I received an excited email, apparently circulating widely in the Jewish community, worked up about a film Mel Gibson is directing and producing called The Passion. The primary concern of the email’s author is that this film portrays the Jews (of his time) as responsible for Jesus’ death. No small accusation since in the past this canard was responsible for centuries of oppression and murder of my people.
But since no one who knows what the film shows just yet is talking, the furor is a little ahead of itself. All Gibson will say in interviews is that his film is accurate according to what’s in the Bible. He’s a deeply religious man, but a Catholic who worships at his own church, separate from the official hierarchy. Apparently he (and his family) never accepted the changes of Vatican II and went their own way. One of the key elements of that monumental change in the Church was an official acknowledgement that Jews, as a group, were not responsible for killing Jesus.
Get a sampling:
From the Wall Street Journal: The Greatest Story, Newly Told
Weblogger 1: Yourish in response to
Weblogger 2: Cut on the Bias
All launched by the New York Times: Is the Pope Catholic…Enough?
and an LA Rabbi: LA Rabbi Asks Mel Gibson to Reconsider Jesus Film.
If the film, which uses dialog in Aramaic, Latin, and Hebrew but no English (and no subtitles), really does try and turn the clock back, this will be a bad thing at a bad time.
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