Latest round of Scholarly Smackdown -- Witherington

Thanks to David Mackinder for pointing out to me that the latest addition to the Scholarly Smackdown on The Passion of the Christ between John Dominic Crossan and Ben Witherington III has appeared on beliefnet:

Round 4: Ben Witherington III

. . . . . Bringing in Adolf Hitler, an evil and grossly anti-Semitic person, to the discussion of this movie is way over the top. Mel Gibson is not trying to incite violence against or abuse of Jews with this movie. He is simply trying to show the great cost that Christ paid for the salvation of us all. Gibson shows that it is indeed the sin of us all, even of the disciples, which led to this death. So to accuse Gibson of even depraved indifference, or to draw comparisons with the old anti-Semitic Passion plays, is, frankly, not playing fair at all . . . . .

. . . . . I think that you, too, should be more open-minded about this and stop applying the hermeneutics of extreme fear and suspicion. That only makes your response more visceral, not more scholarly. You are interjecting fear and distortion into the discussion by saying things like "J'accuse." Before you rush to judgment, I suggest that you actually have a conversation with the man himself and see what you think. I try to put the fairest and kindest interpretation I can on another person's work of the heart. I would hope you would do that as well.