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Around the World
by Bob KraemerMiddle East Mayhem
The moment the film was described as anti-Semitic there was a part of me that knew that would spell success in Arab nations. Disregarding their own laws about portraying any prophet or holy person on film, the nations of United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Qatar released the film last week. Amongst Muslim nations, only Bahrain has thus far come out and banned the film. This week an article entitled Palestinians Passionate About Gibson Filmwas published.
A career missionary from Qatar stated that the release date of the film was for him "perhaps the most significant day in my nearly 12 years of living in the Middle East." He said, "Now - if you have heard anything about why the Arab Muslims would want to see the film, you know that it is because they heard it was "anti-Jewish" and since they hate the Jews, they want to see it. How interesting that
God is using this film to communicate the Gospel and the very opposite spirit that might be motivating them to go and see it. The message to LOVE YOUR ENEMIES, and Jesus praying for them to be forgiven while on the Cross would hit the Muslim theatre-goer in a powerful way."
He went on to tell how he sat in a packed theatre with Muslims of both sexes and "In two short hours, more Qataris heard the Gospel than I have been able to reach in nearly five years of living here."
European Explosion
- United Kingdom - Despite the warnings of a top political official who called the film "damagingly anti-Semitic", the film opened to capacity crowds and led the box office throughout the United Kingdom. Predictably, clergy came down on both sides of the issue according to their conservative or liberal leanings. Friends of this ministry have extensive evangelization plans from distribution of literature and the promotion of our website www.TheLife.com, to the establishment of
The Passionate Cafe in the theatre district of Belfast, where movie goers can redeem their ticket stub for a free cup of coffee and get their questions answered.
The UK also produced one of the more thoughtful rebuttals to charges of anti-Semitism, written by a confirmed friend of the Jewish people. Read it here >>
- Germany - History would dictate that this would be the most sensitive country on the topic of anti-Semitism. While there have been negative commentaries from both media and religious sources, the German public are still choosing to judge for themselves. While reports are harder to retrieve from this area, the total German and Austrian box office income exceeds that of the United Kingdom to date.
- France - Probably the most negative critiques have come from the French. In addition to the usual liberal media rants, France is the only country where the Catholic Bishops came out and "officially denounced Mel Gibson's controversial film". It is also the country where three Jewish brothers tried and failed to have the courts ban the film for its "anti-Semitic bent". But the conservative newspaper Le Figaro, called the film "a great work ... for the depth of its thinking and the beauty of its internal structure." It will be interesting to follow this one closely in the days ahead. Read the whole article >>
- Italy -The film will be released April 7th, but early indications are that it will be overwhelmingly accepted throughout the country. The Film Board has put no age restriction on the film. The Vatican officials have been quite unanimous in praise of its authenticity and spiritual value, and my friends who attended an advance screening last week saw only positive results. While most North American audiences leave the film in reverent silence, this Italian audience could not help giving the film a substantial round of applause.
World Wide Coverage
The film has now been released in at least 28 countries, with more opening all the time. The interesting thing is that reports coming to my desk on Google alerts are often coming from countries that have yet to release the film. The most notable of these have been from Beijing, China. In the space of two hours, they reported, in order,
that Roman Catholic Bishops in France had blasted the film and that Roman Catholic students were winning over their friends in China using bootleg English copies. This second report is so exciting I must let you read excerpts from it here.
"The Passion of the Christ” wins over non-Catholic youth
Thanks to an avalanche of English language pirated copies, the fever for Gibson’s blockbuster “The Passion of the Christ” is spreading across China, as young Catholics are taking great pains to encourage their friends and schoolmates to see the film.
AsiaNews sources in the capital have said that during the last few days there have been dozens of showings of the film in small groups and parishes, to which even non-Christians are invited.
A young non-Catholic said: “My only intention was to practice my English by watching the film. Instead, however, the movie really struck me: I can’t believe that someone would sacrifice himself for others, even to the point of dying for them,” he said. “I want to learn more about Christianity,” he added.
“When I was a student at university I read the Bible, but as a work of literature like any other. The reason I read it was to keep up with and learn about western trends of thinking,” he said. “Yet after seeing the film I am inspired to read it again. But this time for the sake of serious reflection. I will ask my Catholic friends to tell me more about the Church."
To read the whole article, click here >>