AmNote on Jews and PBS Anti-ChristianityAnti-Christian propaganda on PBS come in the form of Frontline's "From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians", which first aired in April, 1998. Few biblical men have last names and those that do play a central role in the story of Jesus and Christianity; Jesus of Nazareth, John the Baptist, Pontius Pilate, Herod Antipas, Simon Peter, etc. The blatant omission of Judas Iscariot from "From Jesus to Christ" stood out like a sore thumb, because neglecting to mention Judas is comparable to not mentioning the Crucifixion or Resurrection of Jesus when telling the story of Jesus. Not mentioning the Betray of Jesus by Judas represents an attempt by Jews to downplay the Jews' central role in crucifying Christ. Frontline's bible "scholars" were quick to reveal that the Romans killed Jesus. However, the Romans were only the instruments of Christ's death, guided by the lies that the Temple Jews planted to manipulated the Romans into killing him. It was Judas's betray of Jesus in singling him out to the Romans with a kiss, that was the act that condemned Jesus to death on the cross: "Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him." (Matthew, 26:48-49) "Judas" means Jew and Judaism. Obviously, PBS doesn't want to offend their Jewish supporters and contributors with the truth, since the truth is offense to Jews.
In addition, Frontline's program represent Christianity as a Jewish sect that didn't take separate paths until Bar Kokbha forces the issue. However, in the bible and gospels, Jesus rejected Judaism and required a complete break of Christians from Jews. For example, Jesus sets himself against the institution of Judaism: "For I am come to set a man at variance with his father, and the daughter against the mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And man's foes shall be they of his own household." (Matthew, 10:35-36) Jesus's "at variance" means to set man at variance with or against his father's, mother's, and mother-in-law's beliefs and teachings of Judaism. Also, Jesus says: "If any man comes to me and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sister, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." (Matthew, 14:26) In other words, unless a man breaks with the Jewish traditions and the beliefs of Judaism, then he can not be a Christian and follow Christ. A man must hate himself and his life as a Jew to be a disciple of Jesus. The breaking from Jewish tradition and the beliefs of Judaism is also repeated in the Gospel of Thomas where Jesus says: "Whoever does not hate his father and mother as I do cannot become a disciple to me. And whoever does not love his father and mother as I do cannot become a disciple to me." (101) Therefore, after the arrival of Jesus on the scene, anyone that followed Jesus could not be a Jew or in the tradition of a Jew and Judaism, and thereby Christianity was never a Jewish sect.
Jesus was strongly opposed to Judaism, because the Jews were cruel and evil, as the Temple Jews' conspiracy against Jesus, and Judas's deceit and betrayal of Jesus demonstrated. Judas did not relinquish his life as a greedy Jew and his Judaism to become a Christian, and thus his betrayal of Christianity. The total rejection of Judaism by Jesus is revealed through his own behavior towards his mother and brothers, when they come to see Jesus and he wouldn't even say hello, instead dismissed them with: "Who is my mother and my brethren?" (Mark, 3:33) Again, Jesus rejects Mary's question with the reply: "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" (John, 2:4,) Why does Jesus reject his mother and brothers so strongly? Because they are Jews and follow Judaism. How can Jesus accept his mother and brothers, since the very nature of Judaism is AntiChrist. Judas's avarice revealed the true nature of the Jews: "Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto ye? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him." (Matthew, 26:14-16) Either Frontline choose their "scholars" based on their Jewish interpretation of the Jesus story or Frontline edited "From Jesus to Christ" to create anti-Christian propaganda. "From Jesus to Christ" rather than being a secular treatment of the story of Jesus as it claims to be, in reality is an attempt by the Jew media to denigrate Christianity.
Another Frontline program, "Apocalypse" that air 11/22/99 was supposed to be an examination of the Book of Revelation, but in fact it was an advertisement to recruit Christians against Muslims in an effort to rebuild the Temple Mount, in direct defiance of the Islamic faith, since rebuilding would mean destroying one of the most holiest places in the Muslim world, called al-Aqsa, "the furthest mosque." The Jews attempted in this program to recruit Christians to their cause by stating that the Messiah's "Second Coming" would not happen until the Third Temple is built. Actually, the Messiah will not return until after the Apocalypse of the Jews, and the beginning of a new cycle of Christianity, marked by his return: "For my son the Messiah shall be revealed with those who are with him, and those who remain shall rejoice four hundred years. And after these years my son the Messiah shall die, and all who draw human breath. And the world shall be turned back to primeval silence for seven days, as it was at the first beginnings; so that no one shall be left." (4Esdras, 7:28-30)
Michael Eisner's ABC news aired a program called "The Search for Jesus with Peter Jennings" on 6/26/2000, which also claimed to be a secular program, in which ABC presented the Jewish point of view that Christianity was not a religious movement, but rather a political movement of the Christ prophesy, and represented Jesus as merely a political activist and not the Savior, even though the New Testament does not support such a conclusion. However, Jesus never claimed to be the "Christ" of the Jewish prophesy: "And they all said, "If you are the Christ, tell us." But he said to them, "If I tell you, you will not believe; and if I ask you, you will not answer. But from now on the Son of man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God." "Are you the Son of God, then?" And he said to them, "You say that I am." (Luke 22:67-70) and "And they began to accuse him, saying, "We found this man perverting our nation, and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ a king." And Pilate asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" And he answered him, "You have said so." (Luke 23:2-3) Perhaps Jesus did not acknowledge being "Christ" with good reason, because he rejected the Jewish concept of the Christ prophesy, since he rejected the Jews, yet, at the same time, he was able to acknowledge being the Son of God.
