Badfish

A real Christian has no motive for manipulating anyone. Some people have a misguided view of what true Christianity is about.

For what reason would a Christian want to manipulate anyone? There is no personal monetary gain for the true Christian.

You speak as though there is a Christian conspiracy, but in reality the true conspiracy is to just teach the gospels and love for one another. True Christian ideals are far from threatening.

The world would be a much better place if true christianity were practiced and all people followed the morality and the teachings of Christ to put others first and to love them and forgive them unconditionally.

Back to the topic, I don't think the last 12 hours of Christs life is anything new, to some it may refresh their faith, and for others it may at least make them think about their eternity.

Toto

Are you assuming that I think that evangelicals are True Christians? There are certainly some people making money and gaining power through Christianity. I'm glad to hear that they are not True Christians.

Badfish

Evangelicals that use the money for noble purposes I would think are true Christians.

Yes there are many that come in the name of Christ for personal benefit, and thats why Christianity as a whole gets a bad rap, but God says these are the types of Christians (or false Christians) that will be dealt with the harshest at judgement time.

I agree there are many who use God to better their own lives and manipulate people, but thats not the true way, this is specifically dealt with in the bible.

Fake or otherwise deceitful Christians that use Christ for selfish monetary gain are possibly the worst people of all.

Badfish

The movie looks like a good rendering of humanities important past history. I think we can agree there lived a man Jesus who was crucified.

Of course some sooth sayers and even good Christians will go wild, as will some Jews.

Its just a film, I don't think it will have that big of an impact.

JoyJuice

I remember when "The Exorcist" came out and recall the most unthinkable people walking around with Bibles in their hands the next day. Two weeks later, that Bible had been replaced with the lastest addtion of "Hustler" as within their character.

We here in America are reationists, just like with the Tower attacks, after this movie church attendance will rise, but along with being reactionists we Americans have short memories, and things will be back to normal soon as usual.

Doctor X

Badfish:

Er . . . no . . . not really.

I refer you to the Mythicist threads/references for that controversy. I tend to lean to a "someone"--if you accept Galatians as a genuine letter, and Paul's reference to James as a true brother of Junior which some here disagree with--but we know NOTHING about what he said and did.

The crucifixion is another problem entirely. The various passion narratives do not portray the political situation appropriately or how the Romans crucified people--they do not let the families have the bodies--the bodies hand and rot--nothing like "free advertisement."

However, I agree with your over-all point.

Alkech:

Well . . . I am sorry . . . I forgot what you wrote. . . .

--J.D.

aikido7

i hope to god you're right!

Amos

If it must be practiced it is phony and that is the problem with Christianity.

gregor

Can we contact the philosophy departments at all major universities and officially change the name of the logical fallacy from the "No True Scotsman" fallacy to the "No True Christian" fallacy. It'd make things much clearer.

Damian

Personally, I am going to see this movie because I love movies and I'm a sucker for good stories (call it what you want, it's still a good story. Lord of the Rings is said to have Christian undertones, but I still enjoyed that). And, I really like Mel Gibson movies and Jim Caveziel.

I actually get annoyed when people of any theological belief let it dictate how they react to certain things (like movies). I have an atheist friend that will get pissed if some random person on the street says "God bless" in reaction to holding the door for them or something. If I were to have that reaction, I would feel that I were no different than the "enemy."

I watched the Diane Sawyer interview/special with Mel Gibson on Monday. Yes, it was annoying as hell to see Mel's beliefs. But oh well, that's his right. I'm surely not going to boycott his movies because of it. That creates division. Religion does that enough by itself without my contribution to it.

They did show clips, however, of audiences after screenings. There was a lot of crying and hugging and such. That's to be expected, I suppose.