Many people have been running around madly in circles and falling over in the midst of a huge debate about what every journalist has christened (pun not intentional) Mel Gibson's "controversial" movie, The Passion of The Christ. Some people and/or movies just acquire adjectival epithets, like "blockbuster", "Oscar-nominee" (i.e. loser), or something more specific: Leonardo DiCaprio is probably still being referred to as "Titanic heartthrob". In Homer's Iliad, the descriptions of the characters are probably authentic, like "swift-footed" Achilles, for example. They certainly pre-date Homer's time.

I hope "controversial" doesn't stick to this movie in like manner; whilst I do not entirely share Mel Gibson's religious convictions (he belongs to a catholic sect who only have mass in Latin, do not accept the pope's rulership, and state that only their own members will attain salvation), I don't think the movie should be rejected out of hand. Christianity has many different viewpoints within it, but "orthodox" (i.e. doctrinally sound - not bearded men in black capes and funny hats) Christianity is generally every denomination that takes the Bible as its central moral and theological authority, and doesn't deviate from concepts like the Trinity, Christ's humanity and Godhead being co-existent, Christ dying on the Cross, rising from the dead, etc. If a church preaches anything counter to what's in the Bible it's either "aberrant" (out of sync), or downright misleading, and isn't really a church at all. Cults, sects or "heresies" (lies or distortions of truth) tend to pop up in this way- only someone professing to be Christian but who isn't can be a "heretic" or an "apostate" (one who turns away from the faith). Other religions are thus not "heretical" in the actual sense of the word, if that makes any sense at all....

I was saddened to see that most opposition to the movie was from the Jewish point of view. I cannot blame them;  the truth is, they have every reason to be angry with Christians and Christianity, if we examine the history of what "Christians" have done to the Children of Israel. The history of Anti-Semitism is quite X-rated, in fact, and I was deeply shocked at what has in effect been done "on the behalf" of Christ - Crusades, pogroms, the Inquisition, and many worse horrors.

I firmly believe that Christians - real, Bible-believing Christians - need to develope a ministry of repentance and reconciliation between ourselves and those harmed by Anti-Semitism. As a Protestant whose spiritual "ancestors" were also murdered in their hundreds by maddened medieval catholics - most notably during the French Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre, which as I recall happened during the 1500's, and the uncounted numbers murdered by the Inquisition in Spain, Portugal and the Low Countries, not including other atrocities perpetuated on Jews and Christians alike all over medieval Europe - I cannot ally myself with the hideous acts that were either committed in the Name of Jesus Christ by Roman Catholics, or the mistaken agitation against Jews that the ignorant have stirred up in jealousy over God's favour for the Jewish nation.

It's time that we as the Body of Christ on Earth did more to reconcile ourselves to Israel - not just the land itself, but all her scattered people - and actively seek reconciliation. Everything the apostle Paul did, for example, was done first for Jews and then for Gentiles. If Christianity forgets its Jewish roots, it loses most of its meaning. Jesus was Jewish! People like to forget that fact; they paint Him looking pale and wishy-washy, with Caucasian features and blue eyes, or - fashionably - as a North African with crissy hair. In truth, He was Semitic, descended from King David, from Judah, Jacob, Isaac and Abraham. He had a Jewish nose, brown Jewish eyes, big strong beautiful Jewish hands. The Body that was broken for me was Jewish, the Blood that was shed for me was Jewish, the voice that cried out Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachtani? [My God! My God! Why have You forsaken me?] cried out in Aramaic or Hebrew. If we hate the Children of Israel we hate the Lord. He hung naked on that cross for them as well as for us; calling them "Christ-killers" is a lie from hell itself.