Post by Yaw on Feb 18, 2004 14:23:48 GMT -5
Original article can be found at The Toronto Star.
Christian push behind The Passion
Jesus film to be used to convert non-Christians
Canadian Jewish leaders cautious, expect no troubles
CHRISTOPHER HUTSUL
ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER
The timeline leading up to the release of Mel Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ might be compared to the fuse of a firecracker.
Spitting and sparking, chasing its own fiery tail in a maelstrom of hype ... and the world can only plug its ears and wait for this religious cherry bomb to explode.
Will Gibson's retelling of the last 12 gory hours of Jesus Christ's life leave Christians weeping, non-believers believing, and Jews ready to combat a new wave of dissent?
Or will it be a dud, destined to reincarnate as a dusty DVD in the church A/V room?
If this much-deliberated film does fizzle, it won't be for a lack of effort from Canadian Christian lobby groups. For months now, several influential interdenominational Christian assemblies working under Campus Crusade For Christ have been pursuing a shrewdly calculated strategy for the marketing of this epic film.
After all, this project wasn't going to be hyped up by conventional means — we surely weren't going to see flogged Christ-figures on Burger King cups.
The push began in mid-January with a series of 12 screenings in nine Canadian cities over six days. In the end, 9,000 Christian pastors and church leaders — including 2,000 in the GTA — saw the film.
The same group subsequently received a DVD featuring previews and in-depth interviews with Mel Gibson, who fronted $25 million (U.S.) to produce the film, and Jim Caviezel, the actor who plays Jesus. In the DVD, Gibson and Caviezel, both Christians, talk about their motivations behind making the film — and their goodwill towards Jews.
Also being distributed by the consortium of Christian groups is instructional material, both online and hard copy, designed to help pastors build sermons around the film and to guide parishioners in their mission to share the Christian gospel with non-believers.
An example is this excerpt from a document on www.sermoncentral.com, which proposes that Christians use the film as an excuse to do a "prayer walk."
"Carefully choose a neighborhood you believe God wants you to reach. With multiple prayer teams, walk every street and pray for every house, asking that God would reach each person with the message of the cross through exposure to The Passion Of The Christ. Leave a Door Hanger and/or evangelistic booklet at each home encouraging them to see the movie and inviting them to attend a Passion-related event at your church."
It is opening on a whopping 2,000 screens in North America next Wednesday (including about 200 in Canada), which is a big number for an independent film. The highly acclaimed Monster, for instance, which is also distributed by Newmarket Films in the U.S., has just expanded to 1,093 screens in North America.
The consortium's aim is to ensure that not only Christians see this film, but their friends and friends' friends see it, too — while making an earnest attempt to stifle fears the film will ignite a rash of anti-Semitism.
Owen Black, executive pastor of the Mississauga Gospel Temple — one of three locations the film was shown at in the GTA — makes no bones about the fact that Christian groups will be in full recruitment mode during film's tenure in the limelight.
"People are being encouraged to take a non-Christian friend to say, `Look, consider this, what do you think about this?'" he said. "This is a good thing to see, it's a wonderful way to dialogue about the Christian faith."
Bob Kraemer, the director of special projects for Campus Crusade For Christ, coordinated the advance screenings. His organization has also developed a Web site (http://www.thelife.com) to help guide Christians who want to share their gospel by means of the film.
"We believe that Christians will be deeply touched by this film and we're equipping people so that they will be ready to answer questions for the non-Christian person who goes to this film ... because people will be blown away."
In November, Kraemer and 20 other Christian leaders visited Icon Productions, the Gibson-owned outfit that created the film, for a viewing of the then-unfinished film. Having been profoundly affected, the group decided it needed a strategy if it wanted to create maximum impact. The January screenings and tutorial material are a result of that decision.
Though the plan is borne of a will to spread the Christian gospel, it will inevitably translate to financial gain for Gibson and his affiliates. A source at Equinoxe Films, the film's Canadian distributor, admitted that the preview series was an example of "grassroots marketing."
But Kraemer says it isn't about money. "I think about it in terms of people and seekers of truth being put in touch with the gospel of truth," he said. "I think of it as marketing, but not as dollar and cents, but in terms of a movement.
"If Mel Gibson makes money on this, he will have turned around what most people thought was going to be his biggest mistake. It appears it could be successful."
Canada's Jewish community, perhaps not surprisingly, wasn't asked to help with the film's promotion.
As per direct orders from Icon Productions, members of that faith weren't invited to the private screenings and Rabbi Shmubl Spero has a pretty good idea why.
"If the viewing was for mission-izing purposes, I understand why they didn't call me," he said from Anshei Minsk Congregation in Kensington Market. "I guess they don't consider me to be a good promoter."
Some Jewish leaders fear the film will damage Jewish-Christian relations. The Passion, interpreted literally from Christian scriptures, implicates Jews with Jesus's brutal death. According to Abraham Foxman, U.S. director of the Anti-Defamation League — an independent Jewish assembly — the film portrays Jews as vengeful and bloodthirsty.
Fuelling those arguments is the fact Gibson recently embraced a fringe form of Catholicism known as Traditionalism — a faction that refuses to acknowledge the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, which absolved the Jews for the killing of Christ.