CBS's miniseries "Jesus", that aired in May, 2000, is a strange concoction of popular misbeliefs about the New Testiment, and is not worthy of mentioning, except for the blatant anti-Christian theme and imagery it offers. For example, where in the New Testament is it stated or even suggested that Judas betrayed Jesus in order to incite Jesus's followers to raise up against the Roman political hierarchy? This echos ABC's "The Search for Jesus with Peter Jennings" contention that Christianity was not a religious movement, but rather a political movement, even though the New Testament does not support such a conclusion. Pontius Pilate is portrayed as a cruel man only to set him up (and consequentially the Roman Catholics) as being directly responsible for Jesus's death, rather than the scheming Judas and the Temple Jews. The writer of the teleplay, Suzette Couture, and her producers were either pressured by CBS or knew the work would never get picked up by CBS, if the Jews were blamed as the main conspirators in Jesus's crucifixion instead of the Romans, as the New Testament clearly indicates. As pointed out by the producers, the intent of CBS's "Jesus" was to make Pontius Pilate appear responsible for Jesus's crucifixion and not the Jews, and so a fictitious character, Livio, was invented to accomplishes the deception in order to make the Romans the scapegoat for the death of Jesus.
A close reading of the New Testament also failed to find any mention of the Crusaders of the Middle Ages, Nazi-like soldiers of the World Wars, and a Satan that is more like a character out of a German cabaret than Hell. Seriously, there is no biblical basis for the temptation of Jesus scene in "Jesus" found in the New Testament. The temptation of Jesus scene was merely a literary device used to maliciously incorporate the anti-Christianity imagery into the teleplay. So why are the Crusaders and the Nazi-like soldiers in CBS's "Jesus"? Well, when the Crusaders were on their way to the Holy Land in search of the Holy Grail, they killed Jews along the way in retaliation for Jewish participation in the crucifixion of Jesus, and to fulfill the prophesy that the Messiah will not return until after the Apocalypse of the Jews. The misplaced imagery of the Crusades in "Jesus" was an attempt by the Jewish controlled media to undermine Christian beliefs with this historical aberation and to reshape the Christian self-image. In order to work in the Jews' favorite theme, the "Holocaust", Nazi-like soldiers and Satan were used, which again was an attempt to undermine Christianity by linking it to such imagery. Jewish control media uses imagery to create false memories in people's minds to promote the "Holocaust" myth.
According to executive producers Lorenzo Minoli and Judd Parkin, the production was intended to respect the beliefs of Christians and also stand as a historic drama for non-Christians. Who could these non-Christians be? How about the Jews at CBS! What CBS presented in "Jesus" was not just a reinterpretation of the New Testament, but a fabrication intended to denigrate Christianity and Jesus. Freedom of interpretation was not the intent of CBS's "Jesus", but rather just the opposite force was acting upon the production. CBS's "Jesus" represents the stranglehold the media Jews have on TV productions in America, that subjugates and distorts the truth in favor of Jewish religious and social agendas. Since the Jews have been successful in rewriting the history of World War II to suit their Judaic agendas, why not rewrite the New Testament to serve them also, and maybe nobody will notice it, either. CBS's "Jesus" was a shameless presentation of anti-Christian propaganda that was ultimately an exercise in Jewish arrogance and social engineering! Whether or not Christianity, or rather the Christ prophesy, started out as a political or a religious movement over 2000 years ago isn't the important point—the point is that Jews are using their power in the media to impose a minority view held by their handpicked "experts" on to a large viewing audience in order to attack Christianity today as a legitimate religion, and, by envoking "Holocaust" and Nazi imagery, they hope to further discredit Christianity by association!
