Re: passion; no otr content so please excuse me & ignore me if you wish :-)

["Katherine E. Willis Pershey" <katherinepershey@yahoo.com>]

hello all,
  i know that not everyone wants to talk about the
passion- so i apologize for prolonging the
conversation.  i think a lot of very intelligent
comments have been made by listees on the subject, and
i want to respond.  
  to put myself in context, i am a seminary student at
a liberal theological school (claremont).  i quickly
jumped on the anti-passion bandwagon; my school is
full of the same kinds of scholars who ripped the
original script apart a few months back.  furthermore,
the LA times has been incessantly covering the movie
in a pretty critical manner.  i guess what i'm saying
is that i have been inundated with reasons to boycott
the movie, and have indeed made the decision to
boycott it.  but my primary reason for rejecting it
has rarely been mentioned in the media, and only
slightly on campus.  as we've all heard, the movie is
extremely violent.  that, in and of itself, is enough
for me to go running up the aisles to the theater
exit.  but the meaning that is given to the violence--
that is what truly terrifies me.  this is not
particular to mel gibson.  atonement theologies
(satisfaction, penal substitution, moral persuasion,
etc.) are part of the christian tradition.  jesus
died, and his followers needed to make meaning of his
death.  the meaning some of them made was that his
suffering was redemptive for humankind- and this
interpretation became orthodox.  the old theological
storyline is thus "God sent God's Son to earth to save
humanity by suffering and dying on the cross..." 
feminist theologians have noted in the past 20 years
the incredibly unethical message underlying this
storyline.  no matter how closely you want to identify
jesus w/ God, it still adds up to God= Divine Child
Abuser.  besides, by emphasizing suffering as
redemptive and explicitly and implicitly encouraging
persons to "carry your cross" like Jesus, the church
has encouraged oppressed persons to stay in situations
of oppression.  the church, through its liturgy and
hymnody, has taught women, children, and men to endure
abuse- all in the name of jesus.  this is unethical
theology.  
  my understanding of the gospel is that jesus'
ministry was about connecting God and humanity in
meaningful relationship.  humans (or humanity) killed
jesus.  and God loved humanity so much despite that
horror that God raised Christ in an act of ultimate
forgiveness.  the cross is only redemptive if one
understands that jesus? suffering was a consummate
rejection of the violence he endured.  violence should
never been sacralized; and yet this is precisely what
atonement theology does.  
  so i agree with those of you who say you'd prefer a
movie that explores jesus' teachings.  as a culture--
as a world-- we are in deep need of a message of
unconditional, transformative, and inclusive love.  we
do not need yet another message of violence,
redemptive or otherwise.  
  i apologize if this email was too pedantic, preachy,
extraneous, or inflammatory.  this is the first time i
have taken an opportunity to respond to the passion or
conversation about the passion publicly, and i realize
this isn't necessarily the best forum to do so. 
thanks for listening, though.  i needed to get that
off my back.

peace & otr,
katherine (who, ironically enough, should be writing a
sermon right now...)


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