At the very least, the widespread ecumenical support that the movie has received should give us pause. Christians need to be very cautious about boarding the bandwagon of a purely secular production. But the difference between these books and The Passion film is that the books are a creation of the Christian community the movie is not. Pastors and religious leaders are hailing it as 'the greatest evangelistic tool in two thousand years!' Christians are captivated by it on the level of The Prayer of Jabez and The Purpose Driven Life-two recent Christian books-turned-phenomenon. Churches and other Christian institutions are purchasing blocks of tickets by the hundreds of thousands nationwide.

To be sure, it has captured the Catholic and evangelical communities by storm. Before addressing some of these, allow me to frame the context of my remarks.įirst, it must be understood that the movie is a Hollywood production, not a religious phenomenon. However, there are several disturbing elements of the film that deserve comment.

If the mission of the movie was to evoke emotion, producer Mel Gibson deserves an A+. On the faces and in the eyes of those in the theater with me I saw tears, somberness, fright and shock-just to name a few emotions. Only the most unfeeling individual could watch this film and not have an emotional response. The movie is two hours of relentless, wanton brutality with almost nonstop bloodshed, anguish and torture. Gruesome? Grotesque? Shocking? Sickening? None of these descriptions fully captures the movie's portrayal of the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

It is difficult to find words to describe the graphic nature of the film. That is the thought that went through my mind as I walked out of the theater after viewing the much anticipated and highly acclaimed movie The Passion of the Christ. I just spent the last two hours watching an innocent man get brutally tortured and eventually murdered-in painstaking, striking detail.

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