Mel Gibson film on crucifixion condemned
-30/6/03
Mel Gibson’s new film The Passion, which will include a brutal depiction of the Crucifixion and Christ’s final 12 hours, has been condemned by Catholic and Jewish groups in America for its alleged anti-Semitism and extreme violence, reports the Sunday Telegraph.
Religious scholars who have read the script believe that it leans too heavily on an 18th-century book of Catholic mysticism that paints Jews in a particularly harsh light.
The book, The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ by St Anne Catherine Emmerich, suggests that Jews organised “blood money” for the Crucifixion – paying people to clamour for Jesus’s death to sway Pontius Pilate – and that His cross was constructed on the orders of the Jewish high priest.
The scholars are alarmed that The Passion – which has been funded by Mr Gibson, a Catholic, to the tune of million (15 million) – will portray Jews as responsible not only for Christ’s Crucifixion, but also for the extremes of His torment.
They fear that the film will be a modern version of traditional Passion plays, which in medieval times popularised the doctrine of Jews as “Christ-killers”.
Passion plays were often performed during Lent, and were accused of prompting pogroms against Jewish communities in Christian Europe.
Last week the Anti-Defamation League, one of America’s most powerful Jewish organisations, which guards against anti-Semitism, refused to mute its concerns despite warnings from lawyers acting for Mr Gibson.
“We are not withdrawing from the conclusions of the inter-faith scholars who studied the script and raised serious objections,” said Abraham Foxman, director of the ADL.
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