A California rabbi has asked Mel Gibson to make sure his new movie “The Passion” doesn’t blame the Jews for the crucifixion. The guy hasn’t seen the movie or the scrpt (he should just pick up the Gospel of Luke), but he heard that Mel doesn’t like some of the changes brought about by Vatican II and thus he thinks Mel wants to go back to the days of blaming the Jews for the crucifixion of Christ. That’s just ridiculous.
Thinking that people who have problems with some of the changes brought about by Vatican II are automatically anti-Semitic is just as reflexively prejudiced as people who are anti-Semitic because the Gospels portray the Jews as yelling “Crucify him.”
Besides, unless the audience speaks Aramaic, Latin, or Hebrew, I doubt it’s going to make much difference, since that’s what people will be speaking. And Mel is adhering so closely to the Gospel that if one considers the movie to be anti-Semitic, then he’s going to have consider the Gospel to be anti-Semitic.
