Passionate readers
Re: “The Passion of the Mel” by Lance Goldenberg (Feb. 25-March 2)
I read with great interest your thought-provoking commentary on Gibson's movie The Passion. I haven't seen it yet, but I doubt that it could really improve on the Gospel of John in stirring up Jew-hatred. In this regard, I feel compelled to inform you of a book that I have written over a period of five-and-one-half years and published in August 2003. The title is The Kingdom That Never Came: Jesus' Apocalyptic Delusion and Christianity's Drive for Secular Power. Whew! That's a mouthful, but I think you might be interested in it. I will quote the last paragraph of the sixth chapter to give you some idea of its main theme and its relevance to your article:
"Thus, as Christianity began its great turn away from the failed prophecy and otherworldly vision of Jesus and began to redirect its energies to the natural order of men and politics, there began the long history of Christian maltreatment of the Jews. It is not often appreciated that this legacy of hatred was born in the Church's first great turn towards the things of this world, after the kingdom of God failed to make its appearance as Jesus said it would. Early Christianity's great turn … forced it to redirect its energy, its hatred and its resentment, away from Caesar and towards the accursed people of its origin, 'the Jews.' To have done otherwise, to have continued to rail against Rome, would have closed the door on its only path of escape, namely, acquiescence, assimilation and infiltration into the powers that be. Jew-hatred was the first great earthly pleasure to which Christianity succumbed, and the intoxicating power of this hatred helped propel it in its drive to dominate the secular realm, of which Judaism was but one problematic component among many to be overcome. John's curse upon the Jews, 'You are of your father the devil,' gave canonical authority to this redirection of early Christianity, and it became the starting point from which tragedy and suffering beyond compare cascaded down upon the Jewish people for the better part of 20 centuries, almost exclusively at the hands of their Christian brothers. The kingdom that never came was destined to create a kind of hell on earth for the descendants of those who first doubted, and then rejected, Jesus' apocalyptic delusion."
If you are interested in the book, you can order it over the Internet through amazon.com or any major bookseller. The isbn number is 1-4107-3994-5.
—T.S. Moore
Riverview, Fla.
Now that Mel Gibson has had his opening of The Passions of the Christ he can really get gory and do the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, and the Russian Pogroms.
—David Y. Smith
Palmetto, Fla.
Just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your review of "the" movie. It is the best I've seen and I've read them all. Thank you for saying what you said and saying it so well. I'm praying for you, too: praying that all those vile prayers coming your way (no doubt) bounce right off you like Ping-Pong balls! So, keep up the GREAT work.
—Laura Kane
St. Petersburg
Now that Mel Gibson has brought the matter up, let us analyze the entire Jesus myth in the light of reason. Let us suppose, by the usual leap of faith, that the Bible is composed of objective truth. Who or what was the cause of Jesus' execution, or, if you prefer, murder?
God, his merciful father, decided that among those sinful people whom He had created were some who would worship Him properly and whom He was thus obliged to "save" from an unspecified perdition by eventually "resurrecting" them, or at least the vital part of them, from their mortal dust unto one of His many personal "mansions."
His means of accomplishment was to miraculously create, on earth, His own Son as a semi-mortal (there is argument about that) and perfect person, and then to cause His Son to be dramatically killed and resurrected as: 1. a demonstration of what "saving" actually consisted of; 2. a model of the sort of person worthy, in His opinion, of "resurrection"; and, most importantly, 3. to bear away, in that "resurrection," all the sins of the erring but properly worshiping mortals, leaving those mortals in a condition for resurrection themselves.
The process of killing His Son in a memorably dramatic way required mortal accomplices, and such were not lacking, considering the place and time of the action and the nature (which He, Himself, had installed and allowed to remain) of His human beings.
Having set forth the main facts of the case, it is time for the jury to pronounce a just verdict regarding guilt for The Passion (and death) of The Christ. Justice must hold that responsibility rests on the shoulders, if not the conscience, of Jesus, father, God.
While we have suspended disbelief, it is convenient to examine this interesting matter a bit further by supposing God (the father) had been indifferent to those whom He might have "saved" through His Son. There would then be no opportunity for mankind to have "everlasting life," no Trinity, no Christianity, not even a Pope. Those who have reason to anticipate and enjoy the advantages they might have lost are well advised to give honor and thanks not only to the Planner of the killing but also to His earthly minions, both those Jewish conservatives and the Roman administrators and soldiers. (Why has there never been a pogrom for the latter?)
As long as our imaginations are working overtime, let us imagine that you are, somehow, given the choice of killing Jesus or forever losing your opportunity along with that of your loved ones and the entire rest of mankind to enjoy the promise of resurrection after death and eternal life in the bosom of your gentle, loving, just and merciful God. What choice would you make?
—Bud Tritschler
Clearwater
This article appears in Mar 11-17, 2004.