by blacksheep 38 Replies latest social current
Gumby,
I was trying to be nice and avoid the subject but when being pressed as to what I thought a bought the show I was not going to go alone with the BS. I just said I had my own thoughts on the subject and would leave it at that. I am sick and tired of people thinking it is alright to pose their views on me but I am not allowed to have my own thoughts. I respect their beliefs I just wished they would give me same courtesy.
Will
I am sick and tired of people thinking it is alright to pose their views on me but I am not allowed to have my own thoughts. I respect their beliefs I just wished they would give me same courtesy
Amen bro., and I couldn't agree with you more! I guess it depends on the situation. When I am cornered....I will speak as you did.
Gumby
Well, I don't believe in the divinity of Christ. Nor do I even really believe that the Biblical Jesus existed. But I was still moved.
I think that what is truly moving is the HEROIC IDEAL being displayed in the film - that a man (whether myth or reality) deliberately CHOSE to undergo horrible torture so as to redeem mankind. Remember, according to the myth, Jesus could have walked away at any moment (via angelic intervention). According to the myth, Satan was stalking him, using his own people against him, bringing the full weight of torment upon him. It's not so much the torture that he underwent as the fact that he completely and deliberately decided to endure it based upon the principle of love. That's why Christians (whether full-fledged or just vaguely, as in my own case) are moved by the film, because we wish to imitate that same spirit of self-sacrifice and endurance for the sake of others.
At every moment, Christ could have walked away, said, This is enough, screw these ungrateful people, I'm outtie. And left us to rot in Hell for all eternity. But he refused to do so, and gladly grasped his Cross. It helps us to endure our own crosses - thinking that if God permits something to happen, we can not only endure it, we can force the evil we endure to create a newer and lasting Goodness. That's why the film is so powerful for Christians - why it moves us to try to make our lives, our worlds, better around us.
Schindler's list is very powerful, too, but for a different reason. The victims in Schindler's List had no choice - they were helpless victims of Nazi tyranny. So it might move us to try to prevent such abuse of power in the future - but it does not have the same powerful effect on a individual Christian in his own life, although it might affect the political decisions he makes or the things he chooses to support (like the right of Israel to exist, or the prevention of mass executions in Iraq, or the intervention in Kosovo).
Schindler's List is a powerful argument against racism, against mindless support of power, against the language of fear - but the Passion is a powerful argument FOR love, FOR self-sacrifice, FOR endurance and compassion.
CZAR
I agree with czarofmischief...This man Jesus could have stopped the whole proceedings at any time. I'm thankful that he didn't and I feel indebted to him for his willing sacrifice. Even though I was raised as a JW, I just could never put myself in his place by reading the scriptures...This gave me a front row seat and transported me there. It was a very sobering experience for me.
I'm somewhat of a history buff and a lot of people have said that the torture was overdone. However, when you read about how the Romans burned people alive and used them as torches to light their roadways, I don't have any doubts as to the brutal torture that he had to endure. For all you non-believers...Christ gave his life for you whether you accept it or not. (That's meant in a nice way!)
Didn't care for the Passion...their were a few sad parts that moved me but the graphic and drawn out realism of the floggings and beatings were overdone...
If he were human I don't believe he could have survived the beating which they portrayed, and then carry his cross to boot.
I think this movie was simply about horrible acts on another human being. Unfortunately, that has occurred almost non-stop throughout human history.Why people are suddenly being "converted" to Christianity by seeing this brutality, I cannot understand.
Because Jesus Christ was not just another human being. He is God incarnate, and people's whose lives have changed for the better recognize that. Please don't make the mistake that just because some people's lives were changed from watching The Passion, that it doesn't mean that they (or others) were also not moved by Schindler's List. I was personally moved by Schindler's List, but quite frankly, it did not inspire me to become a Jew, a Nazi Hater or a Mr. Schindler imitatator. I believe the reason so many people were more moved by The Passion than by Schindler's List is because The Passion is a snippet of God's own personal story while on earth, and only God has the ability to move people this deeply within their hearts. Schindler's List, although extremely touching, did not have God helping "push" the message. But again, make no mistake, just because Schindler's List did not influence people to become anti-semitism activits, et al, does not mean that people who saw The Passion and were moved to become Christians and confess to crimes are heartless and blind to the story Schindler's List. It just affected them differently, and that is okay.
growedup
This is a good webpage to read:
Thanks Swalker for the link....very interesting. example:
Regarding Gethsamane... "It also is significant that this is the only place in the King James Version of the Bible where the word ?agony? is employed. It is because of this agony over things to come that we learn during His prayer ?his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground? (Luke 22:44). Some have tried to defend the impossibility of bloody sweat. However, a thorough search of the medical literature demonstrates that such a condition, while admittedly rare, can occur.
Commonly referred to as hematidrosis or hemohidrosis (Allen, 1967, pp. 745-747), this condition results in the excretion of blood or blood pigment in the sweat. Under conditions of great emotional stress, tiny capillaries in the sweat glands can rupture (Lumpkin, 1978), thus mixing blood with perspiration. This condition has been reported in extreme instances of stress (see Sutton, 1956, pp. 1393-1394). For example, a young girl who had a terrible fear of air raids during World War I developed the condition after a gas explosion occurred in the house next door to hers (Scott, 1918). Another report details that after being threatened by sword-bearing soldiers, a Catholic nun ?was so terrified that she bled from every part of her body and died of hemorrhage in the sight of her assailants? (von Grafenberg, 1585). During the waning years of the twentieth century, 76 cases of hematidrosis were studied and classified into categories according to causative factors (Holoubek and Holoubek, 1996). Acute fear and intense mental contemplation were found to be the most frequent inciting causes. While the extent of blood loss generally is minimal, hematidrosis also results in the skin becoming extremely tender and fragile (Barbet, 1953, pp. 74-75; Lumpkin, 1978), which would have made Christ?s pending physical insults even more painful.
I know this may sound horrible. Both of my children have seen the movie, both liked it but said they would never see it again...just to horrible.
For me whenver I think of going, or going to church I get nauseous. I get all clammy and feel my stomach drop...will this ever end. With Easter coming up I want to go to church with my grandbaby but I just feel sick. How does one seperate themselves from a cult without it including seperating from God???
A lot more people are into SM than they care to admit if they are so "moved" after seeing this SadoMasochistic SufferFest of a movie.
I mean what's so Spiritual in seeing a man flogged and beaten with blood spurting any which way,then seeing him nailed to a piece of wood?
Sorry but there must be something seriously wrong with anyone finding this "Spiritually Uplifting".
This overhyped movie has nothing to do with spirituality,but more with repressed sexuality that comes
out anyway via the more "accepted" way of pain and suffering of a sexless penisless Jesusfigure...
