When Mel Gibson's controversial movie "The Passion of the Christ" opened in theaters several weeks ago, area churches bought blocks of seats and conducted sermons based on the film, while others feared a resurgence in anti-Semitism due to the movie's graphic depiction of Jesus' torture and death.
Two weeks after the film opened, the buzz surrounding it still hadn't faded. Cinema Arts Theatre in Fairfax, in cooperation with George Mason University's Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR), hosted a dialogue and discussion on the issues of religious fervor and anti-Semitism on Wednesday, March 10. Following the sold-out evening screening, five panelists gave their thoughts and answered questions from the audience on the issues the film has raised.
"When people see a movie like this, they want to talk about it. It's hard to talk about it because it arouses strong emotions around sensitive issues," said panel moderator Rich Rubenstein, who also serves as a professor of conflict resolution and public affairs at ICAR.
While the discussion's goal wasn't to reach a conclusion about the movie from all parties, Rubenstein hoped the discussion would enable people to understand better other people's reactions to the film.
"In a society that prides itself to be pluralistic, difficulties arise when we all don't think the same," said Rubenstein, during the discussion.
TO PREPARE for the evening, Rubenstein asked each panelist to consider why the film is so violent, why it's controversial, and why it has become a major cultural event. Members of the panel, which represented both Christian and Jewish faiths, in turn ranged in their reactions to the film.
Representing the progressive Christian voice, the Rev. Paul Abernathy, rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill, understood the film's focus on violence because Gibson, the director, intended to show Jesus' sacrifice in the light of human sin. But Abernathy questioned redemptive suffering and wondered how the Christian church's charge to evangelize fits in within a pluralistic society.
The second panelist, the Rev. Bill Kynes, pastor of the National Evangelical Free Church in Annandale, explained that the Passion, or the story of Christ's last 12 hours, on which the film is based, is central to the Gospels of the New Testament. Therefore, the movie has become important for conservative Christians like him because it focuses on the central teachings of their faith.
"The very structure of the Gospels shows the Passion as the core of the Gospels," Kynes said. "This death on the cross is the message of love itself."
Marc Gopin, a professor of religion, diplomacy and conflict resolution at ICAR, explained that the Jewish community's hesitation concerning the film builds on the historic persecution of Jews around the time of the Passion, which occurs before Easter.
Because the Passion story recounts the intention of the Jewish high priests to arrest and kill Jesus, the Jews have often been blamed throughout history for his death.
"There are very deep memories in the community of the association of the Passion story to the death of Jews," Gopin said. "It's through that prism that the Jewish community has looked at that movie."
Gopin felt uncomfortable with the violence not just in "The Passion" but in Hollywood in general. He was also disappointed that the film failed to show the "subtlety among Jews." Just as the Jews range the religious spectrum, not all the high priests were vindictive against Jesus, and Gopin said it pained him to see the high priests, a position he had respected growing up, being demonized.
ANOTHER PANELIST, the Rev. Chris Pollard of St. Agnes in Arlington, related a story of how he and a Muslim friend in college concluded that despite their differences in faith, they could still communicate their views to each other, with the understanding that their views would be understood, if not necessarily agreed on.
Pollard added that a problem he had with the movie was that it presumed the audience already knew the story. As a result, the movie arouses either sympathy or confusion, depending on the individual.
Yet the movie also depicts the reasoning and motivation behind the practices of the Catholic faith, such as the sign of the cross, the rosary and Mass, Pollard said.
"This is a matter of daily meditation," Pollard said. "When we watch the movie, we say, Jesus, we're so sorry."
The lay person on the panel, Janice Sienkowicz, the coordinator for admissions and community life at the Virginia Theological Seminary, said the film has made her rethink Jesus and faith.
"Movies have become a way to broach a lot of important topics. The general public like me are rethinking what we thought about Jesus," Sienkowicz said.
COMMENTS FROM the audience on the film ranged from criticism on the film's use of Hollywood clichés to arouse sympathy, and power struggles within the film, to a wish for greater depiction of Jesus' life in the film narrative.
One woman criticized the Christian church's emphasis on the individual, when the film's themes of redemption need also to be applied to the wider society.
Pollard responded that he hoped the film would help people see beyond themselves.
"It's something so violent that it's trying to shock us out of comfort," Pollard said.
Kynes conceded that the church needed to take up its cross, according to the expression.
"I think the church serves the world best when the church is willing to suffer like Christ," Kynes said.
Keegan Cassidy, a sophomore at James Madison High School in Vienna, saw the movie as a power struggle between those with gold and wealth, and those without.
"People have the hardest time hearing the message of peace when they're wrapped up in the secular, in gold, or when they're comfortable with their lives," Keegan said.
Another audience member, a Jewish man, disliked the bloodletting depicted in the movie. He questioned why Christianity had to have the Passion story at its core, since the story is so violent.
Rubenstein responded that as a Jew, he had mixed feelings about the movie.
"From my perspective, this film left me with two different kinds of feeling. One for historical reasons, watching the high priests with the gold, it reminded me of an ancient stereotype," Rubenstein said. "But at the same time, watching Christ be so human and hurting so much gave me an appreciation I never had before about Christianity."
Ann Prince, a Dumphries woman who works in Alexandria, came to the movie on the invitation of a friend, so she could hear other people's views on the film.
"Wow, I don't think I can put it in words right now, maybe later. I'm thinking and feeling so much," said Prince, after just viewing the movie. "You hear how gruesome it is."
When asked what was gruesome about the movie, Prince said, "The meaning of it all. You're saying, you go to church. You hear, this is my body ... but to see how his body and his blood are taken. You think of humanity and what's the price of humanity."
Whether audience members connected to "The Passion" or not, Rubenstein said the film's place as a cultural event, amid the controversy and commotion surrounding it, reveals contemporary society's search for meaning.
"It has something to do with the general dissatisfaction in our society for power and money. ... It becomes time to talk about things in the public square that had been [previously] talked about privately," Rubenstein said.