How can we parody the “affirm me in my okayness” Christians if they do such a good job of showing how loony they are themselves? Here’s a letter that appeared in the Providence Visitor, the newspaper of the Diocese of Providence, RI:
“Kudos to Michael Brown and Patrick Reid for setting us straight with their reviews of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.” I didn’t appreciate all that blood and violence either. It’s bad enough that some churches still make us go through all that Passion stuff on Good Friday, now we have to get bombarded with it at the movies as well. When is Hollywood going to start portraying Jesus as the really nice guy he was? Like Brown pointed out in his review, there was only one scene in the entire film where Jesus laughed!
“I don’t know why Mel Gibson couldn’t have just skimmed over the scourging and crucifying scenes and gone right to the Resurrection. That’s the problem with old-fashioned Catholics, too much emphasis on sacrifice, sin, and suffering. Didn’t Jesus die for us so we wouldn’t have to be bothered with that anymore?”
Ooh, cover my eyes and ears, I don’t want to hear about that ickyness that Jesus suffered to redeem me for my sins and save me from the fires of hell. I’d rather hear about “surfer boy” Jesus like the one in the Judas movie on ABC the other night.
Meanwhile, Padre Gio is among the group of RI priests who wrote a letter to the editor Michael Brown, refuting his negative article about Mel Gibson and The Passion
The newspaper didn’t see it as such and published it straight. If it is satire, then it’s the newspaper’s editors who are the ones too loony to parody that they would think it’s supporting them.