MEL'S TRIUMPH
AND THE STRUGGLE FOR CHRISTIANITY
The Real Reason for the Attack on
"The Passion"
March 3, 2004
By Toby Westerman
Copyright 2004 International News Analysis Today
www.inatoday.com
"The Passion of the Christ" stuns the viewer with the bloody foundation of the Christian tradition. The film's violence is the stated reason left-wing academics and journalists are denouncing the film.
The true motivation behind the attack on Gibson's film, however, is not the violence, nor the purported anti-Semitism.
Gibson's critics abhor the film's message that the faith of Christians is based upon compelling reality: agony, torture, death - and ultimate triumph - not the musings of "faith communities," as many academics assert, and the liberal media accept.
Real people - the apostles -- witnessed real events, and taught these accounts to others as a testimony to Jesus as Savior. This is the apostolic tradition which gives authority to what we refer to as the gospels.
The liberals in academia and the media loathe the concept of apostolic tradition, and consider early Christianity nothing more than historical evolution, one group of beliefs supplanting another set of dogma.
Gibson's film implicitly undercuts these current assumptions, which dominate "scholarship" in colleges and universities, which serve as the basis for several popular books on Christianity, and which form the foundation for much of feminist "Christian" spirituality.
Nicholas D. Kristof of The New York Times indirectly provides an accurate - and rare -- insight into why so many liberals hate "The Passion." His February 28, 2004 op-ed column, given the near-witty title, "Peter, Paul, Mary…And God," seeks to dismiss Gibson while making a case for a "competing strain" of Christianity.
Kristof urges his readers to "skip" Gibson's film, and "examine instead some of the fascinating recent scholarship on the early church." The "recent scholarship" Kristof recommends centers on the esoteric writings of the Gnostic sect.
Although ancient, these Gnostic writings have direct impact upon present-day religion and society, and account for Kristof's interest in the texts.
Kristof makes particular mention of a recently published work, the "Gospel of Mary of Magdala," by Karen King, which includes a translation of what he refers to as "the obscure Gospel of Mary."
Kristof describes the "Gospel of Mary" as offering "a proto-feminist" account of the events surrounding the Resurrection. Kristof specifically refers to an instance in which the apostles are despondent after the resurrected Christ leaves them for the last time. Mary Magdalene "takes charge" of the despairing apostles and "bucks them up."
The rejection and virtual disappearance of Gnostic Christianity is for Kristof evidence that "Bibles, like history, are written by the winners," and that there were "competing strains in the early Christian church," with the implication that the wrong side lost.
Assessments and commentaries on Gnostic Christianity are not a particularly new item in the academic world, and the "recent scholarship" to which Kristof refers follows a pattern first set by Elaine Pagels, who popularized the material in her book, "Gnostic Gospels," published in 1979.
The existence of Gnostic writings have been known for many years, and received additional attention after a large group of preserved texts were found in 1945, near the town of Naj Hammadi, in Upper Egypt. Scholars later analyzed these texts, which have become the basis of much of the current pop history of the early Church.
These texts should not be confused with the Dead Sea Scrolls, found somewhat later in Palestine, and written in connection with a Jewish religious community existing around the time of Christ.
A steady outpouring of academic and popular publications have supported the theme that an alternative form of Christianity coexisted with the now-dominant, male-oriented religion, citing various Gnostic texts to support their conclusions on the development of Christianity.
The current view among academics and the liberal establishment is that Christian belief merely evolved from various groups of believers who passed on what they found "meaningful." In this view, current Christianity has no more validity than previous forms of belief which died out earlier.
Historical accident, not faithful adherence to apostolic tradition, accounts for present Christian belief, according to most academics in the fields of history and religion.
The so-called "Gnostic gospels" emphasize "secret knowledge," along with other beliefs and practices rejected by apostolic Christianity. The concept of a "secret knowledge" accessible only to the elect is a common theme in occult and mystery religions.
Gnostics would have had no difficulty incorporating the appearance of another god - Jesus - into their system of belief. The existence of an apostolic tradition, resolutely held and based upon actual events, was hostile to the Gnosticism, and Gnostic Christianity failed.
The finding of the ancient Gnostic texts has aided the cause of liberalism in Christianity, especially feminist strains of spirituality. Because these texts present "secret knowledge," often within the context of female dominance within the religious group, the ancient Gnostic material figures prominently in present-day feminist occult spirituality.
The destruction of the concept of apostolic tradition is essential for the acceptance of occult feminist spirituality in Christianity, including the Catholic Church. Occult practices have already seeped into the life of many, if not most, dioceses in the United States.
Gibson's film is an implicit attack upon the feminist, Gnostic approach, and will continue to evoke virulent denunciations from those sympathetic to the feminist agenda.
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