Disdain Indeed

Writer Jennifer Nelson has a piece in SFGate citing the fact that the media disdains religion and that's why Mel Gibson has taken so much criticism for his film, The Passion.

First, she jumps in to say that SC Justices Scalia and his sock puppet, Thomas, are exactly right when they wrote in dissent of a majority Supreme decision that the court demonstrates "a trendy disdain for deep religious conviction." [Ed: I don't think the court disdains religious conviction but I think they appropriately - those not Scalia or Thomas - have disdain the practice of using the courts to force someone else's religious belief on the rest of us.]

Then Nelson says:

But the mainstream media, ever distrustful of anything overtly Christian and hard pressed to write anything positive about the Catholic Church, overwhelmingly rejected the film as either too violent or as misrepresenting history.

And:

But the major problem the mainstream media has with Gibson's movie is that it is religious. Religion, Christianity in particular, is passé.

Actually, there's almost nothing in her piece I'd agree with. I've found much of the mainstream media fawning and drooling over the piece.

But what concerns me more is that every time someone makes a remark about the film that's less positive than "breath taking" or "it is as it was" or "just a remarkably wonderful film", they're attacked as anti-Christian.

First, this is a film. A commercial film, at that. It's even complete with marketing ploys to buy t-shirts and crucifixion nails.

We have no way to know whether it's historically accurate or not. Even among those of us who believe in God, there's a lot of debate about how literally to accept the word of the Bible - a tome that has been edited and revised for centuries.

For anyone to take this film as a completely accurate portrayal of history is a fool. It's Mel Gibson's interpretation of others' interpretation of what happened. Mel is not a prophet. He's a human being who calls this film his therapy from his suicidal period. Based on some of his interviews of late, I suspect he needs more therapy, and I don't mean making The Passion II either.

This takes nothing away from The Passion so long as you treat it like a commercial release, which it is. It's not dogma. It's not history. It's not God whispering in Mel's ear telling him what happened and then represented faithfully on the screen.

Movies get to depict controversial historical events and opinions as well as saccharine ones. But don't blame people as anti-Christian and disdainful if they don't choose to worship at the altar of Mel.