Michael Eisner's and ABC's 20/20 "Tracing Jesus' Final Hours", that aired on 4/13/01, was a boldfaced attack on Christianity and Jesus, which claimed the roots of the "Holocaust" were in Christianity. The claim is outright nonsense! The "Holocaust" was rooted in the behavior of the self-serving Jews during the pre-World War II period. Germany had other economic and social problems during the pre-WW II period due to World War I sanctions, but it was the larceny of the Jew working counter to the best interest of the German nation that gave the Nazis the emotional edge to gain power in Germany. Simply, evil begets evil. The self-serving Jews in an already unstable social and political environment created an explosive combination. The German people saw the Nazis as their salvation from the thievery of the Jew, whose avaricious and criminal activities were ripping Germany apart at a time when national cohesion was critical. The Savings & Loan Bailout, the Dot Com-Nasdaq Ponzi Scam, and David Schick's real estate pyramid scheme, as well as the criminal behavior of Marc Rich and his Jew promotors, and the New Square Jews' votes-for-pardons deal to free four Hasidic criminals, serve as American examples of the financial and political corruption German Jews were engaged prior to World War II. There are plenty of reasons to hate Jews without blaming the resentment on the New Testiment and Christianity—what a cop out! Do the Arabs hate the Jews because of the New Testiment and Christianity? Is the Bible the blame for every society that the Jews have ever found themselves in wanting to get rid of them? People hate Jews because there is nothing too low that a Jew won't do! Jews never accept responsibility for their wrongdoing; It is always someone else's fault. The problem is that Jews believe that Jews have the God given right to do whatever they please without retribution!
ABC's 20/20 claimed that Pope John Paul II's made a recent apology for the wrongs done to Jews by Christians who had blamed the Jewish people for the death of Jesus, which was supposedly brought about by new thinking that it was the Romans, and not the Jews, who were responsible for Jesus' crucifixion. This statement is a lie! Pope John Paul II only condemded the "Holocaust", but did not offer any kind of unambiguous apology that implicated Christianity as being resposible for the "Holocaust" in any way! And, why should he apologize, it was the Jews that brought the Nazis down on themselves with their self-serving behavior, and their participation in political and financial corruption in pre-World War II Germany, which was something that Christianity played no role in—after all the Nazis were anti-Christian, also. The Jews never accept responibility for their wrongdoing, and so they concocted a phoney story about Christianity causing the "Holocaust" to hide the true reason, which was that the Jew's own larceny in pre-WW II Germany was responsible for their comeuppance—the very same self-destructive behavior that Jews are acting out in America today! The 20/20 program even managed to work in a picture of the concentration camp at Dachau in order to make a visual connection between Christianity and the "Holocaust" using Nazi imagery. The only connection between the early Christians and the World War II Germans was that both recognized that Jews are sneak thieves and liars—a realization Americans should make, also.
ABC's 20/20 "Tracing Jesus' Final Hours" also claims that it was the Romans who were directly responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus. However, the Romans were only the instruments of Christ's death, guided by the lies that the Temple Jews planted to manipulated the Romans into killing Jesus, because Jesus tried to stop their usury: "And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be a house of prayer'; but you have made it a den of robbers." And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people sought to destroy him; but they did not find anything they could do, for all, the people hung upon his words." (Luke, 19:45-48) Pontius Pilate would not have been aware of Jesus without him being pointed out by the Jewish officials in Jerusalem. If anything, Pontius Pilate ordered the crucifixion of Jesus only to appease the nagging of the Temple Jews, since Jesus was a local problem to the Temple Jews and only a problem to Rome because of the Temple Jews' complaints. If the Romans executed Jesus, then the Temple Jews thought they might escape the hatred of the people, but of course Jesus's followers knew who was truly responsible for his death. This behind-the-scenes maneuvering demonstrates the Jews' historical role as furtive manipulators, who traditionally advance their agenda outside of the public spotlight.
Imagine, the media Jews feel so self-assured about their absolute power over the American TV audience, that they had the arrogance to assault Jesus and Christianity on Good Friday and just before the Easter weekend! Barbara Walters even had the nerve to smugly suggest that the 20/20 program should give Christians something to think about over Easter! Well, she's right—when television becomes a Judaic propaganda tool, it's time to break the stranglehold Jews have over network television and the entertainment industry in America!
What is the source of this Jewish anti-Christian antagonism and what is the Jewish agenda in relationship to Christianity? Christians and Jews have been adversaries for thousands of years, and of course the New Testament of the Bible exposes the Jews for what they are—deceivers and betrayers. But, much if the modern antagonism comes from the supposed denial of the "Holocaust" by the Roman Catholic Church during World War II, which is a long standing roadblock in the Jews' attempt at imposing their myopic worldview that only Jews are important. "Look at what the Nazi did to us!" Who cares! Look at what the Jews do to other people. It is unbelievable that Jews expect sympathy after the rotten things they've done to others. The Jews even tried to force Pope John Paul II to renounce the Vatican's stand on the "Holocaust" when he visited Israel on his holy pilgrimage, but he correctly refused to acknowledge that the teachings of the Catholic Church played a role in creating the conditions which enabled the "Holocaust" to take place. Pope John Paul II is Polish and was in Europe during the pre-World War II peroid, and he knows it was the corruption of the Jews that gave the Nazis the emotional edge that brought them to power. People should be proud of the Pope for not caving in to the Jewish thugs, like everybody else does, including America, and sticking to the truth!
