The Anti-Defamation League will zero in on Mel Gibson's upcoming film "The Passion of Christ" at its 90th annual luncheon in Manhattan on Thursday - and Catholic League President William Donohue says he knows what's coming.
"The ADL session on Mel Gibson will reveal no surprises," said Donohue on Tuesday. "All three of the participants have already demonized the man and none has seen the movie."
The CL chief complains that event speakers, Boston University theology professor Paula Fredriksen, Sister Mary C. Boys, professor of Judeo-Christian Studies, Union Theological Seminary; and Abraham H. Foxman, the ADL’s national director, have long been hostile towards Gibson's movie about Christ's crucifixion.
"When violence breaks out, Mel Gibson will have a much higher authority than professors and bishops to answer to," Professor Fredriksen has already warned.
Sister Boys has predicted that Gibson's flick "could be one of the great crises in Christian-Jewish relations."
And Mr. Foxman has accused Gibson of being anti-Semitic, only to have to withdraw the charge after reporters challenged him to produce evidence.
Donohue cites instead Rabbi Daniel Lapin, whose organization Toward Tradition has as its primary goal generating good relations between Christians and Jews.
Lapin has described protests against 'Passion" sight unseen as "morally indefensible."
Says Donohue: "There is not one scene in the movie that blames all Jews for the death of Christ—either then or now. And if it did, the Catholic League would condemn it."
Adds the CL chief, "Notwithstanding our sharp disagreement with the organization on this issue, we commend the ADL for its brilliant track record in combating anti-Semitism and other expressions of bigotry.”
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