I do hope that Christians will take the opportunity to set the record straight on the "anti-semitic" issue...
Why would Christians blame the Jews for the very thing that gives us Salvation?
Some American Jewish leaders have been very concerned about the impact of this film because of the passage in Matt.27:24-25:
When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but
that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed
his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye
to it. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children. For centuries nominal Christians, governments and the "official" church used those two verses as verification that all Jewish people were accursed, thus justifying the persecution of them. My own father, born in 1905, related to me how as a little boy he would awake in the middle of the night to the sounds of rocks pelting the walls of his home, and voices yelling "Christ-killers!"
In response to the concerns expressed by Jewish leaders, Mel Gibson removed the subtitle bearing verse 25 from the film. The line can still be heard amid the crowd noises, but it is spoken in aramaic, which not many viewers will understand, particularly those who might be inclined toward anti-semitism.
Nothing in scripture indicates that the statement of verse 25 resulted in a cursing of the Jewish people. To the contrary, the gospel of Jesus Christ was taken to the Jews first, even after the crucifixion.
Mel Gibson has stated clearly in public that anti-semitism is against the tenets of his faith, and that racial or religious prejudice and bigotry are sins.
As a side issue, Mel Gibson's father, Hutton Gibson, 85, has made some decidedly anti-semitic statements, including, "They're after one world religion and one world government," and, "Is the Jew still actively anti-Christian? He is, for by being a Jew, he is anti-everyone else."
Hutton Gibson also alleges that the Nazis' extermination of 6 million Jews during the 1930s-1940s was "maybe not all fiction--but most of it is." Of Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, the elder Gibson said that "Greenspan tells us what to do. Someone should take him out and hang him."
Mel Gibson has taken a lot of flak for not refuting his father's allegations but, to his credit, he has fulfilled the role of a faithful son. "He's my father. I love him. Leave it alone," he told Diane Sawyer on national television.
Mel Gibson has clearly stated his own position toward the Jewish people, which obviously opposes his father's views. The public is obligated to accept his statements at face value, and has no right to demand that the man turn against his father.
I believe we should all be ready to respond in a manner befitting a redeemed people when confronted with such accusations of anti-semitism.
Janet
Please, let us all seriously pray and prepare toward this goal. Thank you, Janet.
