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A Cheap Shot (posted 17 June 2004)
(I owe the links to feministe)
Mel Gibson’s film distribution company is suing a US cinema chain for more than $40m (�21m) in a dispute over revenues for The Passion of the Christ.
Gibson’s Icon Distribution says Regal Entertainment Group - the country’s biggest cinema chain - owes it the amount in unpaid box office receipts.
… only $12.99 from the official merchandising website!
Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ is being called a lot of things — brilliant, anti-Semitic, sacrilegious. And some Christian leaders are now criticizing the production for trying to turn a profit out of the story of Christ’s death. They point to the merchandising— a hardcover book, a soundtrack C.D., lapel pins, witness cards, nail necklaces and inscribed nail pendants.
- Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
- But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
- For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. …
- No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
A cheap shot? Sure, I’ll cop to that. Just let me add that interpretive charity is not always the top item on my list when it comes to creepy Holocaust-denying weasels.
Sorry, Mel.
Clancy replied:
Nail necklaces?! WTF? That’s even worse than the “WWJD?” bracelets.
Rad Geek replied:
Well, the first thing you need to know about modern fundamentalism is that it is not Christian. It is a heretical sect which believes it is called to bring about the Kingdom of God—not in the transcendent future, but here on earth, in terms of worldly achievement—mainly through participating in and spreading the influence of a Christian subculture “scene.” (Merchandizing is part and parcel of that—just visit any “Christian” bookshop.)
The second thing you need to know is that they are completely shameless. (This point is not unrelated to the first.)
This may help explain both WWJD and the nail necklaces. Not to mention innumerable “Jesus is my boyfriend” c-rock tunes.
(Why am I so concerned about heresy? Well, if you read too much Eric Voegelin, even if you’re an atheist, you’ll start seeing Gnostic heresy everywhere you look and decrying the baleful effects of immanentizing the eschaton. I’m living proof. (sigh))