Justin Cascio's Response To My Review Of The Movie

From: "Justin Cascio" [justin.cascio@verizon.net]
Review of THE PASSION
February 26, 2004


No doubt it was a damn bloody movie.

I went last night with a joint group of NYU's Atheists, Agnostics, and Free-thinkers group and the school's Campus Crusade for Christ. Afterward, we went back to the dorms and talked about the movie (and inevitably, Christianity) over ice cream and doughnuts. I'm frustrated to say that young, willfully ignorant, evangelical types still make me want to bash their heads in with a King James Bible. (Hardcover. Very hard cover.)

The movie is kind of a bomb. I still struggle over the basic meaning that Christians get from Jesus' suffering. The whole movie is his friends turning him in to the authorities, the Pharisees being more evil than Satan (with no explanation of why they would be so keen to ditch Jesus), Pontius Pilate as a harried middle-manager who's afraid of what Caesar will do if there's one more problem in Pilate's district, and then two hours of Jesus getting the everlovin' shit beat out of him. What I do not get from that is how this show of violence, which is commonplace and meaningless, is supposedly reserved for us all. No one except the Pharisees wanted anyone crucified, and they only wanted J.C. up there for blasphemy. Blasphemy? Whoa! Talk about harsh. In the list of Jesus' transgressions given to Pilate, the first one is: He broke the Sabbath. For this he should be flayed to a bloody mess, then nailed to a cross and hung there to die? What's the penalty for, I dunno, rape and murder?

How is this violence meant for each of us sinners by, not the Romans, but G-d Himself? It seems simple; people have control over the situation so we don't need intercession from G-d, we need to stop beating people to bloody pulps and hanging them from posts.

Justin


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