Rabbi Michael Skobac of Jews For Judaism, a Toronto group that focuses specifically on countering Christian attempts to convert Jews, said Canadian Jews shouldn't expect the film to cause a major disruption.
"For North Americans, my sense is that one film is not going to undo decades of interfaith relations. My sense is that a lot of the concerns will be more real in Europe and South America where you get more overt acts of anti-Semitism."
"What we're monitoring is the fact that Christians will be using this film as a tool to convert people to their faith. Some Jews will be invited by friends, or given free tickets, or cajoled into going."
But Skobac said he'd be "surprised" to see demonstrations in Toronto.
"Our philosophy here is not to be reactive," he said. "This is nothing new. It's not as if Christians haven't been trying to convert Jews for a long time. We didn't create this organization last night to deal with this film — it's an ongoing struggle to help educate the Jewish community to help them understand the teachings of their own faith."
Prompted by the film's upcoming release, the Canadian Jewish Congress issued a statement outlining the discrepancy between Jewish and Christian thought on the circumstances surrounding Jesus's death.
"There are believers who do take all the Gospels literally but it is our understanding that others, equally true to their faith, do not," wrote Keith M. Landy, CJC national president, and Rabbi Dr. Reuven P. Bulka. "... Crucifixion it must be stressed, was a Roman, not Jewish, form of capital punishment ... Historically, therefore, what transpired at the time of Jesus is unclear."
But the release went on to say that The Passion Of The Christ should be seen as an opportunity to push Jewish-Christian relations forward.
"It is our hope and expectation that, apart from the central role The Passion Of The Christ is to play in moving Christians and strengthening them in their faith, Gibson's film also will be used to foster greater mutual understanding and further demystification of Christian and Jewish beliefs," the memo stated. "In other words, we must not allow the film to be a source of tension; we must translate it into an opportunity."
Kraemer and his colleague at Campus Crusade For Christ emphasize this movie is not about the vilification of Jews.
"There's no Christian who should leave this movie feeling hatred or bigotry towards the Jews," he said. "What they'll feel is tremendous gratitude for what Jesus did for them."
Rabbi Spero, meanwhile, said he hasn't been to the movies in years and doesn't plan to go now. He admits the movie has caused a buzz in his congregation, but no one is losing sleep over it.
"For Jewish people, yeah, it's a topic," he said. "But then, we have lots of topics."
Jesus film to be used to convert non-Christians
Canadian Jewish leaders cautious, expect no troubles
CHRISTOPHER HUTSUL
ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER
The timeline leading up to the release of Mel Gibson's The Passion Of The Christ might be compared to the fuse of a firecracker.
Spitting and sparking, chasing its own fiery tail in a maelstrom of hype ... and the world can only plug its ears and wait for this religious cherry bomb to explode.
Will Gibson's retelling of the last 12 gory hours of Jesus Christ's life leave Christians weeping, non-believers believing, and Jews ready to combat a new wave of dissent?
Or will it be a dud, destined to reincarnate as a dusty DVD in the church A/V room?
If this much-deliberated film does fizzle, it won't be for a lack of effort from Canadian Christian lobby groups. For months now, several influential interdenominational Christian assemblies working under Campus Crusade For Christ have been pursuing a shrewdly calculated strategy for the marketing of this epic film.
After all, this project wasn't going to be hyped up by conventional means — we surely weren't going to see flogged Christ-figures on Burger King cups.
The push began in mid-January with a series of 12 screenings in nine Canadian cities over six days. In the end, 9,000 Christian pastors and church leaders — including 2,000 in the GTA — saw the film.
The same group subsequently received a DVD featuring previews and in-depth interviews with Mel Gibson, who fronted $25 million (U.S.) to produce the film, and Jim Caviezel, the actor who plays Jesus. In the DVD, Gibson and Caviezel, both Christians, talk about their motivations behind making the film — and their goodwill towards Jews.
Also being distributed by the consortium of Christian groups is instructional material, both online and hard copy, designed to help pastors build sermons around the film and to guide parishioners in their mission to share the Christian gospel with non-believers.
An example is this excerpt from a document on www.sermoncentral.com, which proposes that Christians use the film as an excuse to do a "prayer walk."
"Carefully choose a neighborhood you believe God wants you to reach. With multiple prayer teams, walk every street and pray for every house, asking that God would reach each person with the message of the cross through exposure to The Passion Of The Christ. Leave a Door Hanger and/or evangelistic booklet at each home encouraging them to see the movie and inviting them to attend a Passion-related event at your church."
It is opening on a whopping 2,000 screens in North America next Wednesday (including about 200 in Canada), which is a big number for an independent film. The highly acclaimed Monster, for instance, which is also distributed by Newmarket Films in the U.S., has just expanded to 1,093 screens in North America.
The consortium's aim is to ensure that not only Christians see this film, but their friends and friends' friends see it, too — while making an earnest attempt to stifle fears the film will ignite a rash of anti-Semitism.
Owen Black, executive pastor of the Mississauga Gospel Temple — one of three locations the film was shown at in the GTA — makes no bones about the fact that Christian groups will be in full recruitment mode during film's tenure in the limelight.
