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Mel Gibson brings movie to city's church leaders (KAMON SIMPSON, THE GAZETTE)

"I'm not a preacher and I'm not a pastor," Gibson said. "But I really feel my career was leading me to make this. The Holy Ghost was working through me on this film, and I was just directing traffic. I hope the film has the power to evangelize."

Although the film won't be released until March, Gibson brought it to Colorado Springs--a national hub of evangelical Christianity--for one day to make sure its depiction of the Gospel was acceptable to leaders at Focus on the Family and to hundreds of church leaders, including Ted Haggard, New Life's pastor and president of the National Evangelical Association.

"It conveys, more accurately than any other film, who Jesus was," Haggard said based on clips he viewed at New Life. "You can't help but be upset when you realize the gravity of what Jesus went through." [...]

"I was very impressed," said Don Hodel, president of Focus on the Family. "It's certainly the most powerful portrayal of the passion I've ever seen or heard about. The movie is historically and theologically accurate."

It would seem unlikely that mere accuracy will help Mr. Gibson and his film, which has been prejudged offensive because of its subject matter, raising the question of whether Christianity itself is now understood to be anti-Semitic. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 3, 2003 7:33 AM