The Jewish attack on Christianity via PBS's Frontline "From Jesus to Christ", CBS's "Jesus", and ABC's 20/20 "Tracing Jesus' Final Hours", etc., are examples of the Jews attempting to use the media as an instrument to impose Judaic social control over America and as a means of getting revenge with those who disagree with their "Holocaust" dogma. This series of anti-Christian TV programs reveals a pattern that can only be characterized as a Jewish conspiracy against the teachings of Jesus and a full assault on Christianity as a religion by Judaism. Television and the visual media in general are powerful because they can create imagery that can enlighten but also mislead. The Jews have seized control over network television and the film industry in America. The Jews are now using their media power to create false images in the minds of American in order to supplant Christian thought with the avarice of Judaism. Jesus associated with the poor, and Jews associate with the rich. Jesus aligned with feeble, and Jews align with the powerful. Jesus attended to the weak, and Jews prey on the weak. The Judaic manipulation of biblical truth must be resisted and the Jewish challenge to Jesus must be answered by all those who believe in Christ!
The subtle and not so subtle media campaign against Christianity and Jesus, as portrayed by Jew Hollywood, Jew network news, and Jew PBS has had a negative influence American beliefs and behaviors. It is an attempt by the Jews to weak the Christian faith in America, in order to make Americans more vulnerable to the evils of Judaism. Make no mistake, the Jew wants to undermine Christianity and Jesus as the legitimate Messiah. The best warning about Jewish media come from Jesus's own teaching: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles?" (Matthew, 7:15-16) The Jews have proven themselves to be Judases, liars and deceivers, and so how can anyone believe what Jews say about Jesus Christ, since the purpose of the Jew is to deny Jesus's very existence as Christ: "Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son." (1John.2:22) And: "For many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh; such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist." (2John.1:7)
Michael Eisner is using the financial resources of The Walt Disney Company to promote his Judas agenda, which is to destroy Christainity by disseminating anti-Christian propaganda via the Disney's entertainment division and ABC's news division. Christians that visit Disney's theme parks, go to Disney movies, buy Disney products, and watch ABC television are contributing to the demise of Christianity. Christians that contribute to PBS or support their programming by viewing it are also contributing to the destruction of Jesus.
Jews are waging nothing short of an anti-Christian war in the media in order to poison people's belief in the Christian religion! Has anyone ever seen a negative portrayal of Judaism on television or film? If you have, you can't count many. If anything the media always presents a glorification of the Jews and Judaism, as witnessed in Michael Eisner's ABC "Anne Frank" and Spielberg's "Schindler's List". After 2000 years, the Jews have not changed—Jews are still spreading lies about Jesus and trying to crucify him in the minds of those who believe, because Jesus and his teachings are still a threat to them! Jews have different values than Christians that are contrary to those of America. Behavior that would be considered immoral to Christians is perfectly acceptable to Jews. The Jews' ultimate goal is to replace the Christian values of America with the self-serving and virtueless goals of Judaism. Heed the message of the Betrayal of Jesus. Don't waste Christian thought on Jews, they cannot reciprocate it. In fact, Jews only use your good nature, your trust, and your faith against you to hurt you and your family. Jews are the earthy embodiment of human evil. If you can trust Satin, then you can trust a Jew!
 From Jesus to Christ; PartI —PBS Frontline
MINISTER: The angel Gabriel was sent from God to the city of Galilee-
NARRATOR: Every Sunday, in every corner of the world, people gather to hear a story.
MINISTER: --and the virgin's name was Mary.
NARRATOR: For almost 2,000 years that story has been told and retold. Along the way, each generation has found in its telling its own meaning and interpretation.
MINISTER: You shall call his name Jesus.
NARRATOR: That story, of a man called Jesus of Nazareth, a man who became Jesus Christ, was originally told by his first followers, and then retold in accounts by later believers in the Gospels.
MINISTER: --the Gospel according to St. Luke.
NARRATOR: So began the building of a religion. Now it is our turn, with the help of scholars and historians, theologians and archeologists, to return to that time and use our best efforts to understand that story of a man born in obscurity in whose name a faith was made.
We know so little about him: that he was born almost 2,000 years ago and that he lived in Palestine. We know he was baptized and became a preacher. And we know that he was publicly executed.
READER: [Matthew 8:27] "What manner of man is this that even the winds and the seas obey him?"
NARRATOR: With so little evidence to go by, archeologists must sift the clues and scholars decode the stories told by the first followers of Jesus.
Prof. MICHAEL WHITE, University of Texas, Austin: The problem for any historian in trying to reconstruct the life of Jesus is simply that we don't
have sources that come from the actual time of Jesus himself.
