Fanning the Passion

January 27--Christian supporters of Mel Gibson's upcoming movie "The Passion of the Christ" are calling the film "the cultural event of our time"--and urging believers to use it as a Christian witnessing tool. The movie, which portrays the last hours of Jesus, premiers Feb. 25 (Ash Wednesday). It has received advance praise for its realistic and moving depiction of Christ's pain, but has also been criticized for the way it portrays the Jewish leadership's role in Jesus' death.

In spite of, or perhaps because of, the controversy, Gibson's savvy outreach to Christian groups has borne fruit. His production company, Icon, has selectively pre-screened the movie to sympathetic audiences and is providing Christian ministries with promotional material to fuel a grassroots movement in support of "The Passion." Through websites, e-mail, tracts, and even lapel pins, Protestant and Catholic outlets are galvanizing church leaders, youth groups, and individuals to promote the film.

"Are you looking for materials your church can use to publicize showings of The Passion?" asks the website passiontoolbox.com, billed as a "database offering multi-lingual, multi-format Christian resources to share your faith in Christ as it relates to the Mel Gibson movie."

calls the movie a "one-of-a-kind opportunity" and offers multimedia products for church youth groups; their DVD set helps youth workers lead "a four-week curriculum leading up to the movie, a guide to the outreach itself, and a two-week post-outreach curriculum."

The movie has an international fan website with information in many languages, including Hebrew, Russian, Polish, Arabic, Vietnamese, Croatian--and Latin. It offers

the Passion, such as distributing flyers in church parking lots, using web banners, signing petitions to theater operators, and e-mailing friends.

The fan site displays

showing areas of greatest interest in the movie marked in red ("light interest" in yellow), based on data supplied by web visitors. As of October 2003, cities in the American Southwest, Florida, and Texas were leading.

Other "Passion" supporters are urging people to sell out the film's debut by buying advance tickets--including extra tickets for the unchurched. "WHO WILL YOU BRING TO THE PASSION?" asks email from the orthodox Catholic website CatholiCity. The email, signed by "A Man Who Loves the Cross," says "I know the Lord is going to send people into your life and my life who will ONLY go to the movie if you and I give them tickets as a gift. ...Our financial sacrifice is nothing compared to His sacrifice. ...We should have extra tickets ready for our relatives, for the folks at work, and for our friends at church. A thousand years might pass before Christians have another chance like this one."

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