Thank you, Gregg

Gregg Easterbrook posts about the biggest confusion I've had over the "Passion of the Christ" juggernaut (besides why people started thinking Mel Gibson had any talent whatsoever). Maybe the church I went to as a child was too enlightened, but I thought the central theological point of the Passion story is that all of humanity is responsible for Jesus' death, that it is a result of the petty and cruel and wicked in man, hence the resurrection and redemption which imparts divine absolution to everyone. That whole bit doesn't really jibe with getting to 'blame' someone else for the crucifixion. Are there really people out there thinking "Oh man, those lousy Jews in 30 AD, why'd they have to go and ruin everything? Jesus would still be around today."

I haven't seen the movie, so I won't criticize that directly, but it seems there should be more good Christians speaking out against the very suggestion that this backwards interpretation of the Bible is a legitimate question, instead of the conservative line basically sniping that Jews are too sensitive (except for Richard Perle, he's quite wounded by the cruel anti-semitism he and Bill Kristol have been enduring).