This stuff is starting to make me sick:
Days before the release of Mel Gibson's film about the death of Jesus, which some critics say could fuel anti-Semitism, his father has told an interviewer that the Holocaust was mostly "fiction.'' ...
Steve Feuerstein -- host of "Speak Your Piece!'' -- said he interviewed Hutton Gibson for a segment of his show to be broadcast Monday by the small Talkline Communications Network.
According to a transcript released by the network, Hutton Gibson said, "It's all -- maybe not all fiction -- but most of it is,'' when asked about his views on the Holocaust.
He added: "They claimed that there were 6.2 million (Jews) in Poland before the war and after the war there were 200,000, therefore he (Hitler) must have killed 6 million of them. They simply got up and left. They were all over the Bronx and Brooklyn and Sydney and Los Angeles.''
Unfortunately, some evangelical Christian churches have been conned into promoting the film. Churches 'Teachable Moment' San Jose Mercury News 02/19/04.
Some churches managed to arrange advance screenings for their congregations: San Jose's Cathedral of Faith has sold 2,000 tickets to showings in San Jose and Campbell theaters. Family Community Church, also in San Jose, tried to book several theaters recently but was told it were too late, said Pastor Bill Buchholz. ...
The debate has prompted scrutiny of Gibson's conservative branch of Catholicism, which doesn't recognize reforms adopted by the Vatican II ecumenical council in 1965. Among those reforms is an admonition against blaming Jews for Jesus' death.
Mel Gibson's father is part of the same sect and Gibson has said that he shares his father's view of the Christian faith.
7 comments:
My husband, when he hears people denying the Holocaust, always wonders why it's the people who would WANT the Jews gone who always deny that Hitler was trying to exterminate them. He once got in an argumant with his mom (who is a "regular" catholic) about the way she talked about the Jews killing Jesus. It's hard enough to get people to stop saying those things, without people like Mel and his father reinforcing these ideas!
Holocaust denial is a weird phenomenon. From what I've seen of it, it's not so much that the Holocause deniers really believe what they are saying. It's more of an expression of sneering contempt for the victims. But that's not to underestimate the confusion it causes. Pseudohistory can promote some badly muddled thinking, even when people don't buy the whole package. - Bruce
There's also a whole set of tricks that go along with pseudohistory. They cast doubt on a popular interpretation of some well-know event as a way of discrediting common understandings of the events. Or conversely, they single out some obscure piece of evidence that no one but Holocaust specialists or particularly interested lay people have heard of and spin crackpot interpretations off that. You see similar things with neo-Confederate advocates. - Bruce
You can see the sneering aspect pretty clearly in Mel Gibson's father's statement here. What he's really saying is, "Ah, how could there have been so many Jews killed? Look, there's Jews all over the place today. There's still plenty of them." Statement like that aren't meant to convince but to polarize. - Bruce
Good points, Bruce. I'll have to direct my husband here to your journal!
It's funny, I felt like I could sympathize with those who said the South had a right to seceed until I lived here in the south and saw what those neo-confederates are really like. It was quite a culture shock for me! As a "Yankee" the Civil War was a mental exercise for me, I couldn't believe there were people who were REALLY still upset about it!
Mel Gibson has also stated that he doesn't agree with everything his father says, among them, the Holocaust. And what do Mel's father's views really have to do with the film? Mel, in interviews I've seen, has been pretty clear about his feelings about Christ.
In the final analysis, I think what the film makes US feel about our walk is far more important. I'm sure if you search hard enough in ANY screenwriter or director's family, you'll find someone who has outrageous views.
Actually, I haven't seen anywhere that he explicitly distances himself from his father's Holocaust-denier views. I've also mentioned in an earlier post how Gibson seems to have deliberately encouraged criticism from Jewish leaders while promoting the film to evangelical ministers. I don't think his goal is to promote anti-Semitism as such. He's trying to promote his ultraconservative Catholic-schismatic sect - ironically by using Protestants who his sect thinks are going to Hell! - Bruce
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