Digital Background Blog

I am so profoundly disturbed (yet not surpised...not at all) by the intense fanaticism surrounding the movie, as well as Mel Gibson's blatant anti-Semitic statements (e.g. "I don't hate Jews, I love them...I pray for them") to be able to bring myself to see this movie. At least not right now. I have been receiving an ENORMOUS amount of spam (both by email and in comments at my website) imploring me to repent for my sins and follow Jesus, etc....and to go see "The Passion of the Christ".

ANY kind of religious prostelitizing offends me greatly, as does the prevailing message that my entire religion was responsible for what Christians believe to be the greatest atrocity ever committed. I just cannot deal with this right now. It's too upsetting, and it makes me feel personally threatened. It's may not even the fault of the movie, per se (though it's clear from interviews with Mel Gibson that it was absolutely his intent to "convert" non-believers and to bring people "back to the church" -- he has a definite agenda here, and he's proud of it)...but of everything surrounding its existence.

I agree, I believe he has a definite agenda, and it is one of mass conversion. I also agree that it is very offensive for people to believe the Jewish faith to be responsible for a great Christian atrocity. Even when I was a practicing Catholic I never felt that way, and it is prepostorous to me that anyone would. I feel as though Mel Gibson had really gone over the deep end. I had no idea people were sending you things in your comments to repent for your sins- how ridiculous! It frightens me too with the direction things are headed in this country with our so called "great" leader mixing more and more of his personal religious beliefs into our country's government.

Anyone hear Robin on the Howard Stern show talking about her experience when she went to see this movie? Here's a quick recap (as related to me by a co-worker-- she may be remembering what Robin said incorrectly, but I am relating exactly what my co-worker told me):

Robin and her friends sat by the most "normal looking" people in the place, since most of the movie-goers were carrying bibles and being wackos. When the movie started, these "normal people" whipped out their bibles and started reading and quoting to each other. Robin asked them to "keep it down" and (according to my co-worker) they told Robin "to go fuck herself". Halfway through the movie, Robin had to leave because it was such a boring and annoying movie and these "normal people" were kicking them as they passed by (presumably because they were walking out during the movie).

I can't be sure this is accurate because I've heard my co-worker frequently tell stories with different exaggerations to different people, which leads me to believe she's either a willful liar or that she just has a vague memory. But, this doesn't seem too hard to believe (the hypocrisy).

Anna, I am ashamed to admit this, but about 8 years ago, when I was dating a Jewish woman, there was some hate vandalism done to Westchester synagogues and we were watching it on the news. To me (a fairly open-minded hick from the sticks) and to all my friends, the issue of racism never came up unless we were making fun of some idiot who happened to BE racist. So, it wasn't actually something I thought about much. After living in the NYC area for the last 12 years, though, my awareness of racism has certainly become more "highly-developed," let's say. It's everywhere, unfortunately. Anyway, I said something to my Jewish girlfriend like, "Man, that's just fucked up." ...Silence... I nterpreted this silence as a sort of indifference, I guess. "I mean, do you just 'get used to it' or something?"

HOLY SHIT was she pissed at me. In a flash, she was screaming at me, "No, you don't ' just get USED TO IT!' You never get 'USED TO IT!'" She walked out of the room and I just sat there feeling stupid. That was truly surprising because I was just so oblivious because nobody has ever actually hated me for any other reason than my personality, which I admit leaves much to be desired.

However much I hate to say this, I believe that the people who hold the "religion" responsible, as you say, for the death of Christ, in all actually hold the actual Jewish GENEPOOL responsible. If you have ever read antisemitic bullshit, most of these haters are not even talking about the religion, they are talking about how "the Jews control the banks" and, as I'm sure you've heard, in the case of Mel's dad (and other morons), they claim nonsense like: "the Jews invented the Holocaust."

