Reply #55: Lots of room for the "sick"

[chookie]

I too grew up Catholic, and know what you mean!

We all heard those gory stories. There's a few different ways to look at them. You can frame it in the context of what we know goes on in totalitarian cultures, and think of the lives of the saints as brave persons of moral courage who were persecuted by brutal authoritarians, or innocents persecuted under a vicious regime. OR, if you have a propensity for it, you can get off on the gory details. I think a lot of people do. Haven't you known people who just drool over the gruesome? Even as a kid I thought it was weird that some people chose to linger on the details of Christ's physical suffering, and perhaps even get stuck there, and think little about his transcendent message and his challenging philophy.

There is no doubt more to Gibson's vision of Christ than pornographic glee in S&M scenarios. Pain and suffering are shown for other reasons -- to show people what judgement awaits them, perhaps, or, beyond eliciting sympathy and compassion for those that suffer, elicit feelings of rage against their tormentors. Gibson knew what he was doing.