SermonIndex Audio Sermons
SermonIndex - Promoting Revival to this Generation
Give To SermonIndex
Discussion Forum : General Topics : Mel Gibson's "The Passion"

Print Thread (PDF)

Goto page ( Previous Page 1 | 2 )
PosterThread
5nva
Member



Joined: 2003/8/15
Posts: 179


 Re:

Well first then is 5nva relates to myself, my wife and three children who live in Virginia. I had to come up with something I could remember so that's what I came up with. Five in Virginia (5nva).

First thing is I'm not convinced ther are quite a few Christians in the Hollywood scene so how they may manage I do not know.

To me being a witness does not mean you have to be part of something and be a bit different than what you are part of. Coming out and being separate is being more of a witness. An example would be Michael St Gerard. Michael was an actor who was Elvis in some show, was on 90210 and starred in Hairspray. He is now not acting but is a Pastor at Harlem Square Church which is under the leadership of David Wilkerson and TSC. I see more of a witness by him saying I'm not acting anymore because I am a Christian.
Another example is a Lisa Welchel who was in facts of life. My wife heard her say she became a Christian and seaid there are no movies, parts, scripts in Hollywood that are fitting for her as a Christian. That is being a witness. It seems to me that leaving something all together make more people take notice than staying and trying to fit in.

When my boss takes my work group out for drinks after a meeting and I say I'm not going, I think that is being more of a witness than me going and not drinking. Remember the bible says that bad company currupts good morals not good company corrupts bad morals.

I think we all need to examine what being a witness really is and means. These are just some thoughts to ponder.

In Christ,

Mike


_________________
Mike

 2003/9/29 9:22Profile
crsschk
Member



Joined: 2003/6/11
Posts: 9192
Santa Clara, CA

 Re:

Hi Mike,
Thanks for your reply.
Again we are in agreement in principal.
Remember that there are more than actors in Hollywood, directors, writers,laborers, etc.
It wouldn't seem fair to lump them all together into one stereotype and my hunch is that there is probably quite a few Christians among them.
I don't disagree with you in the slightest in regards to conduct, but wanted to point out a different way of looking at it.

For instance, you said

Quote:
When my boss takes my work group out for drinks after a meeting and I say I'm not going, I think that is being more of a witness than me going and not drinking.

Absolutely, but does their conduct therefore make you quit your job? Or
Quote:
It seems to me that leaving something all together make more people take notice than staying and trying to fit in.

Not trying to be flippant here at all, but do you see what I am getting at?

Another possibilty, this is an assumption based on limited knowledge of what I have picked up here and there, what if what little Christian influence exsists there was to up and leave?
Believe me, in no way am I making a defense for what comes out of there, or for television as a whole, neither of which I personally spend much time watching. When something like this upcoming movie starts making waves and the stumbling stone is causing many to trip over, the critics are not the Christians for a change, all I can say is, Praise God, may it be used for His glory!


_________________
Mike Balog

 2003/9/29 10:18Profile
crsschk
Member



Joined: 2003/6/11
Posts: 9192
Santa Clara, CA

 Re:

Thanks Laholmes,

Read the entire it was very long but I couldn't put it down :-)
Regardless of where his theology is skewed, and yes his language may be offensive to some, I will be praying that he resist's any attempts to water down or compromise on what he has set out to do. This is a great article, it has only served to whet my appetite for this movie...

Here are a few quips from the article:

"But in his middle thirties Gibson slipped into a despair so enveloping that he thought he would not emerge. “You can get pretty wounded along the way, and I was kind of out there,” he says. “I got to a very desperate place. Very desperate. Kind of jump-out-of-a-window kind of desperate. And I didn't want to hang around here, but I didn't want to check out. The other side was kind of scary. And I don't like heights, anyway. But when you get to that point where you don't want to live, and you don't want to die -- it's a desperate, horrible place to be. And I just hit my knees. And I had to use the Passion of Christ and wounds to heal my wounds. And I've just been meditating on it for twelve years.”

When Gibson is trying to understand the antagonism that his project has excited, he characteristically conjures his scenario of the great spiritual realms, unseen but ever warring over humankind. “I didn't realize it would be so vicious,” he says of the criticism. “The acts against this film started early. As soon as I announced I was doing it, it was 'This is a dangerous thing.' There is vehement anti-Christian sentiment out there, and they don't want it. It's vicious. I mean, I think we're just a little part of it, we're just the meat in the sandwich here. There's huge things out there, and they're belting it out -- we don't see this stuff. Imagine: There's a huge war raging, and it's over us! This is the weird thing. For some reason, we're important in this thing. I don't understand it. We're a bunch of _______ and idiots and failures and creeps. But we're called to the divine, we're called to be better than our nature would have us be. And those big realms that are warring and battling are going to manifest themselves very clearly, seemingly without reason, here -- a realm that we can see. And you stick your head up and you get knocked.”

When Gibson was in Rome shooting the film, he told an Italian interviewer that he had felt moved by God's spirit to undertake the project. I asked him what he'd meant by that. How did he know that God wanted him to make “The Passion”?

“There are signals,” he said. “You get signals. Signs. ‘Signal graces,’ they're called. It's like traffic lights. It's as clear as a traffic light. Bing! I mean, it just grabs you and you know you have to listen to that and you have to follow it. Like last night, you know?”

He reminded me of an incident that had occurred the night before, as we were driving to Anaheim. Gibson was behind the wheel of his silver Lexus, negotiating the nightmarish traffic on the Santa Ana Freeway, when a car pulled in front of him and immediately hit the brakes. Gibson had seemed ready to unleash some invective, when he stopped and stared at the offending car's license plate. “Look! Look at what it says!” The car's license-plate holder bore the inscription “Psalm 91.” Gibson said that on that very morning, after he'd been vexed by the Los Angeles Times column, one of his associates had urged him to read the ninety-first Psalm, and that he'd been moved to tears by it. (“A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. . . . For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.”)

“It was weird,” Gibson said. “Those are signals, alright?” .


_________________
Mike Balog

 2003/9/29 10:23Profile





©2002-2024 SermonIndex.net
Promoting Revival to this Generation.
Privacy Policy