That's why I have a blog.
"I found Chuck Sigars’ article...uninformed, in particular his knowledge of anything Biblical and historical. He seemed more interested in bashing things he does not like or understand than to say anything of substance.
While most of us can wax eloquently on topics we know nothing about, most of us do not have a newspaper column to display our ignorance to large numbers of people at one time.
Mr. Sigars does, and he goes after the movie "The Passion" and Mel Gibson in particular with the zeal of a 19th century evangelist, but his lack of knowledge about his subject makes one scratch one’s head in bewilderment."
This guy does a lot of scratching, I'll bet.
Editors love these letters, by the way. People are reading, which means they see the ads, etc. I want a raise now.
Anyway. Rebutting this jerk is not the point, although I will quote William F. Buckley, Jr., a Roman Catholic, the father of the modern conservative movement in the U.S., and a man who often writes eloquently (having never met a syllable he didn't like) about his faith, on this film:
"...the story it tells is a gross elaboration of what the Bible yields.
Consider Matthew: "And when [Pilate] had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified." "Then they spat on Him and took the reed and struck Him on the head." Luke: "I will therefore chastise Him and release Him"-Luke records that the soldiers "mocked" him. And John: "So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him." "And they [the soldiers] struck him with their hands."
What Gibson gave us in his Passion is the most prolonged human torture ever seen on the screen. It is without reason, and by no means necessarily derivative from the grand hypothesis that, after all, the crucifixion was without reason, as Pontius Pilate kept on observing." The National Review, March 9
Go ahead. Call Bill ignorant. Dare you, dare you.
But enough of Passionate people. I wanna talk movies.
I broke my tailbone a couple of years ago, my coccyx. I slipped on the stairs. The coccyx is not good for much of anything, a vestigial reminder of when we had tails, if you're into that, or else just one of God's little jokes. Like William Shatner.
Anyway, breaking your coccyx means that it swings freely, which irritates nerves, which makes you say very bad words. This is exacerbated by sitting in a chair that forces your buttocks backwards and down, such as a folding theater seat. So I stopped going to movies.
I didn't stop watching them, of course. I got NetFlix and visited my local video store, and I certainly didn't stop reading about them.
I'm always astonished by people who are shocked by what they see on the (big or small) screen. Movie reviewers exist for a very specific purpose, which is to give us a head's up. Not to mention ratings. Movie ratings are flexible things, judgment calls sometimes and other times based on specific criteria (how many F-words, a breast but not two, etc.), but if it's rated 'R' don't take your 8-year-old, OK? Not hard to figure out.
And read, for God's sake. Other than personal taste issues, which are hard to determine without actually seeing the film (sometimes), I haven't been surprised by what I see in a movie in years. It's not that hard, really. There's the Internet and everything.
But there are people out there, people who take their kids to see "American Pie" (or "The Passion"), people who rent "Lost In Translation" thinking they're getting "Stripes" again or "Lost In Space" thinking they'll see Billy Mumy. I dunno. I wonder about people a lot.
So I don't have to see "The Passion" to know what's in it. I might be missing something, a spiritual awakening or an awareness of faith, something that only comes with witnessing, but I think not. I know what's in it. I've read dozens of articles, reviews, commentaries. I can intelligently (one would hope) discuss The Film without seeing the film, in other words. Although I don't want to anymore. If you were genuinely moved and inspired, then I'm grateful and happy for you. If you were disgusted and shocked by the violent images, then shame on you; you should have known.
And if you're my wife, a seminary graduate, holder of a Masters of Divinity, a Real Live Preacher Lady, who is preparing for Holy Week services and needs to be in the loop, so to speak, on what people are thinking, you go see the film. So she did.
"This is a very sick man," she said.
Write her next time.
