Another Special Life in Christ

These testimony lives are not stories of "role models". Jesus is the role model!
These are lives wonderfully touched & changed by Jesus!

Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson:

He was born 3 January 1956 in upstate New York (Peeksill) into a devout Irish Catholic family, one of 11 children. His mother, Ann, was Australian; and daddy Hutton Gibson, a railroad brakeman, moved them to Australia in 1968 (partly to keep his sons safe from the draft into the Vietnam War).

Mel married his wife, Robyn, in 1980; and they have 7 children.

A friend of my stepson was at our home for a grandchild's birthday party and told me of having met Mel (as an advisor) during the filming (in South Carolina) of the "Patriot". He described a short, cocky man who chain-smoked cigarettes. Very un-Christian-like, I thought, "Not anybody I want to hear about!" Mel admits to a highly addictive personality which had him in trouble as he arose to the top heights of fame and fortune. Upon his mother's death, he realized how empty, unfulfilled, and boring his life had become...enough material wealth and fame had become never enough. He stood near a high opening and thought about jumping and ending it all. "I don't want to live...I don't want to die...I don't know..."  Instead, he went to his knees, looked up, and asked for help!

The actor's quest for truth began when his mother died in December 1990.

Mel is one of the most admired (and therefore influential) entertainers in America. He is a member of a conservative "Tridentive traditionalist Roman Catholic" church which he built in Malibu, a branch which does not go along with Vatican II and which still does the Mass in Latin. He has produced a movie, "The Passion of the Christ", of the last 12 hours and the crucifixion of Jesus. Acting uses the almost-dead languages of Jesus' day, Aramaic & Latin. The movie clearly & graphically demonstrates the brutalization of Jesus. There are widespread fears that anti-Semitism will thereby be stirred up. Mel simply wants to produce a movie which visually tells the truth...the imagery  transcends the language barrier. He affirms that he is not anti-Semitic and that to be so is un-Christian. "When I hear their fear, my heart goes out." He notes that Jesus was a Jew and so were the disciples who wrote the 4 Gospels [what is the "good news"?] on which his movie is based...all early Christians were Jews until Paul (after the death of Jesus) later took the message to the gentiles.

Mel: "I'm not a preacher, and I'm not a pastor. But I really feel that my career was leading me to this [movie]. The Holy Ghost was working through me on this film, and I was just directing traffic. I hope the film has the power to evangelize... Everyone who worked on this film was changed. There were agnostics and Muslims on the set converting to Christianity."

Mel points out that no one took Jesus' life...Jesus willingly gave it...all of mankind sinned to the point that it was necessary for a sacrifice to atone for those sins before almighty God. The Jews and Romans may have been material agents. But Mel puts himself at the head of the list of those saddled with responsibility or fault for the death of Jesus. As to the movie, Mel notes, "I wanted it to be shocking and extreme...and to push the viewer over the edge...and to help the viewer realize the enormity of the sacrifice." At the end of the TV interview, my Christian missionary friend, Ken Moore, exclaimed, "I think that man is saved...I can't believe it...I think he is saved!"

I note (my close friend first mentioned it to me) that the Jews correctly work hard to memorialize (they must fight against "revisionists" who want to create a historical record that casts great doubt that the Holocaust even occurred) the awful Holocaust in Germany in the 1930s; and, I assume, that they feel that the importance of keeping that memory alive in the world transcends the pain and embarrassment such memories may cause modern Germans. Christians have no less of a motive in proclaiming the fundamental event in the Gospel...that one item in the overall proclamation (Mel's movie) be so shocking is simply an educational element of the whole truth. Was Mel true to the Bible in his movie? Pope John Paul II is quoted, after seeing a private showing, as to the faithfulness of the cinematic production, "It is as it was."

The last minute of the movie contains the rolling away of the stone to the tomb, a view of Jesus' still-collapsing, empty grave shroud, and a glimpse of the arisen Jesus. Diane O'Connell, raised a roman Catholic, notes that Mel, a Catholic focused on the Passion of Christ because that is a focus of the Catholic Church...as is their veneration of Mother Mary. A Catholic crucifix often still has Jesus on it.

The movie opened to huge audiences on Ash Wednesday, 25 February; and Betty and I saw it on the 27th. The movie begins as Jesus is fervently praying in thge Garden of Gethsemane in the night of Passover. There have been a number of discussions of the movie and Mel's motives on the O'Reilly Factor TV show during the summer of 2003 up until now. The movie had to be self financed by Mel (as Robert Duvall had to do...$5million...with his movie, "The Apostle") for over $30 million dollars!. To open/debut about 25 February 2004.

References:

1. Apologetics Resource Center newsletter July-August 2003 page 3.
2. Mel conversation with Kay Arthur Jan. 2004.
3. Diane Sawyer TV interview of Mel Feb. 2004.
4. various O'Reilly Factor interviews, 2003-2004.
5. various websites, newsletters, and newspaper/magazine articles.
6. James C. Dobson, "Family News" newsletter of February 2004, page 2, referenced to an 8 July 2003 piece by David Limbaugh, "Mel Gibson's Passion for 'The Passion'", Creators Syndicate, Inc.

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(posted 1 Sept. 2003; latest update 28 February 2004)

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You have just read a very brief example of the powerful, supernatural transformation of a person's life which is possible through the acceptance of Jesus as your savior. Are you tired of life as it now is for you? He will accept you just as you are right this second! Consider accepting Jesus now [check it out]!