For centuries the word "passion" has been associated with the last hours of the reported life of Jesus Christ. I've never quite understood why, when Gospel writers record Jesus' passion —in the modern sense —as being the fervent message of love and forgiveness. It seems more the passion of the on-lookers that is reflected than this poor man's torture and death. It seems more the passion of the writers of the Gospels who hoped to make life worth living with the hope of a heavenly reward.
That's a bit aside from where I want to go.
This movie, according to a recent letter to the editor in my local newspaper, brings the viewer to experience the last twelve hours of Jesus' life, with flashbacks to earlier times. Since the reports of the movie are of violence strong enough to cause sensitive folks to cover one's ears and close one's eyes, I question the necessity of subjecting, and even the desire to subject one's self to the inflection of this violence upon one's personal senses. Our endemic violent behavior has grown so acceptable that a movie-maker can create a depiction that echoes it and "good" Christians watch it and like it.
The aforesaid letter to the editor calls my failure to view the film because of its violence "an act of cowardice" on my part. I need to understand the "terrible cost of salvation." Hmmm. I don't believe that it is cowardly to not watch savage violence created by one man's imagination of events reflecting the reports of one man's torture.
I don't believe that missing the actual footage of a nail being pounded into a very realistic fake hand will lessen my appreciation for the report of the original pain suffered (I did happen to catch that brief clip on some TV commentator's show).
Why is it that connecting the "rapture" of Jesus Christ, presumably dying for the sins of the world, to the depiction of violence makes that violence "good" and valuable to watch?
Is that the basic disconnect in the schism found in Christianity? Is that why, century after century, Christians have slaughtered and tortured other Christians? One doesn't have to even include the cross-religious wars.
We can turn to the Inquisition as the prime example of Christians inflicting torture and death on other Christians in order to bring their "heretical" souls to heaven. The deep "truth" which has branded Christianity, practically since it got official recognition from the ruling Roman emperor, is that it is okay to hurt someone who doesn't believe exactly as you do. People quickly became designated believers or heretics. After all, Jesus suffered torture and "died for our sins" and that experience gave validity to all tortures in the name of the Christ.
I believe that that is the dark heart of Christianity. It is the reason that I reject the label of Christian for myself.
This afternoon I listened to a caller on the Thom Hartmann progressive radio call-in show make a comment regarding the issue of gay marriage: "I don't think we can call ourselves Christians and be so hateful."
Every Christian congregation and every Christian should ponder deeply on that truthful observation.
I know that there are millions of Christians to whom no hateful actions of deep prejudice can be ascribed. I sing in a church that seems filled with such people, some of whom, like myself, come for the community of friends and not for the Scripture readings.
Instead of pondering "the terrible cost of salvation," I ponder why the Gospel writers chose to ascribe such a horrific death to a man known as the "Son of God."
Instead of glorifying the "passion" of Jesus' death, I would rather see glorified the compassion of the love and forgiveness espoused by the words that have been given to the voice of Jesus by the writers of the Gospels.