I don’t have much time so this will probably be my only post.  My reaction is late anyhow.

About Mel Gibson:

Just for the record. To see any event as a reason to divide different groups into categories of either deserving or undeserving, one must believe such categorizations are possible to begin with. Who-ever leaves from the assumption that such black-and-white distinctions are impossible, can’t interpret them as the cause of any event.
So what is a bigot? A bigot is a person who holds a view of life that tells him that he is better than the ones he opposes, his conviction that he is different, ‘above’ (that German word ‘über’), that he couldn’t be or do the same, is even the excuse he uses to look down on and reject them. Mel Gibson, who supposedly thinks he is better than Jews, on the other hand uses his OWN hand in The Passion to drive the nail through Jesus’ hand in that gruesome, much talked about scene: An indication that his beliefs are the exact opposite of those of a bigot. He doesn’t view himself as ‘better’ and ‘above’ at all. This point of view in fact fits within a commonly held belief in America that we are all essentially equals, that we are ALL capable of both the best and the worst - under the right or wrong conditions that is. It is a suggestion that offends some, that shouldn’t be used however to suggest that MG is a bigot while a bigot does the exact opposite of claiming to be (capable of) the same.
The vision that Mel Gibson is singling out Jews doesn’t fit within his overall choices as a producer and director anyway. Facts are the fabric reality is made of, they should not be skipped as irrelevant somehow: Mel Gibson ALWAYS portrays abusers as fiendish somehow, he portrays blue-eyed gentiles that way. He also focuses on ALL sorts of abuse and wrong doings, in ALL sorts of stories. He was even going to finance and produce a mini-series about a Jewish woman who survives the holocaust (an anti-Semite is as likely to make a choice for that as the democrats are to pay for and support the campaign of the republicans). MG is in other words not at all pointing to Jews as the common enemy, he is pointing to hatred itself as our shared enemy - as the enemy of all people alike. In the biblical accounts of The Passion, as well as in the film, Jesus indeed does not retaliate, He instead forgives. Mel Gibson has stated over and over again that this, to him at least, is the crux of the story. It would be a useless philosophy to him if He didn’t. He even calls Jesus the ultimate hero for rejecting hatred and choosing the other way instead, he calls him our ultimate example in that regard. He also stresses the fact that we are all the same, by specifically introducing a flashback in the film in which Jesus says to a crowd ready to stone a woman: “He who is without sin throw the first stone”. In other words, ‘don’t put yourself above others’.
Some people say that Mel Gibson could have chosen other biblical accounts to stress the above, this is not true however - the other stories would lack conviction in the sense that it is no accomplishment at all to be kindhearted and gentile, to forgive, for anyone who hasn’t or has hardly been wronged, it is only a measure of inner strength, wisdom and success for anyone who has been.