The Gibson Film And The So-called "Secular Elite": Correspondence Between Shlomoh, Deke Barker, And Grace Harris

February, 2004


From: "King Solomon"
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004
Subject: The Gibson Film And The So-called "Secular Elite"

Last night I was surfing the channels and I come to CNN, and there is a panel discussing the Gibson film. A conservative woman is going on about how the Secular Elite hates that film and is trying everything to get it erased.

My GOD! Can't ANY of these people be honest?

WHAT secular elite? The secular elite doesn't give two craps about this film! The fact remains that by skirting the real issue, they prove more than anything else that Jewish fears and visceral animosity are JUSTIFIED!

The moderator later says that as a Catholic he konws that Jesus was born, lived as, taught as, and died as a Jew. The look on the woman's face was STONE! It made me think of something that I heard from a British Wiccan woman I dated in 1997. She said to me, 'THEY HATE the fact that the bloke was a Jew'

Let's face it. We're never going to get honesty about this film from ANY side. The Christians who love it and the Jews who hate it [even before they've seen it] can't be impartial judges. The religious emotions are already out of the bag, bringing back memories of a BAD time.

What will happen once the film is released? I think that the most damage this film will do, has already done. It has caused an atmosphere of extreme resentment between two communities that seemed less hostile and more cooperative than prior. Is the 21st century going to be like EVERY century A.D.?


From: Deke Barker
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004
Subject: The Gibson Film And The So-called "Secular Elite"

Shlomoh:

What do you expect from the extreme right? An admission that *MAINSTREAM RELIGIOUS* leaders are criticizing the film? That might cause true believers to wonder. No, much easier to lie through their teeth and blame it all on the secular humanists.

It's the same with opposition to public school prayer, school vouchers, the Ten Commandments in courtrooms, the teaching of creationism in public schools, and so forth. In most cases, it is *CLERGY* and *RELIGIOUS SCHOLARS* who are opposing these things.

Unfortunately, the New Christian Right is committed to winning, not to truth and honesty. Groups like Focus On The Family try to convince their willfully ignorant followers that it is leftwing secular humanists who are the only people who oppose them.


From: Deke Barker
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004
Subject: The Gibson Film And The So-called "Secular Elite"

Secular elite: Exactly. It's that same damned secular elite that has opposed school prayer, teaching creationism, posting the Ten Commandments, et cetera. A bunch of anti-God priests, ministers, rabbis, and (in the last 15-20 years) mullahs.

But it works, Shlomoh. It works. Just like "compassionate conservatism". If it were known that major Xian scholars, Roman Catholic bishops, and mainline Protestant leaders had joined with their Jewish brethren in condemning the film as ill-informed and (at best) promoting anti-Semitism, that might cause even conservative evangelicals to wonder. It's a lot more effective to keep the proletariat in the dark, to let them believe that their enemies are all evil secular humanists out to destroy Xianity.

NOTE: As far as I am aware, few if any of these groups -- even Jewish groups -- have as yet made an outright condemnation of the film. Unlike their counterparts on the extreme right, most conservative, moderate, and liberal religious leaders prefer to see the film before arriving at a judgment. The fundamentalists see such exercises in objectivity to be a waste of time. They *KNOW*!


From: Grace Harris
Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2004
Subject: The Gibson Film And The So-called "Secular Elite"

With all respect, I don't think the left is bothered by the Passion. I think the Media is just having a good old romp with what they misinterpret as religion verses religion -- Catholics verses Jews. The left doesn't understand or trust religion, but at the same time finds it a bit fascinating from a distance, especially when it's making war against itself. The left loves a good religious war -- it supports their underlying paranoia.


From: "King Solomon"
Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2004
Subject: The Gibson Film And The So-called "Secular Elite"

No! This is NOT an issue of Catholic verses Jews. It's much more serious. It's an issue of complete insensitivity on the part of a family who plants mines and doesn't give a damn who gets blown up. It goes beyond religion into the area of nastiness.

Why all the violence? Why are all the Jewish leaders made to look like Nazis? You make it sound like oh it's just a difference of opinion. It's not! It's war!


From: Deke Barker
Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2004
Subject: The Gibson Film And The So-called "Secular Elite"

Shlomoh, Grace:

I don't know where Grace is getting her information, but the idea that the criticism of Gibson and "Passion" is either leftist or anti-Catholic is absurd on its face.

