Anti-Semitism

Jews should feel uncomfortable when they see "The Passion of the Christ". I haven't seen it yet, but I know enough to say two things with relative certainty. First, that Jews should feel uncomfortable. Second, that the film is not anti-Semitic and is unlikely to stir up antisemitism.

Let me expound. The story of Christ's murder should make everyone reading this feel distinctly uncomfortable. After all, we the people are the murderers. However, just as the gospel came "first for the Jew, then for the Gentile". There's a distinct cultural rejection of Christ's claims that Jews maintain to this day, especially those who live in a Christian society. They know that Jesus and His early following were all Jewish, and what essentially occurred was a split between Messianic Judaism and non-messianic Judaism. The film depicts a story that can't be comfortable for anyone on the "other side", because it's extremely sympathetic to one side. Moreover, if this isn't just the partisan view of a religious schism but rather the seminal event of human history that it claims to be, Jews have reason to feel even more uncomfortable. Either their forebears were very, very wrong, or the film is portraying them unfairly; it's a historical narrative that doesn't leave a "third way". Pleas to show the Romans as primarily responsible for Christ's death are revisionist and seek to take blame away from us as a society, and cast it instead onto military bogey monsters. It's easy to believe that legionnaires could be barbaric; how we face up to barbarism in our own homes and hearts is a much more difficult question, and (incidentally) one that is the key to understanding the history of pain endured by the Jewish people.

Second, the story is not "antisemitic". It portrays the Jewish leaders as very, very wrong, so wrong they committed murder. However, with the Roman occupiers serving a largely mechanical function (as it turned out), the story is of a man being rejected by his own people. Christ's death finds echoes in the death of many who stood up to their own society and got persecuted or killed for it. Germans who fought the Nazis, Muhammed who was chased out of Mecca, English abolitionist William Wilburforce and many others throughout history have stood up for what they believed was right and indicted their own leaders and culture.