Jesus Christ, Superstar

One more sign that the end days are upon us: The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has apologized for slamming Mel Gibson's Jesus bio-pic based on stolen versions of early scripts.

Not only that, the bishops are actually returning the stolen merchandise. For a church that took several hundred years to say "sorry" to Galileo, this represents real progress, even as the flap over Gibson's flick, to be released next Ash Wednesday (can't wait for that trailer) testifies to the continuing importance of religion in the most secularized country in the world.

A teaser clip for a film that certainly won't be any more boring than all of the other Jesus films already made is online here.

Comments

[dhex]

what's the deal with the antisemitism charges against gibson?

the day when a presidential candidate doesn't mention god when talking about public policy or, well, anything and still gets elected is the day we can call america the most secular country in the world. (not that i think it'll make for better politicians, but it removes one extra layer of nonsense from the fold.)

[Jean Bart]

Nick Gillespie needs to get out more if he thinks the US is the most secularized country in the world. 🙂

[Jough]

I think by "secularized" Nick means we have made an effort to become secular to a greater extent than almost anywhere else, not that we actually are less religious. Consider how "congress shall pass no law..." has been morphed into "separation of church and state". Christ, I'm starting to sound like Ann Coulter...

[Sir Real]

"testifies to the continuing importance of religion in the most secularized country in the world."

Considering that China exists in this world, this throw-away line is some SERIOUS bullshit.

[Plutarck]

Yeah, America is certainly NOT the most secularized country in the world; not even remotely close. To wit, most of the western industrialized countries are less religious than the US.

Just try swinging a carp around a crouded room without hearing how the swinging of carp is against God's Laws, which is what is really important - not man's laws.

Eh, definately a throw away line.

[Josh]

Call me a Catholic basher, but christ on a stick, what a bunch of pathetic losers.

[fredH]

I agree with Plutarck. Eighty years ago, H. L. Mencken said that you couldn't throw an egg from a Pullman car anywhere in America without hitting a fundamentalist. Change the Pullman car to an SUV and the statement still holds true. Almost half of the American population still believes in Creationism. I wouldn't exactly call that secular.

[Jeff Smith]

Jough deserves brownie points for trying to
mount a defense of Nick's remark, but it is
not defensible. I am pretty sure that church
attendance is higher in the U.S. than any
other developed Western country. In the U.S.,
it ranges from 30 percent in pagan places like
Nevada and Washington state up to 70 or 80
percent in the bible belt. In some European
countries it is below five percent.

The opposite claim, that we are the least
secular developed country, would be much more
defensible in my view.

Jeff

[joe]

"what's the deal with the antisemitism charges against gibson?"

There are a number of theological holdings and interpretations of the Passion that have been used to justify anti-Semitism on the grounds that Jews were Christ killers.
For example, on the Gospels (of the four that are canonnical, of the dozens that were read in the early Church) has the crowd in Jerusalem saying "Let his blood be on us and our children!" when Pilate asks why they want Jesus killed. At many different points in the script (so I understand), when there was some contradiction in the gospels, Gibson chose to follow the "Jews killed Jesus" theme. In a film that brags about its accuracy, Gibson incorporates the visions of a Rennaisance-era nun, who added such details as Pilate chastizing the Jewish authorities for treating Jesus so harshly. Many of these teachings have been repudiated by the Vatican, but Gibson leaves them in.

I double Gibson goes around thinking that shysters controlling the media are out to control the world, but the anti-Judaism reported to undergird the film was the historical basis for the antisemitism that has distorted Western civilization, and caused so much damage. And the rejection of this anti-Judaism by the Vatican was one of the main reasons the Tridentine sect went off from the mainstream Church.