SANITY AND REASON ABOUT "THE PASSION":
David Horowitz Reviews Mel Gibson's New Film

One of our heroes, former far-left activist turned conservative activist David Horowitz, who now devotes his time blowing the whistle on the hypocrisy and deceptions of liberalism and the Left, had the following to say on his web log in defense of Mel Gibson's new film, which he viewed earlier this year.

One of the most remarkable aspects of Horowitz's review is that he is not only not a Catholic, he's not a Christian of any kind. He's a secular Jew.

....Gibson's film is an artistic vision and must be judged that way. ...It is an awesome artifact, an overpowering work. I can't remember being so affected by a film before. It is extremely painful to watch and yet the violence is never gratuitous. You never feel like you want to take your eyes off the screen. It is a wracking emotional journey which never strays from its inspirational purpose. It is as close to a religious experience as art can get.

It is not anti-Semitic, as the film-burners have charged. [For example,] Jesus is referred to in the film as "rabbi," and there is never any distancing of Jesus or his disciples from their Jewishness....

...The moral of this Christian story -- of Mel Gibson's film -- is that we all killed Jesus -- Jew and Gentile alike -- and tortured him, and we do so every day. But if you believe the vision that Gibson has rendered so searingly and so well, Jesus forgives us for that very act. Whosoever will give up cruelty and love his brother will enter paradise. That is the message that Gibson has framed in his extraordinary work. The effort to shut down his film before it opens is just another station of the cross.