'Passion' stirring passionate debate

This column ran in March, 2004:
It's been 10 days since I saw "The Passion of the Christ" and eight days since it opened nationwide. I am still moved by the movie and intrigued by the way people have responded to it.
Last week I asked readers to send me their thoughts about the movie after they had seen it. Written response has been low, but the number of people who have talked to me about it in person has been enormous.
Among those who have written is Elizabeth Tesitor, who said she has seen the movie four times. "Some people look at me as if I am nuts. Others ask me how I can do it. It is my way of processing it all; I don't enjoy the violence and brutality.
"Each time I go, I am drawn to focus on a different aspect of the events ... I am touched in another area of my being and there is a different lesson in it for me. Each time I am totally immersed in each scene ... never anticipating the next one. It doesn't seem like two hours ... time stands still. It is an experience in which I am suspended. Each time I sit stunned at the end and say over and over to God, "I didn't know I was that loved."
"Today I realized that is why I go back - I am overwhelmed by the depth of His love, and I am drawn back to re-experience the love and the hope. Only God could offer my heart and mind such hope and love in a depiction of such sheer brutality. I don't know if I will see it again, but if I do, I am certain it will be another experience of love and hope."
Cindi Goertz wrote, "My husband and I saw the movie on Thursday. When we returned home at 9:30 p.m. I didn't want to do anything such as watch TV or read, etc. Our 3-year-old daughter was still awake and we all just ended up going to bed. I awoke several times that night, thinking about the movie.
"The movie was gripping, to say the least. And yes, brutal and graphic. I won't use the word violent, because it just somehow doesn't fit for me. My husband and I are both born-again Christians and aware of Christ's suffering for our sins; however, this movie made it much more real ... more personal to us.
"The crucifix we have in our bedroom shows the wounds at Jesus' hands, feet, head and side, but how many of us truly grasped the suffering and humiliation Jesus endured? Relentless suffering. There were times I wanted to stand up in the theatre and yell, "Enough already; stop torturing him!"
"How ironic that, at one moment in time, Jesus was welcomed into the city as a king - with palm branches laid before him. In another moment he was being scorned by people on all sides as he carried his cross. The flashbacks to when he was with Mary were extremely moving and I sobbed deeply when Mary told Jesus, 'I'm here.' What strength displayed by a mother who honored her son's destiny. I could feel her pain.
"Above everything else, what I took from this movie was, 'How unfathomable God's love must be for us to allow his only son to experience such agony.'"
Of course, not everyone who responded had favorable things to say. This response comes from someone whose name I am omitting. I have to assume that this person has not seen the movie.
"You Christian freaks never quit. But, yes, I can believe, that even in this age of enlightenment there still exists billions of people (supposedly rational beings) who fervently believe in mythological entities. Surely you are as well read as I; so you must know that some of the world's greatest scholars have denied the existence of Jesus and other 'deities' such as Thor, Zeus, Isis, Satan, Santa, and the Tooth Fairy.
"(Mel) Gibson's movie is total fiction - as is the Bible. Gibson has produced a movie as imaginative as "The Wizard of Oz;" but a movie of no redeeming social value - other than make Mel millions."
For weeks I have been receiving press releases and statements from different groups about the film. Many, such as Focus on the Family and Promise Keepers, have fully endorsed the movie. Bruce H. DeBoskey, the Anti-Defamation League's Mountain States Regional Director, faxed a statement after seeing the movie last week.
"Having now seen the movie, we are saddened to learn that our concerns have been confirmed. Mel Gibson's vision of the Passion squarely, repeatedly and unambiguously portrays the Jews as responsible for the death of Jesus," he wrote.
"For over 1900 years, four words fueled anti-Semitism: 'the Jews killed Christ.' In the past several decades, most Christian leaders have repudiated that statement, leading to a new era of understanding in relations between Christians and Jews. This movie threatens to turn back the clock to an earlier time of mistrust and suspicion.
"As this movie is shown around the world, we hope that it will be viewed not as a passion of hate, but rather as an opportunity for dialogue and learning between Christians and Jews. We trust that the recent history of respect between our communities will ensure that present-day Jews will not be blamed, and hope that the movie will not add fuel to the fires of anti-Semitism - mankind's longest hatred."
I must agree that I hope the movie doesn't stir anti-Semitism. Jews are God's chosen people and are deserving of our love and respect. But you cannot tell the story of Jesus' crucifixion without including the part of the Jewish Sanhedrin having him arrested and clamoring for his death.
That would be like making a movie about the plight of Jews during World War II and ignoring the Holocaust. My response, and the general response of Christians, is to view the movie as a message of love. In the opening scenes with Jesus in the garden of Gethesmane, it is clear from the onset that Jesus gave himself willingly. It is not a question of who killed Jesus, but how and why he died.
Jesus gave his life so that all people - Jew and Gentile - can have salvation from sin and death and spend eternity in Heaven with God. That, I feel, is the message of the movie and the greatest news given to man across the ages.