Another debate is fueled by ‘Passion’

In his review of “The Passion of the Christ” (“A Narrow Vision and Staggering Violence,” Feb. 24), Kenneth Turan says the film “fosters a one-dimensional view of Jesus, reducing his entire life and world-transforming teachings to his sufferings, to the notion that he was exclusively someone who was willing to absorb unspeakable punishment for our sins.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

The human birth, human life and very human death of Jesus made his resurrection from the grave the entire point. He was born and lived and died to repay a debt that man has owed from that fateful choice in the Garden of Eden.

Most people want to focus only on the “love of Jesus.” They want to focus on the easy part -- the good, loving and forgiving nature of any relationship that is possible with our Lord. This movie offers a view of the price paid to show that love.

Monica De Vargas

Venice

*

The film did not uplift me spiritually or give me deeper understanding of the sacrifice of my savior. Instead it left me feeling repulsed and spiritually violated. The graphic violence was way over the top and much more than was needed to get a picture of what Christ’s scourging and crucifixion were truly like.

Through his gratuitously and horrifically violent depiction of the most supreme act of love, Gibson took something sacred and cheapened it in the same way that sex is cheapened and denigrated by hard-core pornography.

I would offer that a person would benefit more spiritually by trying to truly live Christ’s teachings than viewing Gibson’s “spiritual pornography.”

Brandon S. Harding

Chula Vista

*

How does a movie described by critics as “a sickening death trip,” “the bloodiest story ever told” and “one of the cruelest movies in the history of cinema” merit only an R rating from the Motion Picture Assn. of America? There is apparently no level of graphic violence sufficient to warrant an NC-17.

Meanwhile, even the most sensitive portrayal of the one act by which all of us were created remains, in their eyes, an utter taboo.

William Bauman

Van Nuys