TRY THE SHOE ON THE OTHER FOOT

Gibson's Jesus Pic Faces More Anti-Semitism Charges (Gregg Kilday, June 25, 2003, Reuters/Hollywood Reporter)

Continuing to raise concerns over "The Passion," the Mel Gibson-directed film about the last days of Jesus Christ, the Anti-Defamation League of America (ADL) charged Tuesday that, based on a study of an early version of the screenplay, the project could be "replete with objectionable elements that would promote anti-Semitism."

The ADL embraced the findings of an interfaith committee of scholars that has raised objections to the unreleased film -- even though the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has distanced itself from the same group.

In its statement, the ADL contended that Gibson and his collaborators "must complement their artistic vision with sound scholarship, which includes knowledge of how the passion accounts have been used historically to disparage and attack Jews and Judaism. Absent such scholarly and theological understanding, productions such as 'The Passion' could likely falsify history and fuel the animus of those who hate Jews."

Imagine for a moment that the "must complement" standard were to be universally applied, that Schindler's List and The Pianist opened with a statement that Jews were hated in Europe because they were blamed for the Crucifixion or that Hitler rose to power because of the Treaty of Versailles. Would giving that context not tend to be offensive? Posted by Orrin Judd at June 25, 2003 2:00 PM