qos | Tempting Thought

Ordinarily I distance myself completely from movie-related hype, but I continue to be fascinated by the variety of thoughtful responses to "The Passion." Which is tricky, since most of them have been written without the author having seen the work in question, and that is usually an excellent reason to ignore any commentary at all.

tamnonlinear, who I have come to rely on for witty, well-written comments on life and events, had this to say this afternoon about why she is not going to see The Movie:

". . . they aren't covering any of Jesus's teachings, his messages about loving and forgiving, about answering violence and hatred with compassion and reaching out to everyone. No, this is about how much he was hurt and punished, beaten, suffered, and died for YOUR sins. In graphic detail. With no whistling. Because you should feel properly guilty and appalled by what the Son of God went through for your sake, and therefore not question what is now being done in his name, you ungrateful sinner.

Personally, I'm taking away the message that if he went through all of that for my sins, I need to do some better sinning to make it worth it."