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Just who does Abraham Foxman,
a pro-sodomite disciple of the culture-of-death, think he
is to be dictating to the Catholic Church? Any anti-semitism arising
from Gibson's film is directly due to the shrill irrational
voices of people like Foxman, a man whose moral baggage more
than disqualifies him to be lecturing to anyone. See references to
Foxman in reply to another critic of The Passion of the Christ.
- Gary L. Morella This is
a WorldNetDaily printer-friendly version of the article which follows. Wednesday, February 18, 2004 7 DAYS UNTIL 'THE PASSION' Posted: February 18, 2004 © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
Abraham Foxman, the national director of the
Anti-Defamation League, met with Vatican officials yesterday urging them to
issue a statement condemning Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the
Christ" and making clear the film violated Catholic teachings about the
role of Jews in Jesus' death. "I'm reaching out to the Catholic Church
and saying, 'It's time for you to step up to the plate. Mr. Gibson is
challenging your teaching,'" Foxman told Catholic News Service. Foxman contends the movie implicates Jews in
the death of Jesus and therefore could easily spark anti-Semitism. "He is marketing this film as the Gospel
truth, the historic truth in a way contrary to the teachings of the Second
Vatican Council and church guidelines on the presentation of the
Passion," Foxman told the news serivce. The Second Vatican Council says Jesus'
crucifixion "cannot be blamed upon all the Jews then living, without
distinction, nor upon the Jews of today." According to the report, Foxman said the
Anti-Defamation League was urging bishops' conferences around the world to
repeat the council's teaching and to point out that "The Passion of the
Christ" is "Mr. Gibson's version of the Gospel, not the Gospel
version." Foxman described the film as "the old
medieval classical interpretation of deicide, which blames the Jews, and it
will be seen by millions of viewers." William Donohue, president of the Catholic
League, defended Gibson's film, which portrays the last 12 hours of Jesus'
life and the resurrection. "Abe Foxman needs a reality check,"
Donohue said in a statement. "He obviously does not understand that this
is the 21st century and not the Middle Ages. He is demanding that the Church
issue warnings about Gibson's movie because he thinks it resurrects the old
deicide charge – a charge that he has said may provoke violence against Jews.
But the last time Jews were assaulted following a Passion play was during the
Middle Ages. Today, Jews and Christians enjoy a close friendship. And in no
place have Jews lived in greater peace and harmony with Christians than in
the United States." Continued Donohue: "There is real danger
in the world for Jews, and it comes from fanatical secularists and fanatical
Muslims in the Middle East. They don't need a movie to inflame their hatred,
and this movie wouldn't do it anyway. By overreaching in his criticism of a
movie, Foxman runs the risk of trivializing the very real dangers of
anti-Semitism." Archbishop John P. Foley, president of the
Pontifical Council for Social Communications, met with Foxman Monday. He says
he told the ADL official he believes the movie indicts all people for the
death of Christ. Watching the film, Archbishop Foley said,
"I found myself meditating deeply on the sinfulness of each one of
us," according to Catholic News Service. "I would hope people would accept the film
as a meditation on our own culpability for Christ's suffering." Foley said the Vatican has no plans to release
a statement about the movie. "The Passion of the Christ" opens in
theaters Feb. 25. Read WorldNetDaily's extensive coverage of Mel
Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ." |
A
open letter to Rabbi Boteach by Gary L. Morella
The only thing that your review of Mel Gibson's The
Passion of the Christ shows is your ignorance of Christianity. The
Passion shows God the Father's Supreme Act of Love in the Incarnation of His
Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, God humbling Himself by becoming
Man, via the Holy Ghost, to suffer and die for our sins, past, present, and
future, an act of redemption allowing man a chance at eternal salvation.
Today, no one
wants to talk about taking up their crosses and following the example of their
Savior's Passion. Everyone wants to go right to the Resurrection,
believing in only the Good and Gentle Jesus, the Jesus who elevated self-esteem
to the highest sacrament in the Church. They remove His Corpus from
Crucifixes wanting man to forget that there is no Resurrection without first
the Cross. Why should we not see how horrible our sins were on the
God-Man via His Loving example of suffering for us? Is this example too
violent in light of the fires of hell, a vision of which was shown by Mary to
the children of Fatima? Why should we forget that Jesus, the
new Adam, spoke more about the consequences of sin more than any other New
Testament figure? Why should the suffering of Jesus' mother Mary, the new
Eve who was with Him to the end, not be inspirational in her fiat toward's
God's providential plan of redemption in opening up the Gates of Heaven that
were closed due to the Original Sin of our first parents? What more
beautiful example could there be than Mary taking up her own cross with her
Son's, as we're all called to do in witnessing to the Faith in a world that
mocks it?
