The increasing tension over this film has reinforced impressions I offered Mel Gibson that day. When watching "The Passion," Jews and Christians are watching two entirely different films.
For two hours, Christians watch their Savior tortured and killed. For the same two hours, Jews watch Jews arrange the killing and torture of the Christians' Savior.
In order to avoid further tension between two wonderful communities that had been well on their way to historic amity, it is crucial for each to try to understand what film the other is watching and reacting to.
First, what Jews see. The Jews in the film (except, of course, for those who believe in Jesus) are cruel and often sadistic. One prominent Christian who saw the film along with my wife and me said that while watching the film he wanted to take a gun and shoot those who had brought such pain to Jesus. I couldn't blame him. The Jews in the film manipulate the Romans -- who are depicted as patsies of the Jews and in the case of Pilate, as morally far more elevated -- into torturing and murdering a beautiful man...
...However, what Jews need to understand is that most American Christians watching this film do not see "the Jews" as the villains in the passion story historically, let alone today. First, most American Christians -- Catholic and Protestant -- believe that a sinning humanity killed Jesus, not "the Jews." Second, they know that Christ's entire purpose was to come to this world and to be killed for humanity's sins. To the Christian, God made it happen, not the Jews or the Romans (the Book of Acts says precisely that). Third, a Christian who hates Jews today for what he believes some Jews did 2,000 years ago only reflects on the low moral, intellectual and religious state of that Christian. Imagine what Jews would think of a Jew who hated Egyptians after watching "The Ten Commandments," and you get an idea of how most Christians would regard a Christian who hated Jews after watching "The Passion."
Jews also need to understand another aspect of "The Passion" controversy. Just as Jews are responding to centuries of Christian anti-Semitism (virtually all of it in Europe), many Christians are responding to decades of Christian-bashing -- films and art mocking Christian symbols, a war on virtually any public Christian expression (from the death of the Christmas party to the moral identification of fundamentalist Christians with fundamentalist Muslims). Moreover, many Jewish groups and media people now attacking "The Passion" have a history of irresponsibly labeling conservative Christians anti-Semitic.
, I think he's got some words for all of us. If we can take the opportunity to make something from what Paula Fredriksen called
then we can continue to build good inter-faith relationships as we've been doing for the past few decades.
Prager doesn't comment at all on how Gibson handles the entire topic, a delicate one like a stonemason. He extols and glorifies almost the violence of it and he violently slams into the most controversial areas with the most aggressively anti-Jewish and pro Roman stance as possible.
For instance, he actually shows the Jewish Priests and mobs supposedly persuading a 'pensive and fair' Pontius Pilate to kill Jesus. As if Pontius Pilate gave a shit about what the Jews wated, lol! and was a thoughtful and fair benevolent dictator in any way?? COMICAL.........
But mind you Mel isn't anti-Jewish, it would be too critiical for the more right wing Jews to say this right now. They begin acting like the PC pandering left on this issue, and can't and won't go against or appear to go against their brethren in the religious right of America.
Thus, you end up with Mel being treated with kid gloves by people like Drudge, Medved and even Prager. Not analyzing his "artistic impressionism" or as Mel said "the holy spirit which guided his hand" in making the movie.
Meanwhile, you got the pit bulls on the left playing right into Mel and Icon's plans for hyping the controversy and Mel portraying himself and his art as being under siege by the "bullies" on the secular (Jooo) left....... who are always and consistently against religion and g-d, which is of course true the last part.
Mel the Zealot achieves the most successful and divisive promotional campaign, gets to stick it to the Vatican II and liberal Catholics as well as to the secular left (Jewish left mainly Foxman and ACLU) who actually help him promote his movie. And Mel and Icon laugh all the wayyyyyyyyyy to the bank big time!!
THAT'S THE REAL STORY... besides Mel's lying about the US Catholic Bishops/Scholars reviewing of his script.