When I first began reading about all the hoopla surrounding MelGibson’s The Passion of the Christ, I remembered ChaimPotok’s novel My Name Is Asher Lev.

It is about a Hasidic Jewish boy whose artistic endeavorscomplicate his relationship with his family and the community.

At one point, Asher sees paintings of crucifixions and, notknowing what to make of them, asks his mother. She quicklysummarizes the paintings.

When Asher asks if Jesus was correct in his messianicself-image, she replies, “No. He was not the moshiach. Themoshiach has not yet come, Asher. Look how much suffering there isin the world. Would there be so much suffering if the moshiach hadreally come?”

Shortly afterwards, Asher sketches the crucifixion scenes.

His mother then responds horrified, “Do you know how muchJewish blood has been spilled because of him, Asher?”

Later, his father asks him if he knows “how many Jews hadbeen killed in the name of that man during the Crusades,” and”that the reason Hitler had been able to slaughter sixmillion Jews without too much complaint from the world was that fortwo thousand years the world had been taught that Jews, not Romans,killed that man.”

Asher’s parents actually left out a lot. A list of Jewishpersecutions at the hands of Christians over the centuries would bequite long.

For the record, while many of the top Nazis were either atheistsor pagans, Mussolini, Franco and Salazar were all Catholics.

Most of the officers and enlisted men who perpetrated theHolocaust considered themselves Christians.

I saw Passion out of curiosity. I will neither confirmnor deny sneaking in.

But I did buy some candy on my way out, since I have no quarrelwith the theater, just Gibson.

I was disappointed with the movie.

The acting is erratic, the characterizations are mostly shallow,the music is silly, the slow motion was gratuitous and, worst ofall, are the moments of unintentional humor involving thedemons.

I don’t think that I’m the only person who found thecomputer-aided demons laughable.

The film is in bad taste.

As for the charges of Jew-hatred, they are correct.

Though several Jews are portrayed positively, the majority ofthe Jews seen onscreen are grotesque caricatures. Characters likethis were a key part of the ferociously anti-Jewish medievalPassion plays. Such stereotypes are found in anti-Jewish propagandaof all kinds and from all eras.

Gibson apparently used some of this propaganda as sourcematerial, specifically writings from the early 19th century by thenun Anne Catherine Emmerich.

The point everyone seems to be missing is that the film’santi-Jewish nature has the same nuance as most religiousanti-Jewish propaganda.

The Jews depicted as decent folk are the exceptions, andpresumably they would be among the first waves of converts toChristianity.

The rest of them, who stick to their beliefs and continue to”reject Christ,” would become fair game eventually. Inthe mind of a Jew-hater, the Jews deserved it.

I don’t think there will be any pogroms in response to thefilm.

When anti-Jewish incidents occur today, the motivations areusually strictly political, relating to the situation with Israeland the Palestinians.

This is because of the struggles of progressives(“liberals” in the inaccurate parlance of our times) tobuild more tolerant societies.

America may be essentially integrated today, but just two orthree generations ago, Jewish children in American cities knew towatch out for the gangs of angry Christian kids screaming,”You killed our lord!” These days, instead of violence,coerced conversions are the method of choice.

Why do so many Christian and Jewish reactionaries loveGibson’s film? Perhaps a better question would be, “Whyhas the Church been so reactionary?”

Jesus and his followers seemed like proud bleeding hearts,punished by those with a vested interest in the status quo. Theydidn’t seem like people who would support monarchs forcenturies.

They reminded me of Archbishop Romero and the other believers inliberation theology. In the later decades of the 20th century,these believers advocated for the oppressed and were persecuted (bythe US government, among others) for it.

The Passion of the Christ would have been detrimental toJews in earlier eras. I believe that it might be subtly dangerousto Jews and others today.

I’m sorry if The Daily Campus has now had too manycolumns on the subject.

I’m afraid this task has fallen to me — and Idon’t believe in the supernatural.

Scott Charney is a senior history and English double major.He may be reached at [email protected].