I DETEST THIS FILM ..WITH A PASSION [Christopher Hitchens on the Passion of the Christ]

The Mirror ^ | February 27, 2004 | Christopher Hitchens

[HostileTerritory]

Have you heard anyone, -anyone-, utter a protest when someone blames all Christians for the Holocaust?

That's a ridiculous straw man. No one who gets listened to by ANYBODY makes a claim like that. You're ginning up nonsense to create some false sense of equivalency.

[Remole]

C'mon. Hitchens' point is that, when the film is showed in other language groups, the subtitle for that statement can appear in the local language. The statement is SPOKEN in the film, but the English version does not have the English subtitles. When I see the film next week, I'll look for this.

[SuziQ]

Gibson claims that the Holy Ghost spoke through him in the directing of this movie, and that everything in it is from the Bible. I very much doubt the first claim, and I can safely say that the second one is false.

Hitchens is wrong on both counts. Mel said that he was inspired by the Holy Spirit, as I would hope we would be when making a film about Jesus. Mel has also said he used several sources; the Gospels, traditions of the Church, and some ideas of his own. It's called artistic license, Mr. Hitchens.

No one should be surprised at this review; Hitchens has been antagonistic toward Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular for a long time. He could not stand Mother Theresa; he always considered her a charlatan. Kinda shows you where his mind is, huh?

[samtheman]

However, your argument is completely ludicrous. Jews did kill Christ. That is an historical fact. They wanted Him dead, and they made sure it happened.

No one is saying that ALL Jews killed Christ. No one is saying that today's Jews killed Him. But Jews did kill Him, make no mistake.

Qwinn? That's what I'm talking about.

[Americathy]

What are you talking about? I have been called a Nazi by liberals because of my Christianity and/or a conservative. It is not uncommon that liberals make that connection.

[HostileTerritory]

Hollywood is standing back and letting him do his thing, as far as I can tell, with individual grumbling. If Mel has the money and the studio to make his own pictures he doesn't really need them or owe them anything. It's kind of funny how despite the opposition of the massive Hollywood conspiracy, this movie still set records for its opening and got into thousands of theaters. If that's censorship, I want Hollywood to censor my next movie.

[AnAmericanMother]

though Roman soldiers actually spoke a dialect of Greek

This guy is a fool if he thinks that. The Roman upper classes admired the Greeks, all educated Romans learned Greek, and a Roman like Pontius Pilate would have studied Greek extensively and spoken it among his educated friends (much as young men in the British Empire used to sling Latin around - only more so.)

It is clear from the classical writers that slaves, gladiators, and soldiers spoke a Vulgar Latin that was the ancestor of the Romance languages (as the legionaries spread around the Empire, were given land, and settled.) Suetonius and Martial, among others, mention it. Think of the difference today between the language of a highly educated university professor and some teenage skateboarding dude on the street corner.

[Kay Syrah]

I'm with you on this. If his atheism were as total as he believes it to be, there would be no anger, just indifference. And he would not be laying the responsibility for all the suffering in the world at God's feet, but at man's. Because after all it is man's own stupidity that drives him in such a case. The fact that he see's religion as one of the basest delusions without holding man accountable for that delusion says quite a lot.

After all the opposite of love isn't hate, its indifference.

[samtheman]

Nothing happened on Good Friday that Jesus didn't allow.

The last word on this subject, as far as I'm concerned. Amen.

[Rummyfan]

A FEW years ago, Mel Gibson got himself into an argument after uttering a series of crude remarks that were hostile to homosexuals.

What is Hitchens talking about?

[HostileTerritory]

Excuse me, that kind of rhetorical b.s. "Republicans are Nazis" is stupid, but it is most definitely not the same as a statement like "All Christians are responsible for the Holocaust." Besides, I doubt they're really calling you a Nazi because you've accepted Christ as your savior--of course it's the politics in play.

[Woahhs]

What the heck does child molestation have to do with any of this? Are you off your rocker? Of course it's wrong. I think child molestors should all be castrated. But what the heck does it have to do with this thread? Did you forget to put lithium in your cereal this morning?

Now take the attitude you've displayed with this response, and recognize all the Christians you were talking to earlier have just as much right to feel the same way...and for the same reason.

[carton253]

(If you answer yes, and you also believe that "the Jews killed Christ", then you're wrong, you don't have the slightest idea of what it means.)

Please enlighten us...

[Qwinn]

I agree with you completely. Let me state that I have very little doubt (and this is even given the fact that I'm agnostic) that the Biblical account is accurate and there were Jewish leaders at the time whose power was threatened and who wanted him taken out. It makes sense, and I think that at that point in history -any- group of -any- race that was in power would have had -some- leaders that would have responded to someone like Jesus in just such a way. To doubt that almost seems silly to me. What would one -expect-, unless you think that Jews from 2000 years ago were so -super-human and ethical and selfless than any other group in existence that they couldn't even have bad -individuals-?

That said, even though I absolutely believe that some Jews -did- lead Jesus to the Romans and requested that he be killed, many others were apalled by that act, and it has -absolutely zero bearing on any Jew today-.

That should be obvious.

What really bothers me, though, is putting myself in the shoes of a Christian, and watching people say things like "You have to denounce anti-Semitism because there's been so much of it from Christians in the past". That's like telling Jews that they have to denounce that their ancestors killed Jesus. Like telling them that, due to their ancestor's actions, they owe an -apology-. Christians alive today don't have -any- obligation to apologize for pogroms committed in the middle ages, I'm sorry. You (generic you) can't believe that they -do- have to apologize for the sins of their fathers, and Jews -don't-, not without the exact same bias that is being railed against.

But all the focus is on blame being passed down through generations on the Jews, and none on the fact that the entire controversy is happening -because- people are passing guilt down through generations to Christians. Especially when the Christians of today are such fervent supporters of Israel. That's what makes it really appalling to me.

Qwinn

[Americathy]

Right. Vulgar Latin sounds a lot like Italian, which is why much of the Latin in the film sounded Italian. Very accurate.

[HostileTerritory]

He gave some interviews to a Spanish newspaper where he said something like "homosexuals are disgusting, they're gross, they have sex BACK THERE" and pointed to his ass.

[Cronos]

However, your argument is completely ludicrous. Jews did kill Christ. That is an historical fact. They wanted Him dead, and they made sure it happened.

Some Jews did want Him dead, He Himself was a Jew. Somoe Jews followed Him and became the Church.

[HostileTerritory]

Let me state that I have very little doubt (and this is even given the fact that I'm agnostic) that the Biblical account is accurate

That's curious... on what do your base your faith in the Bible's historical accuracy if you call yourself an agnostic?

[SuziQ]

I hear silence coming from mainstream Christianity, and it's every bit as deafening as the silence of Islam in the wake of terrorist attacks.

Huh? I've been hearing this denial that the Jews are responsible from Christians for the last few weeks, even since Mel began to be attacked by the libs about this subject. It's possible they have been drowned out by the media drumbeat, but they're there.

[AnAmericanMother]

Once I had an Italian client (this came about through a VERY strange set of circumstances).

I spoke Latin to him, and he spoke Italian (slowly!) to me, and we got along very well (once he stopped laughing at me.)