Saturday, April 10, 2004
Nobody mentions the Romans
A group from my church went to see The Passion of the Christ again today, and I decided to watch it with a much more careful eye to anti-Semitism. I felt my initial impressions were reinforced: there are many Jews in the story who show how unjust they think the whole thing is--if one watches carefully it becomes apparent that the agenda played out in the film is that of a very few individuals.
It seems, at least from my perspective, that the movie has not done much to inflame anti-Semitism among Christians, at least the ones I know and have been able to talk to about it. I hadn't even considered what the Arab world's response might be to the whole issue of anti-Semitism, and that's been the big shocker I felt I should have guessed about the whole time.
So maybe they're right--Ol' Mel's film is going to spark a new wave of anti-Semitism. But maybe not among whom most people thought.
Interestingly enough, as I watched the film I couldn't help but notice the pure ferocity of the Romans who tended to and beat Jesus throughout. These thugs have no emotional investment in the man they scourge; they are simply into the brutality for the sport of it, and take it so far that even Jesus's avowed Jewish enemies cannot bear to stick around and watch. In many cases these Romans keep beating Jesus even after it's obvious he can't move a single more step. Despite this, I haven't seen one thing that suggests the movie flings wide the real truth about Romans (and, naturally, all the cultural children of their civilization): that they are horrible, brutal, senseless, base, violent, abusive creatures.
Whitey's off the hook again.
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