Don't want to get into the details of the controversy, but wanted to point out that Gibson is a "conservative catholic" i.e., a group that rejects the reforms of Vatican II. Vatican II decided that Jews were not to blame for Jesus's cruxification; something that had resulted in antisemitic violence for 2 millenia.

Also have to point out that the ROmans ruled Jerusalem at the time, not the Jews.

You areabsolutely correct, he doesn't believe in the the Vatican "reforms", but reforms should change customs and views, not history. I am not Catholic so I can't really say, who's to blame.

But from what I've read, the Roman Province of Palestine, although ruled by the Romans, had a significant number of Jewish Senators. Those powerful people saw the coming of Jesus as a threat to their power, and they together with the Romans conspired to get rid of Jesus. That's history. But that's also the way God wanted it to be.

Hmmm...should I stumble into this? I am, after all, a Jew; my opinion on antisemitism is often shot down by those who favor argumentum ad hominem because of that. (I'm not saying that will happen here. How would I know? I've never written here until today.)

And BEFORE I write what I'm going to write, let me say that my reading of your blog so far indicates to me that you are intelligent and thoughtful, so I hope nothing I say will be taken as insulting. I wouldn't bother to write if that were the case. I'm only interested in explaining; not criticizing.

At any rate, there are two things to say about what you said:

1) When you've walked a mile in my jewish mocassins, then you would have some credibility talking about whether the ADL (and, potentially, from the way you worded things, anyone who sees antisemitism in a bigger part of the world than you see it in). I can remember being beaten up as a child several times for being a Jew. This happened in places as diverse as Virginia, Tennessee and California. I can remember as an adult realizing that I probably shouldn't wear my tzitzit and kipa (as I traditionally did all the time) when I had to work late downtown because of the attention it attracted in my town where not many Jews did that. I can remember as an adult a few years ago, getting that funny feeling that someone was staring at me while I was at an ATM. I turned to look over my shoulder and almost accidentally kissed the guy who was not just staring at me, but was doing it with his head practically resting on my shoulder---while I was an ATM! Then I realized he had a partner with him, who was doing the same thing on the other side. I grabbed my receipt, which had just spit out and hurried down the sidewalk, while they yelled at me, asking if I thought I was better than them. This was in broad daylight. I can remember a boss (who later did become a friend) threatening to fire me because I refused to work Yom Kippur. When I offered to work on Christmas, since I don't celebrate it, his response was "Oh! I couldn't ask you to work Christmas!" (we were an ISP in the days when they were just getting started; no one worked Christmas, but I thought we should still have tech support on that day).

My wife, who is not a Jew, used to think I was a nut case when we first met because (rarely, but once in awhile) I'd mention something about the prejudice I experienced. She tells people, "I looked at this WHITE guy talking about prejudice and abuse and I thought he was crazy." After 10 years with me, she is the one talking about it. (Someone in her family, by the way, has made antisemitic comments to her, saying she's "changed" since she met me.)

Antisemitism is real. Is the WHOLE WORLD antisemitic? Heck no! But you'd be surprised how much of it is there.

2) Have you ever heard the phrase "history is written by the victorious"? We don't know much about what things were really like during the early days of christianity, even less about what was happening to the small band of people who would later become known as apostles before they even became apostles. (SOME people--and I'm not even starting that debate here--will tell you we don't even know if Jesus actually existed. Just believing something is so doesn't always make it so; witness the pre-Copernicans or those who believed in the success of cold fusion experiments performed some time back.) I can tell you that there are versions of history and then there are versions of history.

Another experience I had in my life brings BOTH points 1 and 2 together. A man whose name I believe was Brian Smith, IIRC, had an antisemitic website at an ISP I was running. He claimed the Holocaust never happened, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary. When I removed his website sometime that summer, because I was not going to use MY equipment (I'm not a government; his freedom of speech rights don't require me to provide the equipment and bandwidth to spread the message), Smith began writing articles about me which were, quite frankly bullsh*t. (You might be able to still find them online.)

They talked about my trip to Hollywood where I supposed failed at acting. Smith wanted to sound like a gracious individual, saying it was no big deal---lots of people fail at acting. There was just one problem: I never went to Hollywood to try to become an actor. I think I visited Sunset Strip one night for a cup of coffee while passing through L.A. I *did* participate in musicals (bit parts only) and plays in Fresno, CA at a dinner theater. It was a hobby; not a profession.

He talked about my pro-Israel website. I didn't have one. I had a personal website and there was a link on it to a website where you could learn Yiddish or Hebrew, I think. There was a link to Yad Vashem Museum. (There were also links to art museums and anthropological museums that had nothing to do with jews.) And there was a "rest in peace" page to a friend of mine who died who was a Jew and so I put a couple stars of David on the page. The rest of the site was blog-type stuff (before there were blogs) that I had written, none of which was "jewish."

Best of all, Smith had me staying up until "one minute past midnight on July 4th" when I supposedly deleted his website without warning. I have no idea what day or time I actually deleted the site, but I guarantee it wasn't one minute past midnight on July 4. I was nowhere near the office or the Internet at that point. ;) My best guess is that at that time, I would have been in bed asleep since I would have to get up about 5 the next morning to work. But, of course, he couldn't look patriotic enough and make me look enough the evil Jew unless his articles (and several written by people who heard the story from him) didn't carry this "one minute past midnight on July 4" bit.

Antisemitism is real. It's not "the whole world," but it's a lot more people doing it/believing it than those who apparently don't have to experience it, know (or want to admit?). And, sadly, some REALLY REALLY REALLY nice people help perpetuate it sometimes, just like some REALLY REALLY REALLY nice Germans (they weren't all bad evil jew-killers, you know) who stood by and ignored it when it was happening in their country earlier this century.

Sorry about the long post. If you delete it, I'll understand. But I thought you seem like someone who is decent, thoughtful and just not fully-informed. (How could you be? When was the last time you had your job threatened because you're a jew? When was the last time you were beaten for it?)

The worst thing about everything you wrote is that your opinion has been formulated from a trailer- i.e., the producer's best effort at enticing you. After that, your total disregard of history is a close second. If you don't see anti-semitism, you're not perceptive. You're overestimating the world's intelligence by stating that most people realize a difference between Judaism and Zionism. As a non-Jew, I can look at this from an outsider's view, studying history and sociology is worth it...especially before you talk out of your ass. Good luck with future opinions. Likely they will be equally laughable.

To emily:

Dear, I'm not a sociology major ok? And the whole "assholes" thing was not for my readers but for people from ADL, who went to the point of faking their religion to see a preview screening of this movie.

Ok, I agree, I haven't seen the movie, BUT neither have you, so you can't make any comments about it being anti-semitic either. If you are so perceptive, you should also believe in artistic freedom, which in no case show be bound to fears of backlash from interested groups. I am not prejudiced against anyone, but I don't believe in giving special treatment to anyone either. And it's NOT mine, yours, or the Jews fault that those priests happen to be Jewish. Frankly, I don't even care.

And I thank everyone for speaking their mind, especially Rick, that's exactly what I do. Like it or not.

thanks

thanks

I'm jewish and i don't have a big problem with this movie. However, it is wrong to primarily blame the jews for the guy's death. At the time, there were many people who claimed to be the messiah, many of who were much more popular. A great deal of people were crucified at this time by the romans, whom the jews had a problem with. It was the romans who crucified him.