From some comments on scholarly religious lists and websites, it appears to me that a lot of Xians who have spent their lives studying the NT consider "Passion" to be a farce. Granted, they haven't seen it yet, but as one put it, "Given the source [a 19th century work of piety by a devout nun as interpreted by a 21st century religious fanatic], what else could it be?"

BTW: From a couple of reviews I've read today, the emphasis seems to be on Jesus' physical suffering.

Think about it: From a fundamentalist perspective, Jesus knew he was God and had to endure only a few more hours before installing himself (back?) on the divine throne for eternity.

Wouldn't *YOU* put up with a few hours of excruciating pain if you knew that when it was over, all would be well and Bill Gates would turn his entire fortune over to you?

Somehow, I don't think that physical pain was the real heart of the Passion story, Mel Gibson's expertise in such matters notwithstanding.


From: Deke Barker
Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2004
Subject: The Gibson Film And The So-called "Secular Elite"

Grace:

Where did you get the idea that this is the creation of the media? Everything that Gibson has done to date has *FORCED* the media to respond. His father, his traditionalist beliefs, the *REALITY* of the historical anti-Semitism of Passion Plays, the fact that Gibson based his work on a 19th century traditionalist Catholic work.

But most of all, it's the way Gibson has himself marketed his film. It has been marketed *EXCLUSIVELY* to conservative evangelical Protestants and traditionalist Roman Catholics. *EXCLUSIVELY*!!! Gibson has gone out of his way to ensure that few -- if any -- objective observers (never mind Jews or liberal Xians) are allowed into the previews. Why would he do that? How about, a) he wanted to create a controversy to generate box-office sales, or, b) he already knew that his product would create controversy. E ither way, it is obvious that he wanted to play to the :"us against them" mentality that is characteristic of fundamentalist religion.

You implied to Shlomoh that Jews are making a mountain out of a molehill, ensuring that "Passion" will be seen by millions. Grace, given the nature of Gibson's marketing of the film, what choice did they have? It was going to be seen by millions anyway, and *SPECIFICALLY* those "millions" who have a history of anti-Semitism, conservative and fundamentalist Xians. Now, you can say I'm picking on the conservatives again, but if you do so, you are ignoring the truth: Jews have good reason to be worried! What choice did they have but to try to warn people that it *MIGHT* be a gross distortion of known or likely data, and that the net effect would be to promote anti-Semitism?


From: Grace Harris
Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2004
Subject: The Gibson Film And The So-called "Secular Elite"

I never said the media created it. I said they were having a romp with it. :)

The controversy was created by those Jews (not all Jews) who, like Shlomoh, are over-reacting to fears of the movie unleashing Christian antisemetism, which for all practical purposes, has been marginalized by the church. The old antisemitism is now so far out of the mainstream that the few nutcases like Mel's father are laughed at or treated with scorn by Christians.

It is worth noting that not all Jews feel the way Shlo does. Maia Morgenstein, the Jewish daughter of holocaust survivors, is delighted to play the part of Mary in the movie.


From: Deke Barker
Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2004
Subject: The Gibson Film And The So-called "Secular Elite"

Grace:

No, the controversy was created by Gibson when he chose his source for his film. The flames were fanned by Gibson in the secretive manner in which he made the film. And then Gibson poured gasoline on the flames by engaging in a bunch of "previews" to which nobody but evangelical Protestants and conservative Catholics, people who have a strong tendency to be more anti-Semitic than other Xians. Jews in particular were not invited or allowed into the premiers.

Yes, it is possible to find Jews in the who were willing to participate in the film. Perhaps they were naive. Perhaps they were simply venal.

Or perhaps it's a great film that does no disservice to Jews or history whatsoever.

But if that's the case, why all the closed previews for religious reactionaries, all others need not show up?


Grace Harris converted to Roman Catholicism from Holiness Religion over 20 years ago.

Deke Barker is a member of the church of The Disciples Of Christ.


NOTE: NO PORTION OF THIS PAGE MAY BE DUPLICATED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION OF GRACE HARRIS, DEKE BARKER, AND SHLOMOH SHERMAN
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