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And -- just as the Gospels themselves have been politicized into social justice treatises ripe for a faithbased partnership with the state -- art has been dumbed down such that it's lost its transcendent, universal quality but instead is always now a vehicle for this or that "personal" value or "political" statement.

This was the point of my review, and such relativistic types my target. All of a sudden art was no longer protected by the End All/Be All of Artistic Freedom. Hardly any reviews took in the film's artistic merits at all, it was a disagreement with the content, cries for changes, pleas for disclaimers, and audaciously insulting projections.

How many movies made on Buddha, or some Lama or other, are heralded as "transcendent" and "epic"? Moses never got such a raw deal. If Muslims paused fidgeting with switches long enough to focus on it, I'm probably not exaggerating when I say that a loving paean to Mohammed would be orgiastically lauded.

All religions are exclusionary -- they all have some path or set of rules one must follow. But Christianity, which indeed is offered freely to all solely on the basis of believing a miracle, is "divisive". I will probably write on this incongruity next... if I ever get a quiet moment in this place.

;^)

Sooner than you know it, you'll wonder where everyone went. I laugh every time I see you fret ... what a joy. === But Christianity, which indeed is offered freely to all solely on the basis of believing a miracle, is "divisive". I will probably write on this incongruity next... if I ever get a quiet moment in this place. If you go that route, you may wish to review the Church's treatment of exactly this difference in Catholicism where -- for all its very real exclusivity -- trad-Caths like Gibson understand our being expressly prohibited from the condemnation of non-believers and enjoined to recognize and respect a man's being faithful to what truth he does know. (Though this does not prohibit us from recognizing and rightfully criticizing those "men [who] have become vain in their reasonings, and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and served the creature rather than the Creator" ... as we do on a regular basis those in our our communion who would call us "reactionaries" or a schism of Catholicism in the revolution's wake.) I'm differentiating between Catholicism and the other, sometimes eponymous, sects of Christianity because one critical difference between the faith of Mel Gibson and the faith of some self-styled Christians is that Gibson is expressly forbidden from condemning anyone -- or perceiving them as condemned -- simply for their failure to recognize the Christ or accept the mystery of redemption. Not all men are positioned -- in time, intellectually, emotionally, or otherwise -- to both receive and apprehend this truth. This concept not only is sounded in the movie -- "Forgive them Father, they know not what they do" -- but a critical part of Catholic teaching regarding the Church's relationship to other Christians, Jews, Muslims other believers and non-believers. The key virtue Christ exhibits in his sacrifice is the selfless humility which allows him to forego rationalization or sense of self and submit to his Father's will as effected by the authorities who serve as instruments or catalysts of a sort. (This is very different from the premeditation and rank rationalization of evil that is pragmatism ... where men purposefully choose evil in order to bring about good. This is an example of the fact only God can bring good from a man's choice for evil or from a natural evil ... such as fire, flood, famine or other suffering by which humans transcend themselves somehow and/or draw closer to Him.) Non-believers can share in this sacrifice simply by remaining obedient--in all humility--to those truths they've apprehended, honoring the natural and rightful authority of men over men (such as a father's over the family he has founded and for which he is ultimately responsible), and rendering each his due where circumstance has placed you under the authority of another ... whether giving to Caesar what is Caesar's or respecting the authority of the vineyard owner who pays the same full day's wages to those who worked all day and those who arrived late-afternoon. I wandered a bit there but have no time to scroll back at present. forgive the signature logorrhea. =)