"People are being encouraged to take a non-Christian friend to say, `Look, consider this, what do you think about this?'" he said. "This is a good thing to see, it's a wonderful way to dialogue about the Christian faith."
Bob Kraemer, the director of special projects for Campus Crusade For Christ, coordinated the advance screenings. His organization has also developed a Web site (http://www.thelife.com) to help guide Christians who want to share their gospel by means of the film.
"We believe that Christians will be deeply touched by this film and we're equipping people so that they will be ready to answer questions for the non-Christian person who goes to this film ... because people will be blown away."
In November, Kraemer and 20 other Christian leaders visited Icon Productions, the Gibson-owned outfit that created the film, for a viewing of the then-unfinished film. Having been profoundly affected, the group decided it needed a strategy if it wanted to create maximum impact. The January screenings and tutorial material are a result of that decision.
Though the plan is borne of a will to spread the Christian gospel, it will inevitably translate to financial gain for Gibson and his affiliates. A source at Equinoxe Films, the film's Canadian distributor, admitted that the preview series was an example of "grassroots marketing."
But Kraemer says it isn't about money. "I think about it in terms of people and seekers of truth being put in touch with the gospel of truth," he said. "I think of it as marketing, but not as dollar and cents, but in terms of a movement.
"If Mel Gibson makes money on this, he will have turned around what most people thought was going to be his biggest mistake. It appears it could be successful."
Canada's Jewish community, perhaps not surprisingly, wasn't asked to help with the film's promotion.
As per direct orders from Icon Productions, members of that faith weren't invited to the private screenings and Rabbi Shmubl Spero has a pretty good idea why.
"If the viewing was for mission-izing purposes, I understand why they didn't call me," he said from Anshei Minsk Congregation in Kensington Market. "I guess they don't consider me to be a good promoter."
Some Jewish leaders fear the film will damage Jewish-Christian relations. The Passion, interpreted literally from Christian scriptures, implicates Jews with Jesus's brutal death. According to Abraham Foxman, U.S. director of the Anti-Defamation League — an independent Jewish assembly — the film portrays Jews as vengeful and bloodthirsty.
Fuelling those arguments is the fact Gibson recently embraced a fringe form of Catholicism known as Traditionalism — a faction that refuses to acknowledge the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, which absolved the Jews for the killing of Christ.
Rabbi Michael Skobac of Jews For Judaism, a Toronto group that focuses specifically on countering Christian attempts to convert Jews, said Canadian Jews shouldn't expect the film to cause a major disruption.
"For North Americans, my sense is that one film is not going to undo decades of interfaith relations. My sense is that a lot of the concerns will be more real in Europe and South America where you get more overt acts of anti-Semitism."
"What we're monitoring is the fact that Christians will be using this film as a tool to convert people to their faith. Some Jews will be invited by friends, or given free tickets, or cajoled into going."
But Skobac said he'd be "surprised" to see demonstrations in Toronto.
"Our philosophy here is not to be reactive," he said. "This is nothing new. It's not as if Christians haven't been trying to convert Jews for a long time. We didn't create this organization last night to deal with this film — it's an ongoing struggle to help educate the Jewish community to help them understand the teachings of their own faith."
Prompted by the film's upcoming release, the Canadian Jewish Congress issued a statement outlining the discrepancy between Jewish and Christian thought on the circumstances surrounding Jesus's death.
"There are believers who do take all the Gospels literally but it is our understanding that others, equally true to their faith, do not," wrote Keith M. Landy, CJC national president, and Rabbi Dr. Reuven P. Bulka. "... Crucifixion it must be stressed, was a Roman, not Jewish, form of capital punishment ... Historically, therefore, what transpired at the time of Jesus is unclear."
But the release went on to say that The Passion Of The Christ should be seen as an opportunity to push Jewish-Christian relations forward.
"It is our hope and expectation that, apart from the central role The Passion Of The Christ is to play in moving Christians and strengthening them in their faith, Gibson's film also will be used to foster greater mutual understanding and further demystification of Christian and Jewish beliefs," the memo stated. "In other words, we must not allow the film to be a source of tension; we must translate it into an opportunity."
Kraemer and his colleague at Campus Crusade For Christ emphasize this movie is not about the vilification of Jews.
"There's no Christian who should leave this movie feeling hatred or bigotry towards the Jews," he said. "What they'll feel is tremendous gratitude for what Jesus did for them."
Rabbi Spero, meanwhile, said he hasn't been to the movies in years and doesn't plan to go now. He admits the movie has caused a buzz in his congregation, but no one is losing sleep over it.
"For Jewish people, yeah, it's a topic," he said. "But then, we have lots of topics."
. I have heard church groups have reserved whole theatres for their flock to see it. I also wonder about the 'R' rating. Apparently it is very graphic and violent and I have to wonder if it is appropriate for children to see, as no doubt many will be taken by their parents as a religious lesson. I also hear it is subtitled, which sucks. I wonder if anyone else here plans on seeing it?
.
Anyhow, I am curious if anyone saw it and what they thought of it.