Charlie Rose Science Series
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02/25/2004
Jon Meacham, David Denby, Christopher Hitchens, David Sterritt
A conversation about the "Passion of the Christ"
Keywords:
A conversation with author Christopher Hitchens of "Vanity Fair", Jon Meacham of "Newsweek", David Denby of "The New Yorker" and David Sterritt, film critic of "The Christian Science Monitor", about Mel Gibson's controversial film "The Passion of the Christ".
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Audio available through Audible.com.
Transcripts
Transcripts available through Voxant.
Transcripts available through Voxant.
This panel was real fair and balanced. Thanks for the diversity of opinions Charlie.
What greater proof is needed of the new york based power cabal than this interview. "A Conversation about "The Passion of the Christ" Really? "Herr Gibsons fundementalist views" would have been far more apperpo This was the episode when I lost total respect for Mr. Rose the free minded individualist thinker whom I had so admired for teh past few years. Because of this epsidoes illumniation that you are infact a mere servent who dares not try to understand somone different but rather villfy them. You along with David Letterman broke my heart during this period of abject darkness in the very essence that is america, the exchange of free ideas. To claim to be the more tolerant and udnerstanding of our society and yet to stand there and so strickly condemn a man for his principles and ideals. One would hope this critism lands on interested ears as oppsed to being shrugged off as another hatemongerers inapperication of the truth.
Mr. Brown, Re: the religion of the guests: Mr. Hitchens is an atheist. Mrs Meacham & Steritt are Christians. I don't know about Mr. Denby. Also, I don't know that they missed the mark on its acceptance. They seemed to have begrudgingly resigned themselves to the notion that an ignorant and insufficiently skeptical public would embrace Mr. Gibson's cinematic "embroidery" (to be kind) as a documentary. Consider the characteristics of the likely audience and I think the film's popularity is utterly unsurprising, least of all to the these guests.
Subsequent events have shown that Gibson is anti Semitic. As mentioned in the discussion, the Gospels are not history. One point has always puzzled me. Jesus is always shown carrying the cross to the place of execution. Where did that cross come from ?. Did Pilate keep a supply of crosses in his palace basement ?. The practice had to be that the condemned person was taken to the place of execution where the cross was put together. The Church has been trying to make amends for the atrocities sparked by the story of the Gospels, but fanatics like Gibson appear to be determined to sabotage this effort.
Hitchens, Meacham, Denby and Sterritt certainly missed the mark on the public acceptance of Gibson's film. Many of the opinions appeared to be from a Non-Christian leaning, and perhaps this accounts for their views. My comments, written years after the film's debut, come from watching Passion of the Chirst become a blockbuster hit with many viewers expressing an emotional and spiritual attachment to Gibson's work. It is also important to note that Gibson was arrested for DUI. In the midst of the arrest, Gibson made several defamatory remarks toward Jews. One could derive from this incident that comments made in the Rose interview about Gibson's feelings, and his father's feelings, toward the Jews is correct.