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December 18, 2003
Jesus the Movie By Tom Smith Controversy over Mel Gibson's forthcoming movie about the Passion of Jesus. I agree with most of what Medved says. However, I don't think you can really separate telling the story from the effect of the story. If Spielberg decided to do an historically accurate and graphic movie about the Inquisition and its effects on the Jews of Spain, for example, it would make the Church look very bad, and I would suspect Spielberg of Christophobia. The analogy isn't perfect, because the Crucifixion is at the core of Christian dogma and faith, so for Christians it's a story that must be told. On the other hand, you can't really expect Jews to shut up already about being persecuted. This makes me think of the essential weirdness and oddity of Christianity. It is a religion that centers around a guy who was tortured to death in a way intended to be extremely humiliating and painful to even think about. I remembering reading that in Japan, Catholics used to carry around little crucifixes in boxes, where the crucifix was behind a curtain, because the image was considered so shocking and horrible it should not be displayed openly. Gibson clearly gets this, as he says his intent is to make everyone who watches the movie, not just Jews, uncomfortable. The thing for Christians to remember is that every Jew who died in a concentration camp, or was killed by a Christian in a pogrom was as much a victim, and a victim to the same things, as Jesus was. As some wise thinker said, the dividing line between good and evil runs not between Christians and Jews, but down the middle of every human heart. |