We've probably all heard about it by now: Mel Gibson was arrested for drunk driving and used the platform of the police station to spew his anti-Jewish rhetoric. Now he wants to take it all back...
It surprises me that anybody who has read, and I mean really read, the New Testament, in a scholarly way, noting the places in which the Gospels agree and disagree, could possible think that Gibson isn't anti-Semitic.
During a New Testament history class in college, we had to write an exegesis paper on a verse. I chose one from the same Gospel that Gibson based Passion of the Christ on: Matthew. What's so interesting about Matthew is that is it is the only gospel out of four in which the Jews are shown as culpable, as said in the verse I wrote my paper on, 27:25: And all the people [Jews] answered and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.
I stopped watching Mel Gibson movies the minute I heard about Passion and the intentionally anti-Semitic slant he took. I invite others to do the same - and yes, that includes late night showings of Lethal Weapon on TBS...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
You are wrong about the movie- it was historically accurate. Jesus was in constant conflict with the Jewish leaders of the day. He was rejected by his own people- just as we reject Him - even as believers. Gibson may hate jews, but that is not reflected in his movies or his career. It is documented -once in his career- when he was in a drunken rage.
I'm with Sarah. I can't watch any of his movies anymore. And I really liked him in his first flick: The Year of Living Dangerously, and in Mad Max, too.
While we don't know for sure what he said at the police station, there have been many many opportunities over the years for MG to counter his father's staunch anti-semitic statements and creed, yet Mel has abstained from speaking out. His silence on the subject doesn't speak well.
That's what I really don't like about him. That and the fact that he made Jesus Chainsaw Massacre.
Jesus Chainsaw Massacre... I love that...
Ahem... CR, while Jesus was in constant conflict with Jewish leaders, the Gospel of Matthew, i.e. the one shown in Passion, was written a good 50 years after Jesus died. What that text is historically accurate about was that it was more advantageous for early Christians to side with the Romans than the Jews - therefore better to blame the crucifixion on the Jews and let the Romans off the hook.
Bottom line: Jews never crucified people - that's historical accuracy.
so the picture showed- but there was collusion with the Jewish leaders and called for his death by the Romans. It was dead on accurate.
As For future films- I just can't say I never will watch him again. I like the work of many actors and directors I disagree with or who are not very nice people. Jane Fonda, Sean Penn, Robert Downey, Streisand, Nolte, Stone, Clooney, Redford, Brando, Garland.....
I don't know, I have to draw a line when it comes to bigotry.
It's one thing if an actor has different politics than me--I could still watch Ahhnold or Charlton gun-slingling Heston--[if they were still making movies]. But someone who is a hater. un-unh, nope.
As for the biblical side of the altercation here, I'm no expert. But hey Jesus was a radical, so the conservative leadership hated him, of course.
Conservatives never start revolutions. Ask the Founding Fathers. It was a bunch of radical Jews that started Christianity. Hip hip hooray for radicals.
Good point, ST. I think Axl Rose is a raving lunatic but in a mostly self-harming way so I feel free to rock out to classic Guns N' Roses on occassion - I guess we all have our lines drawn in the sand somewhere.
CR, I dig what you're saying but I still don't buy it - bibles of any religion are ultimately human works and though we know a lot about the history of Jesus's time, we don't know everything...
But say, for the sake of argument, that we knew for a fact that the depiction in the Passion was spot-on accurate, would that excuse Gibson from being a bigot?
Post a Comment