wfn.org | ELCA Panel Offers Advice to Lutherans and Mel Gibson

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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

January 7, 2004

ELCA Panel Offers Advice to Lutherans and Mel Gibson
04-002-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Consultative Panel on Lutheran-Jewish
Relations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
offered advice to Lutherans, civic organizations, Mel Gibson and
"people of good will everywhere" in anticipation of "The Passion
of the Christ" -- a film to be released Feb. 25, Ash Wednesday,
the day Western Christians begin the Lenten season.  Gibson is
writer, director and producer of the film about the last 12 hours
of the life of Jesus Christ.
     "Tragically, portrayals of the Passion over many generations
have led to the virulent condemnation of Jewish communities, with
Christians lashing out to punish those they had learned to call
'Christ-killers.'  This doleful history demands a special
vigilance from any who portray the Passion today," said a Jan. 6
statement from the panel of six Lutheran scholars and church
leaders.
     The panel said Gibson "has been widely quoted as aiming to
produce the most accurate historical portrayal of Jesus' Passion
ever filmed.  This goal requires that he give credence to the
critique of historical scholars who are expert in the period,
cultures and sources of this story.
     "We believe that he aspires to produce a film that will
neither stir anti-Semitism nor lend itself to anti-Semitic
exploitation.  Individuals and organizations that work regularly
to counter and diminish anti-Semitism can aid him in fulfilling
that aspiration," said the panel.
     "This film is not the first effort to depict the events of
the Passion in dramatic form," said the Rev. Franklin Sherman,
the panel's chair and associate for interfaith relations, ELCA
Department for Ecumenical Affairs, Allentown, Pa.  Passion plays
have a long history of oversimplifying dynamics surrounding the
crucifixion of Jesus Christ, blaming Jews for Jesus' death,
"overlooking the role of the Roman overlords and obscuring the
fact that Jesus himself and all his initial followers were Jews,"
he said.
     Sherman said the Lutheran panel became concerned that "The
Passion of the Christ" may repeat some of those mistakes when it
received reviews from Christian and Jewish scholars who read an
early version of the script.  That concern continued as publicity
was released about the film, he said.
     "We have also been informed by reports from persons who have
seen the film as shown to selected audiences during the past few
months," Sherman said.
     The Lutheran panel urged ELCA pastors and educators "to
learn the history of Passion portrayals and their consequences
for the Jewish community."  It went on to "urge them to teach
boldly in their congregations and to make public witness to this
church's commitment to confess its faith and preach its gospel in
ways that will not demean, malign or harm the Jewish people."
     The panel's statement urges ELCA congregations, civic
organizations and others to conduct public studies and
discussions about Passion portrayals, including Gibson's "The
Passion of the Christ."  "Open discussion and analysis of the
Passion whenever it is portrayed will assist Jews and Christians
and others in our communities to understand one another, the
diversity of our respective views and the Passion itself as
central to Christian faith," it said.
     "We want to try to convert what could be an occasion for
hostility between Christians and Jews into an occasion for
deepened understanding and mutual respect," Sherman said.
     "Our statement is designed to help Lutherans and others to
be informed and critical viewers of the film, aware of some of
the difficulties of translating the Passion story into dramatic
form, which has to invent dialogue by the various characters and
attribute motives to them in a way that goes beyond what we
actually know from the New Testament," Sherman said.  "We
hope people will be on guard against any tendency to blame 'the
Jews' collectively for Jesus' death, rather than only a small
circle of Jewish collaborators with the Roman authorities," he
said.
     The ELCA's Consultative Panel on Lutheran-Jewish Relations
was instrumental in drafting the church's three statements on
Christian-Jewish relations: the 1994 declaration rejecting those
of Martin Luther's 16th century writings which the ELCA said
recommended violence against Jews, the 1998 "Guidelines for
Lutheran-Jewish Relations" and the 2002 "Talking Points" -- eight
discussion-starters for Lutherans on topics in Christian-Jewish
relations.
     A statement on "The Passion of the Christ" serves "to help
the ELCA fulfill the commitments it articulated in 1994 and
1998," said Dr. Peter A. Pettit, a member of the panel and
director, Institute for Jewish-Christian Understanding,
Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pa.  "With a project of the scope
and visibility of this one, we have an unprecedented opportunity
to educate and inform," he said.
     Muhlenberg is one of the ELCA's 28 colleges and
universities.
-- -- --
     The statement, "Concerns and Recommendations in Anticipation
of the Forthcoming Film," is at
http://www.elca.org/ea/Interfaith/gibson_statement.html on the
ELCA Web site.	Links to other ELCA documents on interfaith
conversations are at http://www.elca.org/ea/interfaith/ on that
site.
     The film, "The Passion of the Christ," has a promotional
site at http://www.thepassionofchrist.com/ on the Web.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news