Man needs a
wakeup call as to the horror of unrepentant sin leading to eternal death
especially today when the "prince of the world" is having his way
with it. Why should man not remember the Supreme Sacrifice of the
Cross that takes place in an unbloody manner in a rerepresentation of Calvary
via the existence of the Real Presence, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of
Christ on the altars of Catholic Churches daily for the greater glory of
God? What bigger act of unconditional love is there than the example of
Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, sacrificing His Life so that man might
have eternal life?
You call this a
"cult of death". Catholics call it a "cult of eternal
life" in that God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son
for its salvation. What bigger love is there than to lay down your life
for your fellow man for the sake of his immortal soul?
In reference to your Worldnetdaily
column re Mel Gibson "closing Jewish hearts to Jesus", I respectfully
submit that the "closing" you are referring to happened almost 2000
years ago, as is accurately recorded in the New Testament. Which brings
me to the following question. What credence do the critics crying
anti-Semitism of The Passion have when they publicly reject the New
Testament? What gives them the credibility to make outrageous charges that
are baseless in light of the unconditional love of God for man to give His
only begotten Son for man's salvation. Is there not a bias here?
Now
regardless of whether you hold to that or not, there is much Scripture
scholarship that does not suffer from the ridiculous historical criticism
excesses of the Jesus Seminar who tells us that Jesus Christ was
nothing more than a Jewish Mediterranean peasant who died a beggars death on
the cross, and whose Body was eaten by ravenous dogs in full denial of the
Resurrection, i.e., in full denial of the faith. Those who would have us
believe that Christianity was a later invention and that the New Testament is
not the inspired Word of God are finding their positions debunked daily by
evidence to the contrary regarding the discovery of the writing of Scripture
via eyewitness accounts very soon to when the events occurred. The blood
of the martyrs bears witness to Christ's Resurrection as recorded in Sacred
Scripture up to the Ascension, which was also witnessed.
The New
Testament teaches that Jesus Christ, a Jew, was the Son of the Living
God. He died for the redemption of all mankind, which includes the
Jews. There are many incidents in the Bible where the Will of God is
manifested by those living, not just via Divine Intervention. Certainly
the history of Christianity and Judaism is replete with such instances, the
Providential Will of God speaking through man as His instruments to include
some very severe chastisements due to man being disobedient to God's
law. And those chastisements resulted from disobedience to God's
law by Jews and Gentiles alike. Why was there a subsequent Diaspora if
not for the ongoing struggles since Moses descended from Sinai and found
the chosen people worshiping a golden calf? The glory of Solomon would still
be evident today if there had not been some serious problems in Jewish history
as there were in the history of many other peoples, correct?
Sometimes
at looking at the hysteria surrounding Gibson's authentic rendition of the
Passion of Christ, I wonder what keeps some of the more extreme critics from
considering the God of Moses to be anti-Semitic for His subsequent
punishment of the Hebrews for their sin of idol worship. Of course He was
not. He loved them enough to tell them a Truth, Who is a Someone,
not a something, for the sake of their eternity, as recorded in the New
Testament in the realization of the One Triune God, the Word made Flesh,
Who dwelt among us - per the beginning of the Gospel of John.
Mankind
is collectively responsible for the Jesus'
death, which, as the Gospels make very clear, includes the Jews. It is an
undeniable fact that the instruments that God used to complete his Providential
Plan to atone for the Original Sin of Adam in regard to fulfilling Bible
prophecy were Jewish and Roman. That does not condemn the entire race but
rather states a fact that happened, something that the historical biblical
critics conveniently would have us ignore. The Gospel accounts
simply reflect what any man is capable of when fully succumbing to
the temptation of the devil, a sober warning for us all that must be heeded for
salvation's sake living in an age where the devil reigns supreme in the
promotion of a culture-of-eternal-death making the excesses of Sodom and
Gomorrah seem benign by comparison. Our collective
sins were the wounds of Christ's Passion and Death. His triumph over
death redeemed us, including you and your Jewish brethren, giving
us a chance for eternal salvation. It is up to the supreme gift
of the Creator to us, our free will, whether or not we will squander that
chance.
