Christians Act Against Gibson's The Passion

January 30, 2004

Source: Forward

http://www.forward.com/issues/2004/04.01.30/news7.html

On January 30, 2004 Forward reported, "With the controversial film "The Passion of the Christ" set to open next month, some Christian groups are launching campaigns to counter theological errors that may exist in Mel Gibson's account of the death of Jesus, while several Roman Catholic scholars are calling on their church to outline publicly its doctrinal belief as a counterbalance to the movie.

The call from the scholars comes as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is set to publish a compilation of official Catholic guidelines on how to read and present the last hours of Jesus' life, which includes a repudiation of the deicide charge against the Jewish people. But several Catholic scholars who have been critical of an early script of the movie say it is not enough for the Bishops conference to disseminate the packet of Church documents through its usual channels. Instead, they say, it should be widely publicized in the media."