After reading through this thread I still have not come to a conclusion on Lightwizards view of "the Passion of Christ". Did you like it or not?
You are being droll, aren't you?
If not, I did not like the film. The cinematography could have been the saving grace (sic) if it did not bounce back and forth from the "Friday the 13th" to the "Barry Lyndon" classic painting style. It is relentlessly bloody with more artfully spurting arcs of the fake movie stuff used up then in any film ever made. The action movie slow motion effects cheapen the film and breaks the mood of what spiritual effect it may have had.
The slug like fundamentalists are reacting like I expected them to:
Lovingway Church my arse!
Quote:Pastor says 'Jews killed Jesus' sign isn't hateful
Nationwide outrage erupts over message at Denver church
By Jean Torkelson and Brian D. Crecente, Rocky Mountain News
February 26, 2004
A church sign that said "Jews killed the Lord Jesus" ignited a national firestorm of outrage Wednesday and packed the church parking lot with a religiously diverse crowd of protesters.
The message didn't survive the day.
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At noon a mother of four leaned a ladder against the sign and pulled down the word "Jew."
By 9 p.m. members of the church had removed the rest.
The Rev. Maurice Gordon of Lovingway United Pentecostal Church, 999 S. Colorado Blvd., said the message on the sign was not hateful.
"It would be hateful if it pointed at anybody alive today," Gordon said. "But this has been part of the record for 2,000 years."
The 73-year-old pastor said the message was meant to get people to read the Bible. But it provoked other reactions.
Angry calls flooded radio stations, and some motorists careened across the boulevard, not believing what they were seeing.
"People were pulling three lanes over to get a look," said Jennifer Patrick, a surgical assistant who works in an office facing the church.
About noon, Ami Ship drove to the church to see if the sign really said what she thought it said.
After knocking on the doors of the church and calling to try to get someone to take the sign down, Ship decided to do it herself.
She drove across the street to a Home Depot and bought a ladder and took down "Jew."
"I thought, 'I don't want to see the sign anymore.' " Ship said. "Hateful messages like that promote anti-Semitism. It was very offensive."
The incident occurred against the backdrop of Wednesday's opening of Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of the Christ, which chronicles the last 12 hours of Jesus' life. It has drawn charges of anti-Semitism.
Gordon said he was partly motivated by Gibson's movie, but added he would not be seeing the film itself because he neither attends movies nor watches television.
The United Pentecostal Church International, headquartered in Hazelwood, Mo., said in a statement it did not condone Gordon's action.
The "decision was made without support or contribution from the United Pentecostal Church International and does not reflect our position on this matter. We regret any offense his actions have caused . . . One of our constant prayers is to pray for Jerusalem and the Jewish people as the Lord has commanded us."
Earlier in the day, the Anti-Defamation League called on Gordon to remove the "painful and divisive message." And the Colorado Council of Churches said: "It's ironic that a church named Lovingway would advance such an attitude of hurtfulness."
Gordon's sign also prompted a response from the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center urging Christian leaders in Denver to rebuke the Lovingway church.
"The Jewish people have suffered from the libel of deicide for nearly 2,000 years," said a statement from Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the center. "We continue to look to our Christian neighbors and friends to rebuke those who would pass off this canard as theology."
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations in the world, with more than 400,000 member families in the United States, according to its Web site.
At 7 p.m. about 200 people, including Promise Keepers founder Bill McCartney, gathered in front of the Denver church to protest the sign.
The crowd of Jews and Christians waved signs with phrases like "God killed Jesus" written on them.
"This anti-Semitic message is un-Christian, and it is a sin," said Michael Walker, senior pastor at Church in the City. "That is false Christianity on that sign."
Nate Hyatt, Gordon's grandson, said that the sign's statement was probably bad timing.
"It's definitely not what we stand for," he said.
Gordon said he was prepared to take the sign down. "It probably served its purpose," he said.
And by 9 p.m. the message had been changed, now telling the roughly 60,000 motorists who pass it each day:
"God so loved the world that he gave
"He's still giving!"
hobitbob wrote:The slug like fundamentalists are reacting like I expected them to:
One pastor shows some bad judgement and you get to make a vile claim like this? You should be ashamed of yourself.