HOLLAND L. HENDRIX, President, Union Theological Seminary: The historian's task in understanding Jesus and the Jesus movement and early Christianity is a lot like the archaeologist's task in excavating a tell. You peel back layer after layer after layer of interpretation, and what you always find is a plurality of Jesuses. [click here to continue]
From Jesus to Christ; PartII —PBS Frontline
NARRATOR: Jewish resistance was not completely snuffed out after thesack of Jerusalem. Rebel fighters held out for four more years. The Jewishhistorian Josephus, who had taken part in the war, recounted the story.
READER: [Josephus] "There was a fortress of very great strength not far from Jerusalem which had been built by our ancient kings. It is called Masada."
Prof. ERIC M. MEYERS, Duke University: The Rock of Masada, one of the most glorious places in all Israel, became the major refuge point for some of the most extremist elements opposing Rome. The Zealots, and their most ardent supporters, fled right in the middle of the war to Masada.
READER: [Josephus] "Here at been stored a mass of corn amply sufficient to last for years, an abundance of wine and oil. There was also found a mass of arms of every description hoarded up by the king and sufficient for 10,000 men."
NARRATOR: From the heights of Masada the defenders could see the Roman army surrounding them. The outlines of their camps and siege works are still visible from the air.
HOLLAND L. HENDRIX, President, Union Theological Seminary: If you were a Roman soldier approaching Masada, I think your heart would sink because you know that you would have to first to spend a lot of time building a lot of ramps, massive ramps, to move the army up the sides in order to breach the walls. But you would know in the process that you were on a suicide mission
because all the while the fortifiers and guardians of Masada would have been pelting you with any number of lethal objects, at no doubt great losses to the army.
NARRATOR: Josephus described the siege and its aftermath.
READER: [Josephus] "The Romans expected to make an assault upon the fortress, which they did, but they saw nobody but a terrible solitude on every side, as well as a perfect silence."
HOLLAND L. HENDRIX: The irony, of course, is that when the soldiers breached the walls finally it was not they who had been subject to the suicide attack it was those who had been guarding Masada who had committed suicide.
NARRATOR: According to Josephus, the defenders had killed themselves rather than submit to The Romans. But modern archeologists have found little evidence of mass suicide among the ruins. What really happened there remains a mystery. But Josephus's version of the story turned Masada into the powerful symbol of a noble failure.
Prof. MICHAEL WHITE, University of Texas, Austin: The failure of the First Revolt really was a traumatic event for everyone living in the Jewish homeland, Jews and Christians alike. As a result, they had to start rethinking some of their own assumptions.
When Jerusalem was destroyed, a whole new series of questions had to be asked.
"What do we do without the temple? Where is the source of our faith and our authority? What does God want us to do?" [click here to continue]
Apocalypse! —PBS Frontline
NARRATOR: At the end of a brutal century, FRONTLINE presents an important film for the new millennium.
FBI: The time to come out is now!
NARRATOR: From Waco and Littleton to Y2K and global warming, we are bombarded by visions of the Apocalypse.
DAVID KORESH: The Lord will come with fire-
Prof. L. MICHAEL WHITE, Univ. of Texas at Austin: With someone like David Koresh, who sees himself as a new Messiah figure carrying on the tradition- "I am the agent of God's plan to bring the world to an end."
NARRATOR: Tonight on FRONTLINE, a stunning journey back nearly 2,000 years to unravel the origins of the Book of Revelation, and how these ancient ideas have shaped our world.
BROTHER DAVID: We are here to prepare the way for the second coming of Christ.
BROTHER SOLOMON: We are now living in the end time.
NARRATOR: And as the clock ticks towards the year 2000, the power of these ideas has intensified.
Prof. PAUL BOYER, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison: Forty percent of Americans say the world will end at the battle of Armageddon.
Prof. L. MICHAEL WHITE: And they can point to the bomb and the founding of the state of Israel and any number of other things to be signs that the prophecies in Revelation are actually becoming realities in our times.
BROTHER SOLOMON: All books meet and end in Revelation.
NARRATOR: Apocalypse, the end time, Armageddon, the millennium.
This is the story of a book. It is the story of how that book came to be written in its own time, and it is the story of the impact that book has had on almost 2,000 years of history. It is the book which brings the Bible to its close. It is the Book of Revelation.
Prof. L. MICHAEL WHITE, Univ. of Texas at Austin: The Book of Revelation in the New Testament has the literal title in Greek, "The Apocalypse of John." The word "Apocalypse" means "revelation," that which is uncovered.
Prof. PAULA FREDRIKSEN, Boston University: Words mean what people think they mean. For academics, "Apocalypse" means the revelation of hidden things. To the popular ear, to the public ear, "Apocalypse" means the cataclysmic end of things. [click here to continue]
'Jesus': A Life; More Ordinary Mass Appeal Is Lost In Modern Man Approach —USA TODAY
Jesus Christ, Superstudmuffin. If CBS was searching for a different take on a story that's already been told twice this season, it indubitably found one. The Christ in CBS' two-part Jesus is no ethereal Messiah, casting soulful glances à la Jeffrey Hunter in King of Kings. As played by young hunk Jeremy Sisto, this is a healthy, hearty, backslapping Jesus, a ladies' man and a guy's guy.He laughs, he cries (a lot), he engages in horseplay. He works the crowd like a Galilean Oprah, signing off from his sermons with "Tell you more tomorrow." He even appears to have studied game shows, selecting his 12 interchangeable disciples like they were finalists for Who Wants to Be an Apostle. You know what awaits from the moment this teen-idol Jesus is introduced, pounding away as a carpenter at the home of Lazarus and his two sisters. "Mary, stop staring at Jesus like that or he will never finish that door," teases Martha -- a line that instantly ascends to the camp pantheon. In truth, Jesus makes you wonder if the greatest story ever told can be told effectively these days on film at all --at least by actors. The Miracle Maker's use of clay animated puppets initially seemed like one of the world's silliest ideas, but that ABC movie was actually smarter and more moving than anything Jesus can manage. The two films differ not only in method but also in intent. Where The Miracle Maker focused on the teachings and parables of Christ and left his life alone, Jesus does almost the exact opposite. Outside of some generalized statements about love and kindness and a few showy miracles, Jesus avoids theology in favor of biography, most of it invented. [click here to continue]
Jesus Returns; CBS Miniseries Adds Modern Touches To Story —The Houston Chronicle
"The first great television event of the new millennium." That's CBS' description of its four-hour miniseries, the story of Jesus. Actually, TV did that story, just recently, on ABC. That was Jesus in clay animation on The Miracle Worker. The real miracle is, this is the second time in a month for Jesus to grace the cover of this TV magazine. And the CBS Jesus you see there now is, indeed, a stunning achievement -- but in more ways than one. At times, it is as stunning in its interpretation as in the powerful story it tells. Jeremy Sisto's luminous portrayal of Jesus leads a fine international cast, with Jacqueline Bisset as his mother, Mary, and Debra Messing (Will & Grace) as Mary Magdalene. But this lavishly rich Italian-American co-production also adds its own modern touches, enough so that a warning is in order to expect the unexpected. Satan is the shocker. He appears to tempt Jesus wearing a black suit looking like a Mafia refugee from The Sopranos. It's a shock, to say the least, and more intrusive than instructive. Played by Jeroen Krabbe (The Prince of Tides, The Fugitive), Satan shows Jesus a dark future of evil deeds and wars fought in his name. "The world at war, what a concept!" Satan taunts, as the bombs of World Wars I and II burst around them. Satan reappears in the Garden of Gethsemane, entreating Jesus to "call to your Father and ask him to deliver you" from the crucifixion. "You are going to die in vain," he warns, in a scene that's not from the Bible but from the scriptwriter, Suzette Couture. "We took a pretty radical approach by going outside of Jesus' time," executive producer Judd Parkin admits. "But (scholars) were very supportive of the idea." "We portrayed the temptations in contemporary images, but we have been careful to use words that are in the Gospels," says executive producer Lorenzo Minoli, whose extensive TV credits for Biblical dramas include Joseph, Abraham, Moses, Samsonand Delilah, and the recent Solomon. G.W. Bailey plays Livio, "Caesar's historian and spy," another Couture invention. "She decided he'd be a kind of maitre d', leading the viewer into certain sequences," Parkin explains. "While Livio is fictitious, the information he supplies is rooted in historical reality." In Livio's case, at least, the producers do have a point for political backgrounds. But the script's fiction goes too far with making Livio the master planner of Pontius Pilate's plot to get rid of Jesus because he is a political problem. Pilate is powerfully played by Gary Oldham, and this miniseries claims to be "the first movie ever" to portray Pilate as being directly responsible for Jesus' death. "No movie has ever said that, but we are saying it, and it is a very important element," Minoli says. [click here to continue]
'Jesus' Mistreated Scripture, Mary Magdalene —Star Tribune
The lives of the saints belong to the church, not to popular culture. Last week's CBS mini-series "Jesus" ignored the church's understanding of Mary Magdalene by choosing, for its own reasons, to portray her as a prostitute, a myth of medieval origins. In 1969 the Roman Catholic Church, in its reform of the liturgical calendar, changed the readings for July 22, St. Mary Magdalene Day. As a result, she was no longer presented as a composite personality that merged her with the unnamed sinner of Luke 7:36-50 and Mary of Bethany. And, in 1978 the terms "penitent Mary" and "great sinner" were also deleted from the Roman Breviary. In 1988 Pope John Paul II used the Latin term apostola apostolorum (the apostles' apostle) to describe her. The Orthodox Church has never embraced this myth. Rather, she is honored among the Orthodox as the myrrhbearer and as equal of the apostles. Lutherans include Mary Magdalene in a general prayer for the saints as well as in their eucharist prayer for the Easter season where she is named with Peter as a witness to the resurrection. There is no reference among Lutherans to the historic myth that paints her as the great penitent. Protestants tend to be very cautious about adding material to scripture that is not presented in the text itself. [click here to continue]
Tracing Jesus' Final Hours —ABC's 20/20
On the day now commemorated as Good Friday, he entered Jerusalem to preach. It was Passover, and Jesus knew he could find an audience in the crowds. Scholars continue to piece together the events leading to Jesus' crucifixion, commemorated on Good Friday. According to the Gospels, both Roman and Jewish leaders considered him a threat to their authority and control. A short time after arriving in the city, he was arrested and sentenced to death by crucifixion. Nearly two millennia later, scholars are still studying archaeological, medical and historical clues, trying to piece together what happened in the final hours of Jesus' life. After the Last Supper, Jesus went with his disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane, which archaeologists believe was an orchard on the Mount of Olives. There, the Bible says, Jesus broke down in anguish before facing his arrest. Father Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, a renowned biblical archaeologist, says that in the orchard Jesus realized the imminence of his own demise. "Just before Gethsemane he would have been passing these huge tombs, which still exist in the garden," says Murphy-O'Connor. "I think it really hit him, maybe it will be tonight that death stops being something in the future." Biblical accounts report that blood fell from Jesus like drops of sweat. Modern research confirms the plausibility of this phenomenon. Extreme anxiety and fear can cause blood vessels to rupture into the sweat glands. At Gethsemane, Jesus suspected he was in trouble with the local authorities. He could have escaped into the desert, but he did not. "The troops were coming from the city, all he had to do was keep ahead of them. Climb the Mount of Olives, 20 minutes' fast walking along the ridge would have brought him into Bethany, there he could pick up food and water, and off into the desert," says Murphy-O'Connor. But after struggling with his own fear, Jesus made the decision to sacrifice himself. The Bible says Judas, one of Jesus' disciples, led the police to Gethsemane to arrest him. The authorities took Jesus into Jerusalem where he stood trial before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. The official charge was blasphemy. There is a consensus among historians that it was the Romans — not the Jews — who were responsible for Jesus' crucifixion. This new thinking, in part, led to Pope John Paul II's recent apology for the wrongs done to Jews by Christians who had blamed the Jewish people for the death of Jesus. Yale historian Ramsay MacMullen explains that Pilate's interest was keeping the peace, and he regularly executed those who upset civic order. "The governor, who couldn't care less about Orthodox or any other kind of Judaism, was concerned that the urban poor should not become tumultuous and cause him administrative trouble," says MacMullen. [click here to continue]
John Paul II In The Holy Land: Image And Text —The Jerusalem Post
What message was conveyed by the pope's recent visit to Israel to his billion followers all over the globe? What impact will his pilgrimage have on Catholics in the various continents of his far-flung empire? Will the trip change the way priests in Vilnius, Lithuania; Zagreb, Croatia; Mexico City; Buenos Aires; Kigali, Rwanda; Manila; Melbourne; and Madrid, for example, teach and preach about Israel and the Jewish people? Will it change the way these priests relate to the Holocaust and the antisemitic teachings of their church? What impact, if any, will his visit to the Jewish state have on the relations between Jews and Catholics all over the globe during the coming decades? Will the pope's visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority in any way affect the support for either side as we approach final-status talks on the future of Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip? These were among the dominant questions which kept recurring as the pope made his way from Jordan to Bethlehem, from Dehaishe to Jerusalem, and from Galilee back to the Holy City. These questions were, in essence, inevitable because despite the messages of love and reconciliation with the Jewish people which he projected in all his public appearances and pronouncements, the pope's speeches were all carefully crafted using the ever-so-careful language of diplomacy, which ultimately left quite a bit to the imagination. Nowhere was the contrast between image and text more pronounced than in the pope's visit to Yad Vashem, the Jewish people's national memorial for the martyrs of the Holocaust. His personal sense of grief and empathy were clearly reflected as he solemnly called for an end to hatred and a new relationship between Christians and Jews. BUT A careful analysis of the text of his speech reveals several problematic formulations which are cause for serious concern regarding the future of Jewish-Catholic relations. Attributing the Holocaust to "a godless ideology," the pope refused to acknowledge the highly significant role played by the teachings of the Catholic Church in creating the conditions which enabled the Holocaust to take place. The Nazis might have rejected their Christian God, but it was centuries of Church antisemitism which made it possible to single out the Jews as victims and target them for total annihilation. How else can the active participation of so many devout Catholics from all over Europe in the persecution and mass murder of Jews be explained? [click here to continue]
Pope Condemns Holocaust But Cannot Say Sorry —The Independent (London)
The moment that so many Israelis had been waiting for with hope and pain finally came yesterday on a hill outside Jerusalem, in a dark flame-lit hall built on the ashes of victims of the Nazi death camps. For the first time in history, a pope stood in Israel to share the horror and trauma that did so much to contribute to the creation of the Jewish state 52 years ago. There were tears, as dreadful memories flooded back. There was powerful, sincere language. But Pope John Paul II did not, and could not, offer the kind of unambiguous apology that some had demanded during his visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum yesterday. And, inevitably, there were those who felt disappointed and angry. As a young man in wartime Poland, John Paul - then Karol Wojtyla - lost Jewish friends in the Holocaust, and saw first hand a small part of Hitler's evil. So no one challenged the sincerity of his text from which he haltingly read, an old man at the lectern, more stooped than usual, his sad, wizened face illuminated by the orange glow of Yad Vashem's eternal flame. He did not directly condemn the church, or the war-time pontiff, Pius XII, for turning their backs as the Nazi war machine claimed six million lives, because to do so would mean admitting the fallibility of both a pope and the church. Instead - not for the first time - he distanced the Vatican from the blame, pinning it on the "Godless ideology" of the Nazis. [click here to continue]
Arab Uprising Spreads to Israel; Israeli Defends Visit To Contested —The Washington Post
Ariel Sharon, the portly old warrior accused by Palestinians of provoking this weekend's deadly violence in the Holy Land, is characteristically defiant. "This has nothing to do with me," the retired general said in a long telephone interview from his farm in Israel's Negev Desert, where he spent the weekend watching television coverage of Palestinian rioters battling Israeli forces. "It's the result of a pre-planned campaign by Arafat"--a reference to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. But to thousands of Palestinian youths throughout the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem, it was Sharon who drove them into the streets by leading a delegation of hard-line Israeli lawmakers on a one-hour tour of Jerusalem's Temple Mount, Judaism's most sacred place. The elevated platform, known to Arabs as Haram ash-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, is also revered by Muslims as the third-holiest site in Islam. For Jews, the Mount is the site of the Biblical First and Second Temples and the touchstone of their faith. But in practice, few Israeli Jews ever set foot on the sprawling 36-acre plot, which today is dominated by two great ancient mosques, al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock. For Palestinians, there could be no greater desecration of the sanctuary than to see it entered and inspected by Sharon, 72, the leader of Israel's opposition Likud Party, accompanied by about 1,000 edgy Israeli riot police. Younger Palestinians remember Sharon's role as defense minister in Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon and hold him responsible for the massacre of hundreds of unarmed Palestinians at the hands of Israeli-backed Christian Lebanese militiamen. An Israeli government commission found that he bore "indirect responsibility" for the massacre, which took place in refugee
camps under Israeli army control in Beirut. Older Palestinians recall that in 1953, an Israeli commando squad led by Sharon blew up 45 houses in Qibya, an Arab village then in Jordanian hands, killing dozens of people cowering in their cellars and attics, many of them women and children. For nearly 50 years, Palestinians have regarded Sharon as a murderer, a criminal and worse. "He's a butcher going all the way back to Qibya," said Yezid Sayigh, a Palestinian historian at England's Cambridge University. "He's one person I'd never shake hands with." [click here to continue]
Israel Goes For Sharon In Landslide; Win Over Barak Lifts Hard-Liner With Long And Checkered Past —The Arizona Republic
Ariel Sharon rode a wave of national anxiety to an overwhelming electoral victory Tuesday as Israel's prime minister. He defeated Prime Minister Ehud Barak, 62 to 38 percent, with 90 percent of the polling stations counted. The margin was unprecedented in Israeli electoral history, as was the record low voter turnout because of widespread disaffection with the candidates and the political system. In Tel Aviv, Sharon gave a highly conciliatory victory speech about healing Israel's rifts and proposed a national unity government. Barak conceded the election shortly before midnight Tuesday, looking tired but still campaigning, this time for his own place in history. He surprised both Sharon and his own advisers by announcing that he would step down as Labor Party leader and resign his seat in the Knesset, or parliament. Presumed to be unelectable because of his age, his views and his checkered past, the 72-year-old Sharon refused to quit the public stage. Tuesday, it was such bulldog determination that attracted voters, who said they were drawn to Sharon's iron fist. His victory crowns a stunning climb back from his disgrace a generation ago, when an official government commission judged him indirectly responsible for the 1982 massacre of hundreds of Palestinian refugees by Israeli-backed Lebanese militiamen in Beirut, and unfit to continue as defense minister. It also sends a chill through the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the broader Arab world, where Sharon is widely viewed as a war criminal. Tuesday in the West Bank, thousands of Palestinians protested Israel's 34-year-old occupation in what they called a welcoming message to the new Israeli prime minister. About 65 Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli troops. [click here to continue]
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