Morning, Threaders, Threadheads, and all in between.
Need more coffee. Black.
Mary.
D.J. Caruso decided to make yet another movie about the birth of Christianity but this time from the perspective of Mary. Seems pretty standard as a project and controversy around such films concerning religion is to be expected. But in this case some people are big, big mad about it.
Caruso’s idea was to assign the roles to Israeli actors, in search of authenticity; something we can all agree on when one tries to be historically correct and not go the poetic license way of assigning Chris Jackson to play George Washington (which is fine, btw). Giving the roles to Jewish actors and actresses like Noah Cohen, who plays Mary, should be no problem considering the man Mary gave birth to is said to have been crucified with a sign reading INRI over his head.
I don’t expect most people to know Latin or that INRI stands for “Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum”: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, but it’s a well established fact that, in this biblical tale, the same Romans who decided to name the region Palestine (135 years after his birth, btw) coined the title “King of the Jews” for him. Kind of ironic but historically correct since there was no region by that name when the events depicted in this movie took place as the Bible “tells us so”.
But who cares about History, right? So a lot of propal simps took to Twitter and “denounced this outrageous thing” that is portraying an “Arab Palestinian woman like Mary” as a Jew by a Jew. You really can’t make shit like this up anymore. It’s a bummer they can’t say Mary was a Muslim, since there would be no Muslims in sight for 610 years after the birth of Christ, but there sure were Arabs so they went with that. This is the point where stupid breaks away from ignorant.
I don’t remember people like these protesting Mel Gibson for the sadistic flogging of a “Palestinian” in his “The Passion of the Christ” blood fest. Many of them weren’t even born when this antisemitic trash was on the big screen or they would have probably jumped on the “Jews killed Jesus” bandwagon just for fun. I remember when movies about Christ were frowned upon for other reasons.
I watched the premiere of “Jesus Christ Superstar” and fell in love with the aesthetics and the masterpiece that is Andrew Lloyd Webber’s score. It was my first vinyl double album! Back then it was all about Mary Magdalene and her “romance” with Jesus. Pretty neat. It was 1973 and the world was a different place. These days it’s like this: “A disgusting Jew got the part. lol”, wrote a Twitter user appropriately named “America First Zoe”. Oh and yes, “they” are allies.
If there is one thing you can count on is the Christian Nationalists and the Islamic Fascists hate of the Jews. Of course they disagree on who Jesus was, we know that now. For the former he is a blonde, blue eyed Aryan while for the latter he’s a hard core anti-Zionist Palestinian. Details. Never let those get in the way of a good time. This sickening vibe is the latest installment in the tragic rise of antisemitism all over the world. Many Arab media outlets ran this story too.
I know we have a lot on our plates right now and our minds are about to explode from all the real possibility of losing our country to fascism but this is no time to ignore antisemitism. Quite the opposite. Just yesterday, in Columbus, Ohio, the state I live in, Nazis marched on the streets again in what has become a regular occurrence. I bet the right wing Jews who are enthusiastic about every TFG appointment are thrilled about that. Get ready for more.
Appearances are deceiving. We will continue to witness the rise of antisemitic trends while some hope the propal simps will be crushed under the expected iron fist of the deceased Republic turned fascist. They failed to see it will crush them too, just as the naïve Muslims who placed all their chips on it are finding out. We all see what’s going on but many of us still refuse to believe it.
The antisemitic hate from both Christian Nationalists and Islamic Fascists towards a movie casting Jews to play Jewish people is a symptom of what both do: suppress any narrative that goes against their grain. In the end they are one and the same and we must fight both by standing against antisemitism always. In the world of pain that awaits us no pain is to be ignored, especially the pain of those who will pay the price of our dying freedom first.
If not out of humanity then out of self preservation, because they will come after you next; but I wish it’s humanity that drives us in not forgetting the Jewish people among us. It’s not only necessary for our own survival. It is the right thing to do. So don’t expect me to shut up about it in our present situation. We leave no one behind and we must not accept this as well. We must fight it with every fiber of our beings if we are to remain human through these trying times.
Resist.
