Will The Real Mel Gibson Please Stand Up?

As Mel Gibson enters detox, Rabbi Boteach weighs in on Gibson's fall off the wagon and his legacy in Hollywood. As did I when I first posted on this story, the Rabbi questions who the real Mel Gibson really is.

The Talmud famously says that a man is known in three ways. What he says when he is drunk, what he says when he is angry, and what he spends his money on. On all three counts, it appears that Mel Gibson has sadly shown his true colors. Upon getting arrested for drunk driving, in his inebriated state, he allegedly said something to the effect that “f—ing Jews are responsible for all the world’s wars.” In his anger, he asked the arresting deputy if he himself was Jewish. And, of course, he spent $25 million dollars of his own money arguing that the Jews killed Jesus. Well, there you have it. Drink, anger, and money all lead Mel Gibson to alleged acts of anti-Semitism.

Those of us who strongly opposed “The Passion of the Christ” as defamatory of Jews should feel no sense of vindication now that Mel has shown what he really thinks of Jews. On the contrary, this story is a tragedy all around. Who would have thought that in Hollywood of all places there could be personalities so filled with Jew-hatred? The tragedy is compounded by the fact that Mel Gibson largely established his career in the role of a white detective who has the warmest possible relationship with his black partner in the “Lethal Weapon” movies. Turns out that all along good ol’ Mel was a bigot.

Not that we should have been all that surprised, given the Holocaust-denying remarks Mel’s father has always made publicly, with Mel saying in his defense, “My father never lied to me.”

Still, there are a number of things to be learned from this sad event. Firstly, all those who defended “The Passion of the Christ” as a benign movie about the death of Jesus ought to do some real soul-searching. This defamatory movie repeated the oldest and most destructive lie ever told, that the Jews killed god. Millions of Jews throughout history have been murdered over this lie. And yet, when a modern movie appeared portraying the Jews as bloodthirsty and desperate to see a dead Jesus, it became one of the biggest box office successes of all time. Worse, so many of our evangelical brothers and sisters promoted the movie as a modern Christian triumph. Churches around the country who normally love and support Israel rushed to show the movie to their flocks, as if doing so were a sacrament. They defended Mel Gibson especially as having made a film that promoted Christianity rather than defamed Jews. I hope that they will now reconsider their attitude toward the film and stop showing it at churches, as it perpetuates the stereotype of Jews as perfidious Judases.

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