Yet another insightful post on the Mel Gibson by Gregg Easterbrook. It’s hard to imagine how the Protestant evangelicals who are falling over each to praise this film didn’t think of this stuff.

Some other thoughts….

Another mindboggling facet of the overwhelming Christian support for this film is how, suddenly, theology doesn’t matter much to the evangelicals. The typical evangelical minister wants nothing to do mainstream Catholics, yet here they are, embracing the vision of a Catholic whose theology would make many mainstream Catholics squirm. If you don’t know much about theology, think of it this way — this is like every Democrat in Congress, plus Bill Clinton and Al Gore, agreeing with Bush’s belief that Iraq still has WMDs. But, I suspect that most evangelicals aren’t concerned much about theology. Instead, they’ve found a cultural battle to be waged, and they’ll fit to the death, even if it means suggesting that families bring their children to see Gibson’s bloody, violent story.

Several people who I’ve talked to about the movie have asked me if I thought Gibson was wrong to make it. No, he’s not. He has every right to do this. I don’t question his faith, though I may disagree with his vision. I’m simply frustrated by the lack of vision among some Christians who quickly jumped on the bandwagon because it looked like they were entering a battle for their faith.

Posted on 3 March 2004