- Claiming Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ"
has resulted in "hate crimes" against Jews, a nonprofit organization
is seeking online signatures for a petition asking Attorney General John
Ashcroft to "evaluate possible actions" against the filmmaker.
-
- According to a statement from the Messiah Truth Project
Inc. ñ a nonprofit group that says its purpose is to "combat
the deceptive missionary techniques of evangelical Christian denominations
and the Messianic movements" ñ "The Passion," through
"purposeful rewriting of the Christian Gospel mythos has, itself,
become an anti-Semitic diatribe." The organization claims the movie
has caused crimes against Jews, synagogues and Jewish cemeteries "throughout
the U.S."
-
- In making its case, the Messiah Truth Project cites Adolf
Hitler's description of a 1934 performance of the Oberammergau passion
play in Bavaria as "a convincing portrayal of the menace of Jewry."
The group says the use of extreme graphic violence against Jesus in the
film, at the urging of the Jewish crowd, displays a "clear prejudicial
bent" against the Jewish faith.
-
- The group has set up a petition that can be signed online.
The petition states:
-
- "Gibson's 'The Passion' violates state and federal
hate crime statutes for the purposeful encouragement of anti-Semitic violence.
We implore U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to evaluate action against
the perpetrators involved and those responsible for the work itself."
-
- While the petition states a goal of 50,000 signatures,
just 250 people had signed as of yesterday.
-
- In its statement, the Messiah Truth Project failed to
cite specific incidents of violence attributed to a perpetrator who had
viewed the film.
-
- On the group's website, a message proclaims:
-
- "Evangelical Christianity has spent over $1 billion
in the last decade to convert Jews to Christianity. Under the guise of
'Jews for Jesus' and 'Hebrew Christians,' a new threat of spiritual terrorism
has emerged in the form of 'Messianic Synagogues,' whose theological tenets
are identical to the Christian fundamentalists who created them. Their
ultimate goal is the eradication of the Jewish people through assimilation
ñ it is our obligation to stop them."
-
- © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com, Inc.
-
- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37595
|
