Mel Gibson pulled down 20 million dollars on the first day of showing, and it was a Wednesday - Ash Wednesday by some strange coincidence. By the end of this weekend he should be well into the black with his fascinating portrayal of some guy being tortured to death.

What? Someone making a profit off of religion? How long has this been going on?

I'm also struck once again with the disingenuous of the mass attendance because this film is so very reflective of Catholic religiosity. No real theology is explored, nothing cerebral at all, only a meditative fixation on the physical suffering and mutilation of a person's body. I would think that non-Catholics would find the film offensive and apostate. Then again, I suppose fundies are so starved for entertainment they are actually permitted to experience, that the bloody gore of this film is a welcome relief from their approved lists of "Herbie the Love Bug" type movies.

I watched as the newscasters caught those leaving the theaters, faces drenched in tears, and I wondered if those same people regularly weep for the people who suffer all over the world, some in the most horrific of circumstances.

If a man named Jesus did indeed suffer as the movie portrays, let's really think about the severity of his trial. He was tortured to death over the course of, at the most, a 24 hour period. How many thousands of hours did uncountable Jews suffer during WWII? How many weeks, months, and years did numberless POWs in Japan and Vietnam suffer equal or worse privations?

How many innocent victims were mercilessly tortured to death by Inquisitors, who were proud experts at inflicting unimaginable mind numbing pain without actually letting the victim die? How many have been forced to rot to death in dungeons and cruel prisons, alone in solitary confinement, incrementally going insane?

No matter how nasty and gross you make the death of this one man, can it really compare in either intensity or longevity to what thousands and perhaps millions have had to endure?

Click here to see a spoof trailer of the movie

What do you think?

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