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May 19 , 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels March 6, 2004 Given a choice between 'Passion' and AHS's 'Anything Goes' � Scott Dalgarno Thursday, after taking in a matinee showing of Mel Gibson's controversial film, "The Passion," I went to see opening night of Cole Porter's madcap musical, "Anything Goes" at the high school. I'm so glad. After two hours of torture I needed to see those wonderful kids singing and dancing their hearts out. I'm sorry. I tried to keep an open mind about that movie, but, to be candid, I didn't get a blessed thing out of it. No, I didn't find it particularly anti-Semitic. I just found it so � anti-human. Mel Gibson is, of course, fully entitled to make a film of his view of Jesus Christ, but hey, that just wasn't the Jesus I love with all my heart up there on the screen, nor did I find it to be a very good representation of what I believe his death was really like. I not only found the drawn-out scene of his scourging to be hard to stomach, I didn't find it very believable. Stay with me here, friends. I know there is a verse in the gospels that says he was beaten. The earliest account, Mark's, says simply he was "struck on the head with a reed, and then they spat on him" - that's all it says, folks. Look it up. Ancient Roman law, as I understand it, limited the number of lashes a convict would get to thirty-nine. The trauma of such punishment easily kills people on the spot. I sat there in my seat and counted (I'm not exaggerating here) 102 separate strikes, and those didn't count the ones laid on before he was delivered into the hands of Pontius Pilate. And they were laid on with such relish. Okay, I know some people are cruel by nature, but the Romans were professionals. They were known to be as passionless as Adolph Eichmann when it came to meting out their brand of "justice." Mel Gibson's soldiers, by contrast, were novice idiots. They had to be instructed by their lieutenant about how to properly attach a man to a cross. Hogwash. These guys crucified thousands of Jews in Palestine in the first century. Thousands. They lined the highways with them. Crucifixion was a form of state terrorism and was delivered like milk used to be: Every day and cold. In Gibson's film every step Jesus takes is marked by impending chaos. More likely, those onlookers (who, by the way, had cheered Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on the previous Sunday) stood by like sheep and were silent. Why? Because they'd seen it all a thousand times. I just felt manipulated by it all. The androgynous looking devil looked to me like he just walked out of a Fellini movie, but with none of the verve. Near the end when a crow went after one of the thieves crucified alongside Jesus I was close to walking out. The violence just seemed to me to be gratuitous; gratuitous in spades. Hardly anything that made me a follower of this man from Nazareth found its way into this film for me. I'm sure that years from now some will say this was the vehicle God used to change their life. I have no doubt of it, in fact, but I just don't have the heart or the stomach to recommend it to anyone. Now, I'm saying this as someone who came to faith for the first time watching a film about Jesus. I was in fourth grade, attending a Lutheran Vacation Church School. Every morning they showed us a snippet of a film about the life of Christ. And I remember still, very vividly, how some men brought a woman who had done something really bad (I didn't know what) and threw her down in front of him. Jesus wouldn't shame her by looking at her. He simply wrote in the dust, and when they said the Bible called for her to be stoned Jesus said, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." That's all I needed to hear and I signed on for life. I mean that. It wasn't much of a film, as films go. I'm sure it was very low budget with an all-Lutheran cast, but the message was there and it was His message, and I sensed it was something from God. I still do, and I look forward to someday seeing a film about Jesus that will let his authentic teaching carry the day. That's what truly set him apart, you know, from the thousands hoisted on Roman instruments of death. So, if you're looking for an evening's diversion, do yourself a favor. Get over to the high school and see those wonderful kids. They're a tonic for the soul. Scott Dalgarno is pastor of Ashland's First Presbyterian Church. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams