- LOS ANGELES -- With only
a few weeks to go before the release of Mel Gibson's controversial and
much-criticised film, The Passion of Christ, an evangelical Christian network
has come to his aid.
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- Churches have bought tens of thousands of tickets for
the film's opening run and intend to use it as a recruiting tool.
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- In Texas, members of a Baptist mega-church have hired
a 20-screen multiplex so that 6,000 people will be able to watch the premiere
on April 25. Other churches have rented cinemas and cancelled their services
to ensure that the film is widely seen.
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- The Passion of Christ has come under attack from Jewish
leaders in the US, who claim it will fan anti-semitism in the way it presents
the role of Jews in the death of Christ.
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- Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los
Angeles, who has seen an early version of the film, said he was "horrified"
by its portrayal of Jews. The Anti-Defamation League has also attacked
the movie, and Gibson, the director, has been asked to add a statement
to the end of the film intended to discourage anti-semitism.
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- The film attracted further attention this month when
its promoters suggested that the Pope had given it his blessing, saying
it showed events "as they were". But this claim was denied by
the Vatican.
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- The $25m film's distributors have so far mainly shown
it to evangelical Christian groups. It is due to open on around 2,000 screens
across the US, a significant number for a non-English language film (its
script is Latin and Aramaic).
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- Jacob Bonnemas, 26, has with his father paid $42,000
($29,000) for 6,000 tickets to the film for the 22,000-member Prestonwood
Baptist Church in Plano, Texas.
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- "This is a life-altering movie, and I think that
when Hollywood sees people coming to this movie in this volume they will
see a gigantic marketplace looking for real meaning in life," he told
the Los Angeles Times yesterday.
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- The evangelical Outreach marketing organisation has described
the film as "perhaps the best outreach opportunity in 2,000 years".
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- The movie has focused attention on Gibson's own membership
of a small anti-reformist sect that has distanced itself from the modern
Catholic church. He has built a church for the sect in Malibu.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
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- http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,12589,1135672,00.html
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