The Passion - Movie Increases Our Faith, Understanding  - By Joseph A. Lypowy

This article is a rebuttal to a letter which was published in the Ocean County Observer Opinion Page

    Just as I was starting to enjoy some of Bill Heyers recent letters, he had to
spoil the trend with his March 6 letter, "Depiction of death draws viewers to
Mel's movies". In his insensitive and dis-respectful letter, he stated that "The
pews of just about every church"," are empty on Sundays", while "movie theaters
are filled because of all the hype concerning blood and gore". Maybe if he went
to church every once and a while, he would see that his comments are foolish, I
know for a fact that my church has four masses each Sunday and each time it is
almost full to capacity. I also saw the Passion the other night and I would
totally disagree with Heyers version of why it is a box office hit. I believe
that most people went to see it for the same reason that I did, primarily to
experience an accurate historical depiction of the most significant event in
Christianity and to empathize with the suffering of Jesus in his crucifixion.
A secondary reason for my going was to support Mel Gibson in his endeavor in
spite of the negative forces which have conspired against him and his epic
movie. Pundits from the secular mass media said that the movie would be a flop,
that his career would be ruined and called him a wacko. The success of this film
has proved all of them wrong. t is my opinion that the forces of secular atheism and left wing anti-religious bigots, always try to drive a wedge between people of different faiths for the purpose of advancing their evil agendas. I believe that most of the allegations that this film promoted anti-Semitism is an example of that
divisiveness and it is equally divisive when naive Christians are deceived into
believing that Jews are responsible for the execution of Jesus when he and his
followers were Jewish themselves.
   I can understand some of the concerns in the Jewish community, because in the
past, the name of Judas Iscariot has been used at times to incite anti-Semitic
rhetoric. Judas Iscariot was the disciple who betrayed Jesus. While most of
Jesus' disciples were from Galilee, Judas was from Judea and his surname
Iscariot means "man of Kerioth" which was a town in Judea.
   I believe that this movie will actually help in many ways to improve
relations between Christians and Jews, especially the way Mel Gibson produced
the dialog in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin. This helps to remind Christians of
their shared heritage in the Torah (Old Testament), and the patriarchs, Jacob,
Abraham and Moses.People of Judeo-Christian heritage have much in common to unite us, we should not let the real enemy, which is evil and ignorance, divide us.

Joseph A. Lypowy

Dover Township