Madam, - I rarely disagree with G.F. of your Thinking Anew column, but I baulk at his comments last Saturday on Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ.
I take as my starting point the commandment, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images", etc. (Exodus 20) which is elaborated in Deuteronomy 4: "And the Lord spoke unto you out of the midst of the fire, ye heard the voice but saw no image, only ye heard a voice."
From these and other scriptures there emerges a strong understanding that the Judaeo-Christian God reveals himself primarily by what he says and not by visual imagery. It is not without significance that the disciples on the road to Emmaus after the Resurrection were unable to recognise Jesus. Visual imagery unavoidably carries a message content significantly outside the bounds of the written word. This is the stuff of Hollywood. The duty of the Christian minister is to "rightly divide the word of truth".
Jewish groups are right to be nervous. Medieval passion plays tended to stir up persecution for them and it is not unreasonable to fear that this attempt graphically to portray a tiny extract from a history of salvation which unfolded over several millennia will leave an erroneous imprint on the minds of those viewers who are otherwise ignorant and uncaring about the role and call of the Jewish people. - Yours, etc.,
PAT O'SULLIVAN, Knocknacurra, Bandon, Co Cork.