THE EDITOR, Sir:THIS IS a letter to clear the air, as it were, about the movie 'The Passion of The Christ' in response to a recent Sunday Gleaner article on the film. It seems to me that for certain Jamaicans it is easier to crush and lambaste something we know nothing of, than it is to research the truth about a subject.
The movie is not an attempt to assuage the doubts that people have regarding the only acceptable way to Heaven nor is it written to further enrage those who might, in error, take this message as a reason to wage physical war. 'The Passion' is NOT a Hollywood production! It is well documented that no studio in Hollywood would agree to produce the movie because the director demanded that it be an accurate account of the truth as recorded in the Gospels. This is almost half the reason for the controversy regarding the movie!
Further, the film has been dubbed the number five movie of all time after netting US$351 million. If Hollywood had produced the movie, would there have been the media outcry that the movie was met with? Of course not, the media would have been kind, compassionate and caring. The movie would have been in English, would have been cast and crewed only by the most famous and world-renowned American actors, and it would not have needed to be declared authentic. All prominent historians who pre-viewed the movie before it opened in any cinema declared the movie an accurate portrayal of the final 12 hours of the life of Christ. The propaganda that this is a work of the Devil is clearly a view which springs from a source other than objective evaluation. What this movie teaches us is that honest and whole convictions backed by indomitable faith in Christ and evidenced by active ardour and commitment can materialise into an event that will change the world. Numerous Muslims, some of whom I know personally have reconsidered the omission of this clearly significant event from their religion.
For Mel, the film's director and producer, he has accomplished at least one of the last commands of Christ post-resurrection "...Go ye therefore and teach all nations...". Let us not belittle people, our own Jamaicans to the point where we proclaim them all stupid, one-track-minded and condemned to a life of sin by implying that their viewing this movie in a cinema will mean that they accept everything the cinemas project. Truth reverberates throughout the earth will you hide your lit candle under a basin?
I am etc.,
CHRISTINE CLARKE
caclarke@mtholyoke.edu
Houston, TX
Via Go-Jamaica