*Edited to fix spelling because no one would know what I meant when I wrote "pasteur" instead of "pastor" and I wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong impressions from what I write. Because then they can just make glib comments on my spelling instead of answering my charge of making a mountain out of a molehill and pasting an article in 3 different threads.*
Pasteur was a microbiologist. A "Pastor (From the word Pastore, shepherd) is the leader of a church.
Hasta le pastor baby I'm hungry bye
And I have to go out and buy a toilet seat. It don't know if this requires that I be joyful and in an epiphany, certainly not from Mel's film, but I will make my best tasteful judgement of which toilet seat looks the best. I will likely have to go to Home Despot after visiting my local neighborhood department store because of selection but I will have a better time than being subject to Mel's pedantic and gory Bible lesson. He should start a recall of the Pope so he can run.
I heard that some woman became so upset while watching the climactic scenes in the movie that she actually had a heart attack and died.
What a great tag line. They should have put that on the movie poster.
"FORGET JASON, FORGET FREDDY. JESUS WILL LITERALLY KILL YOU!"
I haven't read that but the film is certainly not for the faint hearted. With an R rating and very little to warn anyone, it can happen. Children should never be taken to see this film. Bill O'Reilly has said he would not recommend the film to anyone despite the fact that Mel has bought his novel for the screen. He said it was far too violent. Wonder what will happen there?
truth
David Denby of the New Yorker has just dismissed it as " a two hour snuff film."
I'm much more interested in this toilet seat now. When's the first sitting?
Sorry I meant.. hell I dunno
I'm sure there are those who would rate the very act of buying a toilet seat in preference to seeing the St Melvin the pius effort as an act of contemporary art unsurpassed....cont p94
I will say at the outset, that I haven't seen the film yet. It opened here yesterday, and I plan to see it soon. Obviously, this detracts from the validity of anything I say about it, but I do believe that I am entitled to discuss the topic anyway.
Is the allegation that the violence of this movie exceeds the violence of the actual event? The actual event, if it occurred as stated in the Bible, was certainly very violent. Is the allegation that Gibson departed from the events as described in the Bible? It is my recollection that Christ was arrested by the Sanhedrin, who first questioned him, and then sent him to the Roman military governor, Pilate. As I recall the story, Pilate initially regarded Christ's alleged crimes as not being a serious violation of Roman law, but that the Sanhedrin was able to persuade him that Christ's popular appelation, "King of the Jews" was a challenge to Roman authority, and that Pilate then, egged on by a crowd which had gathered and preferred that he spare Barabas, the Zealot, ordered him crucified. Unless Gibson has departed from the source material, I don't see what he has done wrong. Certainly portraying a violent event as being violent cannot be regarded as indicating Gibson's bad attitude.
There are only a few lines in the Bible in vague discription of the actual Crucifixion. Mel has gone over the edge in mashing one's face in the gory horror. This is Clive Barker cranked up to the Nth degree. Any historian will tell you the Crucifixion is no picnic but it is different to describe it in words and using gallons of fake blood to repulse one to the point of being sick.
The lady who died of a heart attack during the final hour of the film is true. Perhaps the warning not to take children should be a warning to those with any physical problems or over the age of 65 that they should see the film at their own risk. This reminds me of a joy ride in an amusement park.
Gibson departs from historical accounts of Pontius Pilate and not just in nuance -- he makes him a weak willed, benevolent ruler who is forced to order the Crucifixion. In fact, the Jews were under their rule and were afraid what would happen to them if they thwarted their conquerors.
Despite what Ebert and Roeper reviewed, I totally disagree with them. The artistic level of the film is squashed beneath all the horrific brutality, for me unnecessary for anyone but a sado-masochist.
I am a Christian, and I do not plan to see the film. I have a very weak stomach for violence.
I don't care if it is realistic. You could film someone having diarrhea and that might be realistic, too, but I wouldn't pay money to watch it. Reality is not a good enough reason for this film. It sensationalizes brutality, and I want no part of that.
It was basically a 2 hour beating. If you're not impressed or horrified by the violence, then it's really quite boring. By the last 30 minutes I was constantly looking at my watch wondering when the crap was going to end. I don't see how it could be used as a tool for conversion (as the catholic church is describing) and it certainly won't leave you breathless and "unable to talk" as one critic I heard describe it.
Are they going to do a book verson?
yeah, but they'll have to cut all the sex out!
