When The Passion of the Christ came out, Mel Gibson was accused of painting the crucifixion story in an anti-Semitic way. I didn’t agree, although I have to admit that 1) Gibson was more nuanced in his presentation of the Romans than the temple leaders, and 2) passion plays have been used historically to stir up anti-Semitic feeling.
But when Gibson was arrested recently for drunk driving, he apparently made some remarks that are more than a little anti-Semitic and vulgar. You can read about it here (but beware of Gibson’s rough language).
James 3:1 says: “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” This is a scary truth. I have my sins just like Mel Gibson, just like you. But when we presume to speak in God’s name about the things of God, people look at us more carefully than we would like, and our witness is on the line.
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1 response so far ↓
1 pisces // Aug 7, 2006 at 12:56 pm
I’m sure that the title of this post was rhetorical, but I’ll take a stab at answering it anyway. Yes, he is antisemitic. The evidence is impressive, but it is bolstered by what he said while under the influence of alcohol. Alcohol lowers inhibitions rather than erecting them.
Nonetheless, “Passion of the Christ” is a wonderful work of art made by a flawed man. That is an observation made by another flawed man, me.
But Gibson needs to be careful. A friend reminded me (tongue-in-cheek, of course) this week that after going on about his initials were “JC” and he was 33 when he played the part of Our Lord, Jim Caviezel got hit by lightning while in character.
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