Mel Gibson\'s Five Commandments:
1. Thou shalt film a gory version of the passion of Christ in the dead tongues of Latin and Aramaic.
2. Thou shalt decry critics who claim that thy vision be anti-Semitic, creating worldwide media attention.
3. Thou shalt somehow manage to get thy moving picture distributed in more than 2,000 theaters.
4. Thou shalt spread the word among the faithful, resulting in massive advance ticket sales and even promotion on one of the gas-powered chariots in the Daytona 500 race.
5. Thou shalt sit back and watch the box-office dollars roll in.
That\'s all I think this movie is. People are making a huge deal out of it. "It will spread the word" they say, "it\'s exactly how the Bible says it happened" they say. Well Pilate was a very mean and cruel conqueror and to think that he actually felt bad about killing somebody is pretty shady.
Another thing, this reminds me of the "reverse discrimination" thing white people have. If a Jewish man was to make a movie about how Jesus tried to change their religion and claim that he was the messiah and through out the movie included facts that they believed were true about the messiah. Christians would be on that like a pack of hungry dogs on a piece of meat. The reason people think that it will send anti-semetic thought is the fact that Gibson actually included the Emperor\'s "washing his hands of guilt" which from my knowledge was only in ONE of the books that Gibson used. He also used information from a book by a rumored anti-semitic nun(I don\'t remember her name)
I do think this movie will send some kind of anti-semetic message. Whether the movie exemplifies it or not, the whole "Jews killed Jesus" will still be built in the people\'s mind after all this controversy. Some of my girlfriend\'s friends already say that "Jews are no good and the movie will show it" Not only that but their pastor claims the same thing. I went to their church(where they passed out free Passion movie tickets) and they were saying "It\'s how it happened, the Jews killed Jesus end of story"
Another thing I would like to find out. Where did all the hate come from? From what I recall the Jews were very friendly with Jesus throughout most of the Bible. "Palm Sunday" and all those celebrations by the Catholic church. But it so happens that the day Jesus was sentenced the whole crowd was blood thirsty. Why?
I think that people will take this the wrong way. Their pride tells them that they should support this movie blindly and at the same time their sense of being a "good Christian" will rise. They don\'t support this movie b/c of what it represents, they support because they feel the need to do it.
I don\'t see why people make a big deal of Jesus\' death. If God supposedly knows everything, he knew that his son was going to die. If Jesus\' hadn\'t died there wouln\'t be Christianity.
In order for people to understand the true "Passion of the Christ" they need blood and gore?
