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Previously, I had resolved to remain the only person on the planet not to dignify Mel Gibson's exercise in pompous religi-porn with an acknowledgement of any kind. That was before I saw this review in which Christopher Hitchens reminds us a bit of Mr. Gibson's peculiar but unfortunately not unique take on what it means to be a good Christian.

But then, you were not brought up by Mel Gibson's father, who has repeatedly and recently stated that there was a population explosion among European Jews in the years 1933-1945 and that the Holocaust story is mainly "fiction." Young Gibson, when asked about this by Diane Sawyer, told her not to press him (which she obediently did not). But when asked by Noonan, he replied by saying that "My father has never told me a lie." It's not fair to expect Mel to trash his father. But he could have said that the old man was a fine daddy, albeit with a few odd ideas of his own. It was his very decided choice, however, to say that his male parent was an unvarying truth-teller. Why pick on that formulation? It's unlikely that Gibson Sr. has made a secret of his viciously anti-Jewish views when talking to his son, who shares with him a fanatical attachment to the Latin Mass and a deep hostility to the "liberalism" of the present pope.

link via Timshel
Rabbi David Wolpe's contribution to beliefnet points out where this attitude is manifest in the film, although it ultimately gives Gibson the benefit of the doubt.

What were Mr. Gibson's intentions? One cannot see inside another's heart. The evidence of the movie is predominantly that he sought to make a movie that showed the suffering of Jesus to the world, and that it was sufficiently important to him to make it no matter the institutional obstacles.

But a movie about the death of Jesus is not a stone dropped into a clear pool. There are thousands of years of history, of anguish, and of hate. The answer is not to boycott the movie or to anathematize Mel Gibson. There is a better way.

When I returned from the screening my wife said to me that if he really wanted to combat hate, Mel Gibson should establish a fund, the Passion Fund, to aid all those who might come to be the Jewish victims of violence surrounding the showing of this film. If the fund is untouched, so much the better. But when I see a Denver Church proudly parading a sign that says "Jews Killed the Lord Jesus' 1 Thess. 2:14, 15 Settled!" I begin to wonder if the children of Denver, and other cities, might not be in need of Passion fund.

As for me, I am less inclined to be as forgiving of Gibson. The fact that Christian organizations throughout the country have organized to rent out entire theaters for group screenings and to promote the film in general highlights the hunger these people have for open discussion of spirituality. There are many reasons for this having mostly to do with our current fractured social malaise which I will not go into here. Suffice to say that thinly veiled neo-fascist hate propaganda should not be the conduit through which this need is met.