Confessing Evangelical

Mark Steyn is (among many other things) cinema critic for The Spectator here in the UK. As with his political columns, his reviews are always worth reading, and often definitive.

In this week's Spectator, he reviews The Passion, which has just been released in the UK (to a torrent of public indifference, it has to be said). The review isn't online yet - once it is, I'll link to it - but thought I'd post a couple of choice highlights.

[The real argument over The Passion is] not between Christians and Jews, but between believing Christians and the broader post-Christian culture, a term that covers a broad swathe from the media to your average Anglican vicar ... In this world, if Jesus were alive today he'd most likely be a gay Anglican bishop in a committed relationship driving around in an environmentally-friendly car with an "Arms Are For Hugging" sticker on the way to an interfaith dialogue with a Wiccan and a couple of Wahhabi imams.

...Instead of Jesus the wimp, Mel gives us Jesus the Redeemer. He died for our sins - i.e. the 'violent end' is the critical bit, not just an unfortunate misunderstanding cruelly cutting short a promising career in gentle teaching. The followers of Wimp Jesus seem to believe He died to license our sins - Jesus loves us for who we are so whatever's your bag is cool with him.

Steyn does have some criticisms to make of the film (its "Hollywooden" dialogue, for example).

Worst of all are the Roman soldiers who torture Jesus and laugh and spit and jeer like corrupt banana-republic cops in an action movie. Regardless of whether that's a slur on one of the great empires of our civilization, it serves Gibson poorly: the sins that Jesus died for are our everyday ones, not the worst excesses of an Amnesty International report. A brisker, more professional soldiery would have made the point better.

But the overall verdict is positive ("If it's not the Jesus movie you'd have made, then go make your own"). Steyn concludes:

It's true that if you don't believe that Christ's death on the cross is the central event in His time on earth then Mel's telling won't convince you and the film will look, as it does to Christopher Hitchens [and, Steyn might have added, many liberal "Christian" critics of the film], like an S&M flayfest. One can regard this as a criticism of Gibson. On the other hand, all manner of movies - Star Wars, X-Men 2 - leave you cold if you're not already a devotee. For millions of people, Mel Gibson shows them their Jesus and their salvation.