2016-06-30
In the long run-up to the Feb. 25 opening of "The Passion of the Christ," culture warriors such as Ted Haggard and Gary Bauer set up Mel Gibson's controversial film about Christ's crucifixion as a litmus test: Are you an atheist secular elitist, or do you really love Jesus?

Gibson played on this construct by traveling the country last year giving evangelical Christians and conservative Catholics sneak previews of the film. Well-organized Christian groups promoted the film through websites such as ThePassionOutreach.com. You got a sense from reading the defenses of the film that the movie had the makings of a rallying cry, akin to Judge Roy Moore's effort to display the Ten Commandments in the Alabama state capitol or to the fierce anti-gay marriage movement.

Liberal Christian and Jewish leaders saw the same potential as they began raising questions about whether the script was anti-Semitic. The National Council of Churches created a study guide for the movie that asked readers to confront historic Christian anti-Semitism and contemporary Christian-Jewish relations. Jewish leaders weighed in, notably Abraham Foxman of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League, who repeatedly denounced the film's perceived anti-Semitism. The criticism-direct and implied-led to the start of a website called SupportMelGibson.com. It also led a Baptist businessman in Plano, Texas, to buy $42,000 worth of movie tickets to distribute free of charge on opening day.

Some people even predicted the movie would be a reflection of the political red state-blue state divide. Ira Forman, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, in an interview with The Jewish Week, called the movie "a clear dramatization of the cultural polarization of America. And the two sides in the debate over this movie almost exactly mirror the partisan divide in this country."

Then the film opened. People went to see it in droves, and by the end of its second weekend (March 7), the movie was still number one at the box office and had taken in more than $200 million. "The Passion of the Christ" became the biggest debut ever by a film opening on a Wednesday-even bigger than "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" ($124.1 million). As a result, perhaps, the film's boosters have calmed down-DefendingMelGibson.com hasn't been updated since film opened. And we're not hearing much from Christian (and Jewish) critics who declared the movie a bloody, violent, anti-Semitic piece of trash.

What is happening? Surely not what culture warriors on either side expected. Christians-conservative, liberal, moderate, church-going, and barely observant-appear to be seeing the movie for the reason Mel Gibson created it: to struggle over their relationship with Jesus. And after all, the nation is still more than 80 percent nominally Christian.

The fact is, American Christians are deeply affected by their vision of Jesus, no matter which way they lean-politically, culturally, or theologically. In that way, the movie is a litmus test-it's just not a litmus test about the culture war. Instead, it's a focal point for debate over the sort of Jesus American Christians believe in. The suffering, bloody, redemptive Jesus of Mel Gibson's film, and of traditional Catholicism and evangelicalism? Or the compassionate, forgiving, social justice Jesus that liberal Protestants and Catholics embrace?

In broad (and necessarily stereotyping) terms, Christians attracted to "redemptive Jesus" tend to view him as a suffering Messiah who willingly chose to die on the cross because, as God's son, he was sent to forgive humans for their sins and die a painful, sacrificial death as a way of atoning for those sins. They are intellectual descendants of Jonathan Edwards, Karl Barth, and Josemaria Escriva; they tend to view Jesus' physical resurrection as literally true. Some of the groups typical of this kind of Christian are Opus Dei, the Southern Baptist Convention, and Campus Crusade for Christ.

Christians attracted to "social-justice Jesus" tend to view him as a radical reformer trying to overturn the power structure that enslaved Jews in the Roman Empire and to bring about "God's Kingdom"-a place of mercy, compassion, and fairness. They are intellectual descendants of Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, and Dorothy Day; they tend to view Jesus' physical, literal resurrection as either a myth or a question mark. Some of the groups typical of this kind of Christian are Methodist Federation for Social Action; Pax Christi USA, a Catholic peace group; and Sojourners, a liberal evangelical group.

Yet these categories don't necessarily hold up when Christians talk about "The Passion." Some otherwise redemption-oriented Christians abhor the bloody spectacle of Jesus' death in the film; and many otherwise social justice-oriented Christians are moved by the portrayal of Jesus' suffering.

"People from a traditional perspective tend to like the movie because it emphasizes Christ's sacrifice to mankind-because the need for such a horrific sacrifice implies the sinfulness of mankind and also what follows, which is God's redemption," says John Green, a University of Akron professor who is an expert on evangelicals and politics. "Somewhat less traditional Christians, but every bit as serious, are sometimes troubled by selecting out this one element of the story."

Yet Green says the movie has not turned into a political football. "We could reach a moment when conservative Christians imply you have to be born-again, against same-sex marriage, against abortion and for 'The Passion of the Christ.' But we're not there yet."

Richard Wightman Fox, author of the new book Jesus in America, says that won't happen. "It's more of a double-sided film than we had been led to expect," says Fox. "It's not quite so anti-Semitic, and it's more fruitful than I had expected. Gibson has his finger on the pulse of American culture."

It seems that many American Christians-even liberals-resonate with the bloody, suffering image of Jesus. "Gibson has changed the Catholic passion into something more easily understandable to Protestants," Fox says. "He shows the victimization of Jesus' human body. The implication is that the movie can make you experience the act of suffering."

Other culture watchers see a similar phenomenon in reaction to the film.

"Fifty years ago this movie would have been impossible," says religion sociologist and author Alan Wolfe. "This is a very Catholic interpretation of the Passion. This would have been subject to denunciation from every pulpit in every Protestant church across the country."

Now, he says, Christians of all kinds don't see such a movie through a dogmatically theological lens. They see it through a personal lens. And they clearly want to soul-search over Jesus.

"The biggest impact of this movie will be on Christians, not non-Christians," says Southern Baptist Convention leader Richard Land. "It reintroduces Christians to Jesus' blood sacrifice that they accepted only intellectually. If they don't believe in blood atonement, then they've missed the central theme of the Bible."

Land suggested "The Passion" would, as a result, lead to more Christian piety. "I think it's going to lead a lot of people who have drifted away from church back. And it's going to drive a lot of churchgoers to deeper religious experience."

Beliefnet member Tonyagorz is one of those Christians: "I certainly have changed since seeing the movie. I'm reading the Bible again and reading other books about Jesus' life. One especially good book is called The Jesus I Never Knew [by liberal Bible scholar Marcus Borg]. I've started going back to church too. I feel this real connection again and WANT to get closer to God."

"I don't know if I ever really took a look at how much blood was really shed-Christ shed his blood for us to save us from our sins," Beliefnet member Cynthia Prather wrote. "We as Christians hear that all the time. Mel Gibson had the courage to show us what we've been hearing. The movie was terribly violent, but I'm glad because I realize even more the pain and suffering Christ went through for you and me."

In fact, a new website has emerged: MyLifeAfter.com, "dedicated to sharing the experiences that people have had after viewing Mel Gibson's `The Passion Of The Christ.'"

All of this seems to support Richard Wightman Fox's theory of Jesus: there is no single Jesus in America-or anywhere else. "He can lead crusades like a warrior, and he can turn the other cheek. He can thrash about in the temple and cup a blind person's face in his hands..He can linger with his mother and tell his disciples to leave their families behind. He can warn that the end-time is near and sketch the outlines of a new society.

"Americans will try their best to make him a predictable source of comfort," writes Fox, "but he will remain unpredictable."

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