controversial TV talker Bill Maher attacked religious conservatives in an early morning interview on Wednesday, claiming that movie star Mel Gibson and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay were "anti-Semitic." "I do think Mel Gibson is anti-Semitic," Maher told radio host Don Imus. "So, by the way, is Tom DeLay. So, by the way, are all these Christian right people who pretend to be friends of Israel." Read Here for more

Officials from Mel Gibson's Icon Productions film company blasted Jewish critics who used a fake church name to sneak into an advance screening of "The Passion of the Christ." Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said he viewed the film "in stealth mode" at an evangelical pastors' conference in Orlando, Fla., last Wednesday. Foxman and Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor, the ADL's interfaith consultant, registered as pastors with the fictitious "Church of Truth" in Brooklyn, N.Y. Read Here for more

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Jewish rights group Anti-Defamation League, who has accused Gibson of holding anti-Semitic views, saw the film for the first time Wednesday night in Florida. He said it is an "unambiguous portrayal of Jews as being responsible for the death of Jesus." Gibson, who directed, funded and co-scripted the film, has repeatedly denied that his movie maligns Jews. Read Here for more

The Reverend Billy Graham has given his backing to Mel Gibson's controversial film about the last hours of Jesus. However, US evangelist Graham, 85, defended the film. He said he was "moved to tears". "The film is faithful to the Bible's teaching", he said. Read here for more

Read Here Rabbi Tovia Singer's personal attack on Mel Gibson's family "Mel's father, Hutton Gibson, who is a traditionalist Catholic as well, is an outspoken Holocaust denier who has little affection for Jews. ...Gibson could save the world much unneeded misery by visiting Poland, the world's largest Jewish cemetery, before releasing his film. "

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today voiced concerns that the film, if released in its present form, "could fuel hatred, bigotry and anti-Semitism" by reinforcing the notion of collective Jewish guilt for the death of Jesus. ADL's concerns include: (i) The film portrays Jewish authorities and the Jewish "mob" as forcing the decision to torture and execute Jesus, thus assuming responsibility for the crucifixion. (ii) The film relies on sinister medieval stereotypes, portraying Jews as blood-thirsty, sadistic and money-hungry enemies of God who lack compassion and humanity. (iii)The film relies on historical errors, chief among them its depiction of the Jewish high priest controlling Pontius Pilate . The film uses an anti-Jewish account of a 19th century mystical anti-Semitic nun, distorts New Testament interpretation by selectively citing passages to weave a narrative that oversimplifies history, and is hostile to Jews and Judaism. and (iv) The film portrays Jews who adhere to their Jewish faith as enemies of God and the locus of evil. Read here for more

Robert Novak: " 'The Passion' depicts in two hours the last 12 hours of Jesus Christ's life. To watch him beaten, scourged and crucified so graphically is a shattering experience for believing Christians and surely for many non-Christians as well. It makes previous movie versions of the crucifixion look like Hollywood fluff. Foxman and other critics complain that the Jewish high priest Caiphas and a Jewish mob are demanding Christ's execution, but that is straight from the Gospels. Father C. John McCloskey, director of the Catholic Information Center in Washington, told me: "If you find the Scriptures anti-Semitic, you'll find this film anti-Semitic." Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, who heads the Congregation for the Clergy, called the film "a triumph of art and faith," adding: "Mel Gibson not only closely follows the narrative of the Gospels, giving the viewer a new appreciation for those biblical passages, but his artistic choices also make the film faithful to the meaning of the Gospels." At the heart of the dispute over "The Passion" is freedom of expression. Liberals who defended the right to exhibit Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ," which deeply offended orthodox Christians, now demand censorship of "The Passion of Christ." As a result, Abe Foxman and his allies have risked stirring religious tensions over a work of art. Read here for more

Read Here Editorial in Cornell Review : " Mel Gibson supposedly said he would have a difficult time finding work in Hollywood after this film. Well, if you are going to destroy your career, you might as well destroy it doing something you love. The Last Temptation of Christ was critically praised throughout Hollywood and Martin Scorsese received an Oscar nomination for his directing. ..... If Scorsese can create his vision of Christ, and if Serrano's Piss Christ is to be considered art, then certainly the same should be said for The Passion. Of course, the anti-Catholic Hollywood establishment will ignore this fact and the concept of fairness. Society, in the larger context, will also do the same, led by a media that is equally anti-Catholic. Except for a few brave souls, such as Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal, most ignore the redeeming value of the Catholic faith and its positive effect on millions upon millions of individuals across the globe. Honestly, when was the last time a pro-Catholic article was published in the New York Times or Washington Post or another major paper? The hypocrisy of Hollywood and the media should not be surprising. Indeed, that is a general characteristic of both institutions.

Read Here article by Michael S. Rose "Pre-emptive war on The Passion": The Last Temptation of Christ was critically acclaimed as a broad-minded cinematic portrayal of Christ's life, passion and death, precisely because of its overtly manifest infidelity to the Gospel. There was no wailing from the Anti-Defamation League here; no gnashing of teeth from liberal Catholic scholars and progressive religious pundits. In fact, the orthodox Christians who voiced objections to the film were piously lectured to be "tolerant" of Scorcese's artistic bastardization of the Gospel.

The major studios, including 20th Century Fox which has first refusal on all Gibson's movies, were scared off distributing The Passion. First round to The Times. Gibson turned to an independent distributor, Newmarket Films. Newmarket enlisted the support of hundreds of Christian organisations - a regrettably sectarian but possibly live-or-die solution - and has exceeded 2000 bookings for The Passion, more than the count for many big studio pictures. The Gibson organisation also harvested favourable comment with the uncomplicated strategy of staging previews from which known enemies, such as The New York Times, were rigorously excluded. The most eminent supporter appears to be Pope John Paul II, who saw the movie on video. On December 16 and 17 several media services, quoting different Vatican sources, reported that the Pope had called the movie "incredible" and in a resonating phrase declared: "It is as it was." Read here for more

POPE JOHN PAUL II has been given a personal screening of MEL GIBSON controversial new movie THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST. It was revealed Catholic heads had approved the epic - which tells the tale of JESUS's last 12 hours - but now VATICAN sources are claiming the Pontiff himself was shown a rough cut. A church insider tells American newspaper THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, "The Pope definitely saw the film." An audience from three different Vatican congregations gave the film their blessing. REVEREND AUGUSTINE DI NOIA, one of the officials who saw it last week, said, "There is absolutely nothing anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish about Mel Gibson's film."

Read Here article by Skipp Porteous, claiming anti-semitism prevalent within the Christian right.

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