Beware the Bigoted Kibitzers
| By: Dr. Ted Baehr; ©2003 |
| Those who object to a Christian message in movies, or in the newspaper, might need to check their own biases. |
Contents
Beware the Bigoted Kibitzers
Recently, our friend Robert Knight took another friend David Horowitz to task for an article in which Horowitz said that Christians are theologically wrong for stating that homosexuality is a sin. Knight pointed out that the Bible is clear that homosexuality is a sin both in the Old and New Testament, and that it was religious bigotry for Mr. Horowitz to be lecturing Christians on their theology. David may not have considered the implications of his article, but, regrettably, he reacted to Mr. Knight’s criticism with a more strenuous broadside demeaning Christian theology.
Another kibitzer in the Los Angeles Times Book Review insisted that Christians remove all references to Jews in the New Testament. In a USA Today opinion piece, Rabbi Gerald Zelizer complained that Christian leaders “are too facile in generalizing their criticism about Hollywood’s portrayal of God and faith” after taking Christian comments out of context and denigrating Christian theology. He then continues by prescribing what Christians should believe.
Surely this contributing writer would be upset if Christians started criticizing Talmudic theology. Furthermore, it’s hard to believe that he would take statements by renowned Christians out of context, and then criticize them on theological grounds that he does not understand since he is not a Christian. Not only is the Bible clear that only people of faith can understand the things of God, but the matters that Rabbi Zelizer is talking about concern a movie made by Christians treating issues from a redemptive perspective.
Shortly after the Rabbi’s column ran in USA Today, the Los Angeles Times ran an opinion piece by two people from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a worthy Jewish organization dedicated, in part, to helping people remember the evil slaughter of millions of Jews in the Holocaust by Hitler’s Germany in World War II. The two men cautioned Mel Gibson about the possible depiction of Jewish leaders in his new movie about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, The Passion.
Apparently, these men get very upset, as we have and they should, whenever someone tries to revise the holocaust history by questioning even minor historical details about Hitler’s horrible genocidal program. Then, they contradict themselves by wanting to revise the historical record by hiding the truth about the religious leaders who were historically involved in the trials which resulted in the death of Jesus Christ. As these men say, it was Pontius Pilate who crucified Christ, but they seem to ignore the fact that it was many of the religious leaders in Jerusalem who incited the mob into demanding the crucifixion. (See Matthew 27:15-25)
Telling Christians what to think about their own faith has become the fashion in the media, but that does not make it right. In fact, it is a base form of religious bigotry and arrogance, and it exposes the raw agenda of the anti-Christian bigots who want to eliminate Jesus Christ, the New Testament, and Bible-believing Christians from the marketplace of ideas.
The persecution represented by the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the stoning of Stephen in the New Testament’s Book of Acts led to brutal persecutions of the apostles and thousands of Christians throughout the Middle East and in Rome. Only the peaceful martyrdoms and loving actions of Christ’s followers stemmed this bloody tide of terror. Regrettably, however, the persecution of Christians was renewed in the 20th Century, which saw more than 100 million Christians persecuted and martyred in Africa, Asia and even Europe. Today this persecution continues unabated in the Sudan, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
Now in the United States, some intolerant people of influence are effectively calling for the exclusion of all things Christian from public discourse. These revisionists want to remove all the voluminous historical evidence about Jesus Christ from schools, government, and the mass media of entertainment. For these intolerant people, all speech is acceptable, except references to Jesus Christ and the Bible, which they have strictly forbidden in their politically correct purge of all public discourse. In their attempt to revise history and erase the historical record, they are effectively crucifying Jesus Christ once more, though slightly more subtly than those who incited the mob before Pilate to yell, “Crucify Him!” To which Pilate replied that Jesus’ crucifixion was upon their heads. (See Matthew 27:15-25)
If we fail to remember this history, we will be doomed to repeat it. Don’t let the kibitzers take away your freedom to think about God in an orthodox, historically accurate way. If they can let Martin Scorsese defame Jesus Christ by producing The Last Temptation of Christ in the name of the First Amendment, surely they can let Mel Gibson release the kind of movie about Jesus he wants to make.
