Mel Gibson

Every now and then I see something which causes my jaw to drop. The following is just on example.

Gateway Church in Texas has a Messianic congregation. Their Jewish Ministries program is run by Pastor Geoffrey Cohen. On Cohen's biography it says that his favorite actor is Mel Gibson. Really, Mel Gibson?

It is not like I do not appreciate Gibson's acting ability, it's just that he doesn't seem to like Jews. Gibson became a darling to many evangelicals after he made the film "The Passion." The film purported to depict the last hours of Jesus' life and was very popular among evangelicals. Passion plays have a long history of leading to violence against the Jews and the Jewish community was pretty vocal at their displeasure toward Gibson for creating a movie out of the Passion plays.

To appear to be listening to the Jewish community, Gibson had a pre-release showing of the film so Jewish leaders could give him feedback and suggestions. One of my rabbis attended the showing. He said that it was clear that Gibson had no intention of taking seriously anything that the Jewish leaders said at the meeting. It was all for appearances, to make Gibson appear as if he really cared what the Jews said while in truth he did not. Unfortunately, the Jews were portrayed in The Passion in numerous ways that were historically wrong.

In 2006, Gibson was pulled over for driving while under the influence. Among the comments he said to the officer, Gibson stated that "F-ing Jews. The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." Now, I will grant you that he was drunk and that he did apologize for his comments. However, I think all of us who practice Judaism took him off their "favorite actor" list after this comment, just in case any of us still had him on their list after the inaccurate portrayal of Jews in The Passion.

So the Jews may not be fans of Gibson but as for the Messianics.....I guess he is still a favorite!