Gibson's 'Passion' remains a concern over portrayal of Jews

Pittsburgh Post-Gazettte ^ | March 21, 2004 | Ann Rodgers

[heyheyhey]

Nearly a month after its release, "The Passion of the Christ" has made hundreds of millions of dollars for producer-director Mel Gibson but remains a focus of concern among scholars over its portrayal of Jews.

Next week, at least seven seminars examining the film's historical accuracy, interpretation of the Gospels, portrayal of Jews and its place in "Jesus film" iconography will be offered by district schools and religious groups.

[heyheyhey]

"Rabbi Alvin Berkun had initially asked Bishop Donald W. Wuerl to put a rabbi in one Catholic high school, but Wuerl asked Berkun to find rabbis immediately for all of them."

[dsc]

"but remains a focus of concern among scholars"

Or rather, remains a cause of enuresis among bed-wetting leftist whackos.

Maybe this site could help:

http://www.enuresis.org.uk/

[RobbyS]

"People are just clueless about this," she said. "The kids in my classes are so young. So do I let them go on not knowing about this, or do I teach them the history of hate so they can understand it? If they don't understand the background, the fear is that it could happen again."

Could it be that the evidence the kids are presented is less than compelling. One has to reach back into the Middle Ages to show that a Passion play resultd in anti-Jewish actions. As for the role of the Jews historicallly, I am surprised that people have not pointed out that Paul was similiarly attacked by the Jewish leadership and was saved only because he was a Roman citizen. The Book of Acts devotes several chapters to this.

[waxhaw]

Nobody foresaw how huge Gibson's movie would become. Now those who are irrelevant to the gospel story and irrelevant to salvation are trying to find relevancy in the popularity of the movie and so "anti semitism" is once more hauled into the arena. The elite Jewish leadership had Jesus crucified because they feared His power. The common Jews worshiped Jesus because they recognized Him as the Christ. At the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in 73 AD Josephus described "Christians" as the third largest sect in Israel. Those weren't gentile Christians in Israel; they were Jews who recognized Christ as the Messiah.... and most of them remembered Jesus's warning about "when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies..." and got out of town before the Romans torched the place and destroyed the Temple. Well before this time, of course, the Temple was also irrelevant to salvation and had been so since the resurrection of the Messiah.

[ASTM366]

The only thing "anti-semitic" about "The Passion of the Christ" is that Jewish religious leaders conspired to have a Galilean Rabbi crucified by the Romans.

Note - It is an undeniable FACT that Jewish leaders had Jesus crucified. Read Matthew Chapter 26 and 27 if you have any doubts. However, don't think you are "anti-semetic" if you think it, say it or write it. It was all part of God's perfect plan of redemption that His Son, Jesus, would be rejected by His people and die a criminal's death.

God could of have used any tribe of people to bring forth His Son, but he chose the Hebrews.

[h.a. cherev]

One has to reach back into the Middle Ages to show that a Passion play resultd in anti-Jewish actions.

I thought there was a Passion Play in the 1930's in Germany.

[h.a. cherev]

You seem to have a pretty good handle on what is and what is not anti-Semitic.

[RobbyS]

There is a famous passion play at Oberammergau which is held every 10 years.It was exploted by the Nazis, but it certainly did not cause the Holocaust.

[h.a. cherev]

There is a famous passion play at Oberammergau which is held every 10 years.It was exploted by the Nazis, but it certainly did not cause the Holocaust.

Well, it certainly seems to contradict your sentence above that one has to reach back to the middle ages....doesn't it? Even if it was "exploited" by the Nazis, it did result in anti-Jewish action. Did the anti-Jewish action occur in a vacuum?

Be that as it may, obviously, one play didn't "cause" the Holocaust. What did, in your opinion?

[RobbyS]

I said that one has to reach back to the Middles ages to find an example of Christians who were incited to violence against the Jews by a passion play. As for the Holocaust, only two things were required. An implacable and inexplicable hatred of Jews by Hitler and the opportunity afforded by conditions of total war.

[h.a. cherev]

I said that one has to reach back to the Middles ages to find an example of Christians who were incited to violence against the Jews by a passion play.

I didn't read that in your original post. My mistake.

As for the Holocaust, only two things were required. An implacable and inexplicable hatred of Jews by Hitler and the opportunity afforded by conditions of total war.

That's pretty interesting. How long have you been studying the Holocaust?

[RobbyS]

Modern Germany history for some time. As for Hitler, the fact is that Mein Kampf tellls us all we need to know about Hitler. He meant what he said, as incredible it seemed to his readers. He thought that Jewish bloood literally poisoned that of the peoples with whom it was mixed, so they were not simply aninferior race but one that undermined the creative spark of the noble or Aryan race. The only remedy for this contamination was extermination, root and branch. He regarded it as providential that the national interest of Germany lat in the direction of the greatest concentration of Jews in Europe.

[h.a. cherev]

Would it surprise you to learn that there are some who find that Hitler's rise to power unsurprising given the anti-Jewish history of Christian Europe?

[ChicagoHebrew]

Rabbi Jason Edelstein

This might sound bigoted, but I can't take any Rabbi named "Jason" seriously. What kind of Jewish parent would name their kid after the traitorous High Priest who conspired with the Greeks to dedicate the Holy Temple to Zeus? What kind of Rabbi would allow himself to go by that name, rather than changing it or using his Hebrew name (for example, a Rabbi in my neighborhood growing up was named Mark by his secular parents. Upon becoming religious, he dropped the name of the Gospel writer for the name of Moshe-- author of the Torah).

[ChicagoHebrew]

I said that one has to reach back to the Middles ages to find an example of Christians who were incited to violence against the Jews by a passion play.

That's funny. I distinctly remember getting the sh*t kicked out of me by some Italian punks growing up in Philly for killing Christ. Granted, I don't know if their fists went straight from the theater to my face, but as they pounded into my skullI recall their mocking laughs of "Christ Killer." For the record, I'm 25 now, so this was less than 20 years ago.

[h.a. cherev]

I'm sorry for your pain, but that's a bit different than what RobbyS was talking about, isn't it?

[RobbyS]

Well, it surprised the German Jews. They thought their acceptance of "Enlightenment" ideals instead of their own religion and the decline of Christianity among the European elite would mean full acceptance of Jews. They ddn't figure on the rise of racism, which is a secular phenomenon,and the rise of men like Hitler whose hatred of them was based on crackpot science and a resentment of Jews that had nothing to do with their religion. The irony is that Jews were strong German nationalists who supported the new German empire created by Bismarck.

[RobbyS]

They came directly from a showing of the Passion? Somehow I don't think that these guys were moved by piety, either.

[AAABEST]

Gee I grew up in an area in New York that was full of Italians and Jews and never, ever heard of anything anywhere near the contrived sounding nonsense you describe.

I'm Catholic, my grandfather is from Italy, many of my friends were Italian and many were Jewsish. Never once in my entire life have I heard ANYONE describe Jews as "Christ killers" or even remotely blame them for Christ's death. NOT ONCE EVER.

I'm wondering what I should rely on here. My own eyes and life experience or some internet newcomer who nobody knows anything about and who could as easily be an Arab as a Jew.

[ASTM366]

The words "anti-semetic" get thrown around quite a bit. They are "alarm" words. People like to use them to inflame conversations. I usually look very carefully at he "motives" of the writer or speaker when I hear them being used.

As it pertains to Jesus, people of today think that he was a "Christian". He was not. He was a Jew and He was the Christ.