Nailing Mel – Gibson's Jesus Christ Pose

Village Voice ^ | November 5 - 11, 2003 | Jessica Winter

[The Old Hoosier]

the Gospels, which emphasize ethnic blame over what Garry Wills calls "the orthodox teaching that Jesus was killed by human sin.

These people are such ignoramuses. Has the author of this piece ever read the Gospels?

And it's a fine quote, but why quote Gary Wills for Christian orthodoxy, for crying out loud??!!

[JmyBryan]

So Gibson plays heroic leading roles and is therefore suspect? How about he runs MKULTRA?

[tx_eggman]

The most famous passion production, the seven-hour Oberammergau Passion Play in Bavaria (first home of the Nazi party), won Adolf Hitler's admiration after he attended its 300th anniversary in 1934; he later called the play a "precious tool" in the fight against Judaism and reserved special plaudits for its Pontius Pilate, who "stands out like a firm, clean rock in the middle of the whole muck and mire of Jewry.

Gotta get that Adolph connection in .. but he's a piker, he left out a reference to Gibson's father denying the holocaust

This article is a pant load.

[Naspino]

"The film fails to depict even one Jew who is not a proto-Christian as opposing the execution, or having any compassion for a brutalized and mutilated victim. Quite the contrary, it graphically depicts a huge Jewish mob and all Jewish authorities forcing an unwilling Pilate to execute Jesus."

Wow -- it sounds oddly accurate. What a miserable failure in liberal terms.

Mat 27:20 But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus.

Mat 27:21 The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas.

Mat 27:22 Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? [They] all say unto him, Let him be crucified.

Mat 27:23 And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified.

Mat 27:24 When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but [that] rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed [his] hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye [to it].

Mat 27:25 Then answered all the people, and said, His blood [be] on us, and on our children.

[MEG33]

To the author...PIFFLE

[steve8714]

Is it not a stretch to say that Gibson's character in Payback is CHRISTLIKE?
The Village Voice is of course a good source for fair commentary which is intellectually honest.
Sarcasm off.

[Naspino]

Mat 27:25 Then answered all the people, and said, His blood [be] on us, and on our children.

I guess in their eyes it was supposed to say "Then answered all the people except for many of the non-proto-Christians in the back that could not be heard, and said...

[aardvark1]

The Village Voice is of course a good source for fair commentary which is intellectually honest. Sarcasm off.

(sarcasm) Yeah, especially regarding Christianity.(/sarcasm)

[toast]

With all the pictures of Gibson being tortured in his various movies, I'm surprised they left out the scene from "What Women Want". The one where he waxes his legs.

[KellyAdmirer]

I guess any dramatic presentation of the Passion outside of church is going to be deemed "anti-Semitic" by Semites - unless it shows a sinning Jesus as in some forgettable films of the past. Which means the critics want it shunted off into a corner and outside of the mainstream, where hopefully it will be ignored by more and more people - though that hasn't happened for 2000 years, now has it?

Why don't these critics summon the nerve and just say what they really think - that Christianity as a whole is anti-Semitic? That's the 500-lb elephant in the room. All this dancing around about whether "proto-Christians" are treated more favorably than (other) Semites in the film is ridiculous.

Bravo to a courageous man who has gone up tenfold in my estimation over this. I foolishly bought into Mel Gibson's screen image of the Lethal Weapon films and thought he was a liberal loser. Glad my eyes have been opened.

[steve50]

Those attempting to smear Gibson seem to have changed tatics, now he's some nut with a Christ complex. Disgraceful hit piece by the anti Christians.

[RightWingAtheist]

I wonder what the same libs who are so willing to trash Mel Gibson and his movie without actually seeing it think of CBS shelving the Reagan miniseries.

[dead]

I'll ping you next week, when I post the Village Voice's stories of outrage over that one!

[jscd3]

Gotta get that Adolph connection in ..

It's curious, the way that Jessica uses ideas. Because Hitler felt that a 300 year old passion play might be useful in turning people against the Jews, Jessica implies that the play was anti-semetic. See? It doesn't matter if the play was or wasn't, it was the use it was being put to by an evil man that, in her "mind", condemned it.

This is rather like the "logic" used by gun control fanatics - because a gun can be put to bad use by an evil man, the gun itself is bad. Think that old Jessica is a gun control freak? Yeah, I thought so too...

Now, let's extend Jessica's "logic" to it's logical extreme. Based on a little study I've done lately, there appear to be some passages in the Babylonian Talmud that are, shall we say, REALLY uncomplimentary to Christ and to Mary. (Note - anyone is free to believe anything they want, OK?). Suppose Adolf had published these rather "hateful" passages as a means of stiring up the population against Jews. According to Jessica's logic, this would demonstrate a Nazi connection to the Talmud, and brand the Talmud as ant-semetic!

Please keep in mind, this is not a criticism of the Talmud or anybody's religious beliefs. It is simply a demonstration of the vacuous nature of the criticisms being leveled by simpletons like Jessica.

[Steve_Seattle]

" . . . perhaps to rekindle the wonder, or at least the bemusement, felt by the millions of Catholics who couldn't understand much of mass pre-Vatican II."

He simply doesn't know what he's talking about. In those days, Catholics used a missal (service book) which displayed the Latin and English on facing pages. People knew what was being said during the Mass.

[RightWingAtheist]

Thanks :)

[2banana]

Gotta get that Adolph connection in

Hitler was also a vegatarian and believed in Astronomy. Also liked pianting and collecting art. Can we smear these people too?

[Lurking Libertarian]

Based on a little study I've done lately, there appear to be some passages in the Babylonian Talmud that are, shall we say, REALLY uncomplimentary to Christ and to Mary.

Most of those passages are not referring to Jesus at all. Discussed more fully here.

[Steve_Seattle]

"his divisive passion play"

I love liberals selective use of the term "divisive." You never hear it used - never - when Christians are being offended by a deliberately provocative work of "art."