I'm not even sure they really even comprehend how Christianity used the Old Testament as an authentication of its origins or what the Old Testament really even means... they just take both books as "the word of God, who is also his own son, 'Jesus Christ' "and this and all other inexplicable inconsistencies and loopty-loops of logic simply fly right over their heads. "Inconsistencies? WHAT inconsistencies?!"

What particularly irks me is that Catholicism isn't even based on the actual word of the Bible, but how it is interpreted by the papacy! I mean, if there was ever a more obvious blasphemy, I haven't heard it! (Excepting, of course, the many graven images, idols, etc. which Christians tend to excuse in their own religion, but condemn in others, such as Hinduism [which interestingly isn't even perceived as a "religion" by many Hindus, nor are their so-called "idols" even considered Gods to be worshipped, but representations of ideals personified for psychological reasons].)

When closed-minded Christians want to better understand their Bible, for whatever reason, they order, of course, a Christian dictionary of Hebrew and Greek terms. Not surprisingly, in a Christian Dictionary, all Hebrew words are "translated" to their Christian meanings. So, "oh yeah, let's see here... yes,of course, IHVH, elohim, IHVH-elohim, adonai all mean 'Lord,' despite the fact that each term obviously has distinct nuances!" And, "messiah" = "Jesus Christ", natch!

Sad, sad, shit. Am I annoying, though? Sorry, I can't help it. Spambots aren't the only reason I decline to use my real email address. ;)

I guess what I was trying to say is not to fool yourself into thinking this is an idealogical issue (not that you would; I'm sure you know the score). Your average WASP or Jew-hater, would most likely not be very accepting of a Jew who converted to Christianity. If you meet a Jew-hater, you just have to be aware that this is something deeply ingrained in their psyche that goes way beyond "religion," because as it stands these days, even so-called "religious" types are oblivious to their own religion (as exemplified in the hypocrisy of Robin Quivers' story and the average fanatic's understanding of hir own religious doctrine). It's very much like terrorism. Or rather,is the essence of terrorism (in some cases, as-yet-unacted, I suppose).

Wow, 3rd entry:

PS. please excuse misspellings. Like "idealogical"... not trying to be "smart" here-- Just sometimes forced to use "big" words when there are no smaller ones that will suffice. And I don't always know how to spell 'em. I live in a 4-world kind of reality: solids, images, words and feelings, if ya know what I mean. Fortunately, I rarely use words that provide the wrong images or feelings, but occassionaly I don't get a clear "image" of the word before I type it ;).

Hello and welcome to my land of clay where there is clay as well as land. I think of and produce our prime exports, fuzz and feathers. You may read more about the quality of this insane luxury, which we like to call...

TIME-PLATED SKY TOMATOES!!!!

For confusion's sake, let's just say it is the place where we rerun QVC on the PGO network, or as the drunks call it: "Quality Value Concepts Proseletizing Grammatical errors of Ontological Ludicrous-ness." But they're drunk, so they don't know what they're talking about according to everyone who's not drunk and we think they're losers because they drink and smoke and hang outside of the OTB.... (To us, it's Off Track Betting; to them it's the Otherwordly Titty Bar).

But, by all means, have yourself a soda.

No, don't becuase they say a soda is a "Seed Of Destruction Aquired" (even thought they don't know how to spell "acquired," I think they have sever surreal drunken voodoo powers because I am so drunk right now and I totally know what they mean. I mean, I'm totally them because I am imagining them and they don't exist at all, that's how real they are.

Ok, now I am seriously confused.

Sorry... eh, that was started with good intentions. Then, we had some raspberry vodka & sody-pop drinks. Then Monica fell asleep while I made myself more drinks. Then, I suddenly realized I was drunk and was wondering how I was coming across. So, then, I killed the whole thing with pure nonsense to be sure nobody was paying attention anymore. It's an old formula which I've been known to ignore: drinks + Internet = bad, but if you're at home on the hooch, the internet is the most entertaining diversion.

Oh, It's ok, I was getting into what you were saying before, then I just got thrown for a loop! I too have learned that drinks + internet is bad, as well as drinks + phone!

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