SS -
The article may be a clever way of reversing the situation. Jews have been screaming about this movie being inflamitory of antisemitism since gibson started making it. They have been trying to censor gibson. This article makes it appear as if gibson is the censor. I would investigate this pastor's connections and beliefs to look for evidence of judaismic sympathies/connections, as oposed the christian leanings, along w free speach. He can't be that uninformed about the situation surrounding this movie.
I agree with you. I highly suspect that this man is not who he claims to be. To me, this man's article sounded more like someone who wanted a platform where he could legally bash this movie under the guise of a violation of his own pet peeve. He had not one nice or positive thing to say about the movie at all. I would think that as a pastor, there had to be something he had to like about it - even if it was a comment about how many more people may choose Christ because of this film. Instead of focusing on the film, he chose to focus on how he was not allowed to critique it. If he didn't like the arrangement, why did he sign the agreement? His indignation would carry much more weight had he not signed the agreement at all, and forewent the movie preview altogether. However, when he signed on the dotted line, he willingly compromised his ideals, so he has no right to self-righteouly accuse Mel Gibson of requiring him to violate his own pet peeve. As the main character in this very movie once said, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."
Speaking of Mel Gibson not wanting any negative press on the movie - can you blame him? If I were making a movie on the last few days of Jesus' life, I would know that the best endorsement I could get would be from Christian pastors. Why bother doing the screening at all if anyone was going to run off and bash it? Besides - no one was forced to sign the agreement. They could have walked.
For what it is worth, my own pastor attended this screening. When he got back, he could not praise this movie enough - especially in regards to it's historical accuracy. In fact, he is going to interrupt the series he has been speaking on to illustrate to us just how accurate it is by doing a biblical comparison. This may not sound significant to some, but to members of my church, nothing our pastor has ever done speaks as loudly as his decision to interrupt our current series-in-progress. In fact, to illustrate how significant this is - my pastor didn't break down and change the series the weekend after 9/11 hit - much to my chagrin. It was "business as usual" for him. So to say that we are going on "hiatus" to study just the last few days of Jesus' life prior to the release of this movie speaks volumes about how great this movie is.
Again, if the guy who wrote this article really is a pastor, why couldn't he find one good thing to say about the movie, when my own pastor, who barely gives a glance to events taking place outside of our church is setting everything else aside to insure we know what we are looking at when we go to see this movie. I say this guy is a mole, and a transparent one at that.
As for me, I'll be waiting in line on opening night.
growedup