The last tempation
Okay. "Vatican Cardinal Enters Fray Over Mel Gibson Film". Apparently, there are fears that the film's portrayal of Jesus' death as being orchestrated by some Jewish people two thousand years ago, will spark a new round of anti-semitism.
I don't know if it will or not, but the tendency to smooth over the facts in order not to offend folks irritates me. Look at Japan; an entire generation has been formally educated in such a way that pretty much leaves out the events of World War II. Lest I appear nationalistic, Americans have done it, too. Unless you happen to grow up in a state with a sizable Native American population, you rarely learn in school about the atrocicties that occurred in the name of expansion. And the fact of the internment camps during WWII are only being discussed in classrooms now.
If there is fear that a film could disrupt some kind of Jewish-Christian dialogue, then I'm left to wonder at the depth of that dialogue to begin with. Anti-semitism is real and unfortunately exists today. But I tend to doubt that a Hollywood film about the crucifixion of Jesus (carried out by Romans) is intended to be a tool for the bigoted. Of course, the bigoted misappropriate a lot of things, so I could easily be incorrect. I do hope, of course, that I'm not.