Actor and filmmaker Mel Gibson may never work in Hollywood again. After lashing out at a police officer with some hateful anti-Jewish comments, a boycott has been called on all things Mel. One site even explains how to most effectively ban Mel.
Now, I have to admit that I heard this story through the rather large grapevine and didn't research what he actually said until today. But as the coverage of this story magnified, and as the Mel Ban intensified, something didn't sit right with me.
It is quite ironic that Mel Gibson would be banned from Hollywood for sinning. Hollywood loves to sin, and to do it on a grand scale. If you've seen any trailer for the move "You, Me, and Dupree" you know this. Or, if you've seen any other PG-13 movie released in the past decade. Yet Owen Wilson and company are not banned from Hollywood -- their widely distributed sins are considered playful, funny, and harmless.
So I thought to myself, this is the problem with "political correctness." Much like a secular religion, and a fundamentalist one at that, political correctness allows people to feel smug as they judge others for those sins that are not socially acceptable...while engaging in countless others that are. How different is this from the fundamentalist preacher who wails against homosexuality but not divorce, who condemns Democrat sins but not Republican ones, who says "no rock music" but doesn't mind Frank Sinatra's "I Did it My Way," who condemns smoking but engages in gluttony?
The public stoning of Mel Gibson may be justified, for he has sinned. Sins against God deserve death, the Bible says. But the question is, why are so many eager to cast the first stone?
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You have to admit the criticism of Mel Gibson is not that he sinned by getting drunk and acting inappropriately, but that he has (just as Joseph Adrian now has) blamed his personal sins and other problems on the Jews.
The Hollywood -- and national -- reaction to Mel's behavior is not based on a vast Jewish conspiracy. Rather, I believe it is based on the fact that he has cast himself as a modern prophet (albiet, a prophet whose vision is tainted by consumerism).
No, he's not being targeted for being a Christian. Nor is it because a self-professed Christian should be without sin. The real question is, will he practice what his savior preached? Will he acknowledge his sin, repent and seek forgiveness for it? Or will he continue to blame a whole class of people who have different beliefs than him?
Luke tells us that Jesus' last words to the disciples -- you remember the ones that he spoke that "opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures" -- include the following teaching?
(Luke 46-47) "He told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."
Isn't this the ultimate lesson we were supposed to learn from the Passion?
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