Why I Hate Narrow-Minded Christians

Now, before you go getting your tacky ties and/or your robes (depending on denomination) in a wad, understand that by "narrow-minded Christian" I am not implying that all Christians are narrow-minded, nor am I claiming that all narrow-minded people are Christians. I am only concerned today with the relatively small subset of Christians who are, in fact, narrow-minded, or conversely, with the relatively large subset of narrow-minded people who are Christian.

In 1988, Martin Scorsese released his biblical epic, The Last Temptation of Christ. In this movie, as Christ hangs from the cross and slowly dies, he receives a vision of how things could have been different if he had only turned away from his mission. Here we see Jesus and Mary Magdalene married and having marital relations, then raising a family before Jesus dies an old and contented man. The implication, here, is that it's not too late. Jesus can presumably come down from the cross, take Mary by the hand and live the life of Reilly in some other country away from all the political machinations and spiritual upheavals in the Holy Land. It was (surprise, surprise) the last temptation of Christ before he chooses to complete his mission and die for the world's sins.

It is a beautiful movie which examines the much neglected human side of Christ.

Narrow-minded Christians hated it because it showed Jesus having sex with a prostitute (never mind that in the vision, Mary is no longer a prostitute and the two are simply reaping the rewards of holy matrimony).

"Why can't they make a film that portrays the Jesus form the Gospels," one evangelist questioned a reporter, "without all the artistic license and the Hollywood interjections?"

Eleven years later, Kevin Smith released his film Dogma. This film played with the inherent problems with man-made church dogma (specifically, the idea of the plenary indulgence). It also proposed that Jesus could have been black (not a far stretch considering the natural coloring present in many natives of the Holy Land). It also had as a major character, the hundredth-something great niece of Jesus.

Narrow-minded Christians feared that this movie would single-handedly destroy Christianity as we know and boycotted the film before it was even released. Though, how they thought anyone would take seriously a film containing a shit-demon as a major enemy and Alanis Morissette as the Creator is beyond me.

"Why can't Hollywood either stay away from religion or keep to the bible?" asked one narrow-minded Christian.

Mel Gibson just answered the narrow-minded Christian's prayers. He is currently releasing his film, The Passion of the Christ, based almost exclusively on the four Gospels of the New Testament.

Narrow-minded Christians hate it.

Why?

Because it implies that the Jews played a large role in killing Jesus.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in the New Testament, don't the Jewish elders turn Jesus back over to the Romans after he pisses them off?

Don't the Jews of Jerusalem ask for the criminal Barabas to be set free instead of Jesus, knowing that he would then be crucified?

It seems to me that according to the bible, the Jews DID play a significant role in the crucifixion (hell, even the poor bastard getting crucified was a Jew).

Unfortunately, in today's politically correct climate, we choose to ignore the role Jew played in the crucifixion because we're all friends now. People will talk about how the writers of the New Testament don't really accurately portray the political world of the times in an attempt to ingratiate themselves with the Romans and stop having Christians double billed in the gladiator pits with ferocious pointy-toothed and hungry animals.

And, you know, they may have a point. I'm sure that in actuality the Romans wanted to get rid of this upstart before he roused the Jewish nationals against the occupation. I'm sure the Jewish elders and populace had less to do with the crucifixion than is implied.

However, if you're going to make a movie based on the Gospels, you don't really have the luxury of fixing their inaccuracies.

However, if you're going to insist on the historical veracity of the bible, complaining about this movie because it shows Jews being partially responsible for Jesus' death is like my complaining about Amistad because it shows white people being partially responsible for slavery.