Deepundercover

From www.lukeford.net:

On his radio show today, 8/4/03, Dennis Prager said he saw the movie THE PASSION with Mel Gibson. Prager says one fine Christian man in the audience after the film said it made him want to take a gun and shoot the Jews responsible for Christ's crucifixtion. Prager says the film makes Jews look bad but he doubts it will cause American Christians to treat Jews today badly.

Prager told Mel Gibson the movie should make a ton of money in Arab countries because they hate Jews. This thought had never occurred to Mel Gibson. He's an American Catholic. European and Latin American Christianity is steeped in hatred of Jews.

Dave writes: "Mel's an Australian member of a Catholic splinter group that hasn't accepted the validity of any pope in the last 40 years or so, and his father is a leader of the group, holocaust denier, and antisemite (if you don't believe me, check out the NYTimes magazine article about him that came out some time in the last year or so)."

The film portrays Jews as Christ-killers. For the past 2000 years, Jews have been regarded as Christ-killers, and persecuted and murdered for it. For those who already loathe Jews, the film can be used terribly. I am not happy about this film going beyond American borders. This will be a big deal in other parts of the world to reinforce hatred of Jews.

Dennis: I don't blame Mel Gibson for this. I believe his only intention was to portray as accurately as he could, the death of Christ. He had only noble religious intentions.

Mel Gibson was not aware of the history of persecution of Jews for being Christ-killers. I'm working with Mel Gibson's staff to make for smoother relations.

Many Jews are over-sensitive. Just because someone says, "He jewed me down," doesn't mean he hates Jews.

The Jews look disgusting in this film. Jews have a right to be worried. It's also ok to make films that make Jews look bad.

In America, Christians are taught that sinning humanity killed Christ.

A caller from Mexican says she was called Christ-killer regularly as a kid. Mexican Jews live in enclaves and are kept out of the heart of Mexican society. Only in America are Jews an integrated part of their larger society.

DP: This film is made for the believing Christian. As a non-Christian, the film does not have the power that it has for the believer. I don't find two hours of Jesus being tortured inspiring. I wish this film were never made.

If Gibson had asked me two years ago, what type of film could I make to inspire Christians and help bring Christians and non-Christians closer together, this would've been my last suggestion.

There are a lot of lessons here for blacks (to get over their hatred of whites for slavery). I'm very pro-black.

Luke says: What the hell does it mean for Prager to say he's pro-black? Prager says he's color-blind. Doesn't take into account race. That he believes in morality not racialism. Yet here he says he's pro-black. Sounds racialist to me.

DP: My son David is more observant than I am. He's a college student (at UCLA). He walks around with a yarmulke. He gets no anti-Jewish treatment.