Where
were the critics of Gibson's Passion when Martin Scorcese portrayed
Christ blasphemously by insinuating that He had an adulterous affair
with Mary Magdalene? No one complained about that when The Last
Temptation of Christ was released, certainly not the ADL's Foxman.
Where were the concerns for the Christian community when that
happened? There were no demands for last minute editing then.
However, when someone attempts to portray Christ as He was according to
the Gospels, then all hell is literally unleashed because for people like
Foxman, the entire New Testament is anti-Semitic.
I share
your feelings about orthodoxy in regard to coming together to fight the moral
rot evident in the culture wars raging for our souls. There is a Jewish
Rabbi that speaks eloquently for the culture of life in that regard at every
pro-life march in Washington D.C. That man and those like him have my respect for
such public stands unlike Foxman's ADL who could care less about
where their eternity will be spent as evidenced by the following open letter,
dated January 15, 1998, and written by Howard L. Hurwitz, chairman of the
Family Defense Council (www.familydefensecouncil.com):
"There is
an old Yiddish axiom: 'OUR OWN JEWS WILL DESTROY US.'
"You,
Abraham Foxman, are that Jew. In the decade that you have directed a once
prestigious and respected organization, you have defiled it.
"In the
newly issued Anti-Defamation League Resources for Classroom and Community, you,
Foxman, are promoting 'It's Elementary: Talking About Gay Issues in School.'
This is the title of a 78-minute film being shown to elementary school teachers
nationwide. In my 40 years of frontline experience in the schools, I have never
seen so scandalous a plan for indoctrinating children. Efforts of Communist
teachers to impose their views on students, elementary through university, were
infantile compared with this sophisticated program for gaining acceptance (not
toleration) of homosexuality by first to eighth-graders in our nation's
schools.
"Your
endorsement of this pro-homosexual film, prepared by professed lesbians, is
consistent with your amicus briefs in opposition to state governments that have
sought to prevent special protection for homosexuals. You, Abraham Foxman, have
sunk so low as to go on record opposing the right of the Boy Scouts of America
to exclude a homosexual as an adult scout leader.
"You,
Abraham Foxman, have opposed the right of sponsors of Boston's St. Patrick's
Day Parade to exclude Irish-American 'gay and lesbian' groups from marching
under their own banner. "You are combating a provision of the
Telecommunications Reform Act that you allege is 'a significant threat to the
continued flow of information about abortion on the electronic superhighway,
and could seriously interfere with a woman's right to receive abortion material
on-line.'
"I am
urging all who decry ADL's departure from Jewish causes to withhold
contributions to ADL until such time as ADL ceases to advocate pro-homosexual
(gay) and pro-abortion positions.
"ADL
under Abraham Foxman's misleadership [sic] undermines traditional family
values!"
Here is a Jewish man who
recognizes and assents to the moral law writing about another Jewish man who
could care less about it. A similar situation exists regarding the Catholic
fraud, Frances Kissling, the president of the blasphemous organization Catholics
for a Free Choice - Kissling's free choice being the murder of innocents
in what should be their safest place of refuge, their mothers' wombs, and the
promotion of sodomy as a civil right in an affirmative action sense.
I leave you with this
final thought. What is anti-Semitic about loving your neighbor enough to
care about his eternity? That is what the Christian faith teaches.
And you cannot love anyone without telling them the Truth, spelled with a
capital "T". As a Catholic member of the research faculty of a
major university, I have encouraged my fellow Catholics to do just that.
This is difficult thing to do when such efforts are thrown back in
your face with hatred beyond belief from the disciples of the devil,
but that should not bother those telling that Truth because they
are in good company to include all of the Old and New Testament prophets, and
He for Whom they foretold the coming of the Messiah, in particular the Church
that He founded upon the Rock that is Peter, which is our Faith - a
Faith that can never be compromised at the risk of losing our immortal
souls.