Why the World Wasn't Ready for 'The Passion of the Christ'

Two years ago, the film industry froze for months and focused on the most chilling and controversial piece of cinema ever to be produced in Hollywood. It conjured the evil, dirty, and unseen parts of the Bible that have always been sugar-coated since the first scriptures of the Old Testament. The Passion of the Christ crossed the line of ecclesiastical criticism and showed the naked truth to millions of virgin, Christian eyes.

The plot was basically "the part in the Bible where Jesus gets betrayed, tortured, and crucified? That's it. That's all of it." We live in a country where one of the rights we live up to the most is freedom of speech, but there are cases where one has to think that even though we are lawfully allowed to say what we want, we have to think about the consequences and from that make our decision to talk or not to talk. The film negatively impacted viewers, dismantling the beliefs and ideas they previously had, similar to the effect the DaVinci Code had. The whipping of Jesus Christ, the pure vileness surrounding the carrying of the crucifix, and a blood-curling ending is not something the world was ready for.

Shallow, innocent minds must be kept from any possible corruption, as it may stir up new ideas within them, often to plot against an idea. Religion today is becoming a less and less core and essential part of our lives. Films such as the Passion of the Christ act as a catalyst and advanced the process of religious obsoleteness in our wholly temporal world. We need some sort of guide in our lives, such as a path somewhat guided by a belief in God.

Besides the immense cloud of religious controversy the Passion of the Christ caused, it also caused cinematic controversy on whether was it deeply moving and enlightening or was it down right perverse and disturbing. As a film, such vivid images cannot be rated or categorized, and if it were, it would be beyond the R-rating. It is not a movie most individuals would want to see more than once in their lifetime due to its increasingly impressive footage concocted on a level too gruesome to comprehend. Jesus Christ suffering had always been depicted as light, but many times the truth is too hard to handle. Our lives are complicated and rough as it is already, throwing in an element of uncertainty of our biblical past as humans makes it that much more difficult.

The graphic last twelve hours of Jesus Christ's life is something risqué to portray on the big screen. The pain endured by the character playing Jesus of Nazareth is Jim Caveziel is unimaginable and unearthly. Even though it is concrete fact, such scenes should only be conjured through the readings of the Bible, just like all the other stories within it such as Adam & Eve and Cane & Abel. The level of gore and crimes of hate is intense, with the capability to move anyone. Any piece whether it be lyrics in music, art, a film, or speech that has the potency to make one doubt something they have followed their whole lives should be exclusive to certain sectors of the population. Religion should be left unadulterated out of respect, though our secular world might continue to morph.