Passion for the wrong cause?

Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ", while undoubtedly a well-done and stunning movie, is also thinly veiled propaganda for traditionalist Catholicism. It's remarkable that so many evangelicals have expressed support for it. But then, many evangelicals and similar groups co-operate with the Moonie Jonathan Wells. So perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised by their opportunism towards Gibson?

The traditionalist Catholic slant of "The Passion of the Christ" is obvious in many ways. Some of the situations depicted in the movie aren't found in the Gospels, but in the visions of a Catholic mystic, Anne Catherine Emmerich. Others seem to be Gibson's own invention, but they are consistent with Catholic tradition, as when Satan mocks the Madonna and the Child. The whole concentration on the violent suffering of Jesus also looks very Catholic. So is the use of the Latin language. Jesus speaks to Pontius Pilate in Latin, although Greek would have been more likely. While Pilate was a Roman, the lingua franca of the East Mediterranean was Greek. There is no indication in the Gospels that Jesus used an interpreter when speaking to Pilate, which suggests that the Gospel writers assumed their conversation to be in Greek (which is also the language of the Gospels themselves.) So why the use of the Latin language? Presumably because Latin is the traditional liturgical language of the Catholic Church. Indeed, much of the conflict between traditionalist Catholics and Vatican II Catholics has been over the use of the traditional Latin mass. I also noticed that the Latin spoken by Pilate and Jesus in the Gibson's movie sounds like Italian! Apparently, ecclesiastical Latin does have an "Italian" pronunciation.

But the most contentious issue concerning the movie is, of course, the real or perceived anti-Semitism. The Jews of the Sanhedrin certainly look like anti-Semitic stereotypes. Herod Antipas is depicted as an effeminate gay. Also, Pilate is cast in the role of unwilling executioner, as in the Gospel of John, the most anti-Jewish of the four gospels. Of course, it's difficult to make a "pro-Jewish" traditional Christian movie about Jesus. Traditional Christianity isn't pro-Jewish, anymore than Orthodox Judaism is pro-Christian. However, Gibson should at least have excised the more blatant stereotypes. That Gibson later made anti-Semitic remarks during the infamous DUI incident, hardly helped his case, despite his public apologies to the Jewish communities.

"The Passion of the Christ" is an artistic achievement as a movie, but due to its problematic contents, I can only give it two stars. Somehow, it feels like a passion for the wrong cause.