Mel Gibson & Icon productions' THE PASSION Movie Trailer

[OrthodoxyOrDeath]

You know something, I thought about it some more and I've come to the conclusion that nobody should see this movie, as tempting as it is.

Call me a fanatic and think whatever you like. I can think of a dozen good reasons why.

[TomS]

I agree with you OOD. I really do not have any interest in seeing the movie.

"Jesus Christ Superstar", "Godspell" -- that was entertainment. This is being marketed as something entirely different.

I don't care to view someone elses (least of all Mel Gibson's) interpretation of my God. I will stick with the Holy Fathers, thank you.

This movie could be very dangerous in it's interpretation.

[尼古拉前执事]

I think its release date will be Great Friday. Latin Easter/Eostre and Orthodox Pascha are on the same day in 2004. Mel Gibson said that the movie was so powerful that a number of Muslims and atheists on the set converted. Hopefully to Orthodoxy, but with Latin Tridentine and Novus Ordo (New Order) Roman Catholic Masses said on set every day, it was probably to Roman Catholicism.

OOD, I would be interested in your 12 reasons. I know the rudder says that no Christian should be an actor and if one is he should be excommunicated, but were you thinking down another path?

[Justin Kissel]

Do you know why the church canons (and Fathers such as Chrysostom) took that position, Nicholas?

I too would be interested in hearing arguments against seeing it, though.

[尼古拉前执事]

I have misplaced my index to the Rudder, but will check as soon as I can find it!

[bogoliubtsy]

Is anyone familiar with the story of the actor during the Roman persecutions who, jokingly performing a baptism of himself on stage during a performance for the sake of mocking Christians, was actually baptised! From then on he felt the Holy Spirit working in his life to a great degree. Interested stuff!

If anyone has a more detailed version of this story, I'd appreciate it.

[bogoliubtsy]

Ah! Just found this...a little off topic, but interesting:

Emperor Diocletian, author of the last and greatest of the Roman Empire's persecutions of Christians, came to Rome at one point (he lived in Yugoslavia), and was given a festive welcome. Part of the celebration was a play. Genesius, the producer and comedian, had thought that the emperor, bent as he was on exterminating Christians, would be pleased by a play mocking the martyrdom of a follower of Christ. In preparation for the skit, Genesius learned how a person is baptized into the Church.
At the start of the playlet, the actor lay down on the stage as one sick. Two other actors asked what ailed him. Genesius said he felt a great weight that he wanted removed. The friends concluded that he wanted to take off some extra flesh. "No," said Genesius, "I am resolved to die as a Christian, that God may receive me on this day of my death as one who seeks His salvation by turning from idolatry to superstition."
Hence, two other actors, dressed as a priest and exorcist, were called in. They asked what the star wanted. Now, at that moment, it seems, Genesius received a divine call that prompted him to say, "I desire to receive the grace of Jesus Christ and to be born again, that I may be delivered from my sins." Thereupon, the two clerics went through the rite of baptism, even putting on him afterwards the customary white robe.
The playlet continued when two additional actors., dressed like Roman soldiers, seized Genesius and led him before the emperor himself to be questioned as Christians were usually questioned by persecutors.
The actor then spoke to Diocletian and all present. All his life, he said candidly, he had detested and reviled Christianity, and he had studied its rites for that play only for the purpose of further mocking the Christian faith. But when he had been asked prior to the staged baptism whether he believed, he had answered "yes" with all his heart. Thereupon, he said, he saw a vision of angels bearing a book with all his sins inscribed. They plunged this book into the water with which he had just been baptized and showed him that all the sins written there had been washed away. Therefore he urged the emperor and all present to believe with him that Jesus Christ is the only true Lord, and that through Him they could win forgiveness of sins.
Diocletian, furious at the unexpected twist of this comedy, ordered that Genesius be beaten and tortured by the prefect of the praetorium. In the midst of his pains, Genesius kept crying out that he would cling to Jesus even if it meant suffering a thousand deaths: "Bitterly do I regret that I once detested His holy name, and came so late to His service." Finally his head was cut off.