Gacked from darthhowie

[deckardcanine]

Not that I know many of you well, but after Howie obliged me, I decided to be courteous by posting this.

1) Reply with your name and I'll respond with something random about you.
2) I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3) I'll pick a flavor/color of jello to wrestle with you in. (Maybe.)
4) I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
5) I'll tell you my first memory of you.
6) I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7) I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
8) If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. You MUST. It is written.

Comments

Re: I Would Do This For You...

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not strict. Ignore #8. (I happen to be mostly straight myself.)

1. You must have needed glasses, contacts, or Lasik at some time. You're just that type.
2. The Passion of the Christ. I don't know how you feel about it, but your backdrop made the association hard to resist.
3. I was going to say grape, but the purple suggests too much. Maybe orange.
4. Sorry that 2 PM Sunday wasn't open.
5. You were posting in zaimoni's LJ with a bearded painting avatar and somehow indicated your faith.
6. The red fox, just because of your mood icons.
7. Of the countries you've visited or resided in, which do you like best?

Re: I Would Do This For You...

[publius-aelius.livejournal.com]

1. Yes, glasses.
2. I LOATHE that film: it's sado-masochistic and anti-Semitic. In ignoring the Church's published Vatican II standards for passion plays, it's also anti-Catholic, even if the hoi polloi don't think so.
3. Well, ok, I guess...
4. Me, too. You seem like a nice person.
5. I have 50 icons--don't know which one you mean.
6. Good--I used to have carrot-coloured, fox-like hair when I was a kid.
7. Despite the fact I'm a francophile, and despite the fact that I have such a soft place in my heart for Sri Lankans and Indians (who took such good care of me in their pestilent, faction-ridden societies) and despite the fact that I have an atavistic loathing for the theology and even the religious culture of almost all Protestant sects, it's England. Why? Because somehow, for some wonderful reason I don't quit fathom, the Brits LIKE ME, and don't consider me to be so much a weird, eldritch figure as Americans do. I strongly dislike my native land, although I think I'd have made an OK 19th century American.

Re: I Would Do This For You...

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

2. Well, I liked it at the time and accepted apologists' claim that it actually wasn't anti-Semitic (all the good guys were Jewish and the Roman soldiers were the worst). But I didn't know it went against Vatican II standards, tho I came to learn that Gibson is in fact part of a breakaway sect from Roman Catholicism.

5. Obviously, I couldn't tell who was depicted, but I recall a lean face angled to my left against a dark background, with the hair either short or under a cap - maybe a yarmulke.

7. I've wanted to visit Sri Lanka ever since I saw a video clip of it in 1999 and heard that Arthur C. Clarke moved there after "30 British winters" (plus the fact that it gets so little attention from the U.S.), tho the tsunami made me acknowledge that I should do more research first. Having visited England, the main thing I like about it is the sense of humor. My personal fave that I've visited? Costa Rica.

Re: I Would Do This For You...

[publius-aelius.livejournal.com]

About Passion Plays: Historically, they provided impetus for pogroms against Jews. Hitler attended the one at Oberammergau, and said it accurately depicted the vileness and perfidiousness of the Jews. The Church, acknowledging that these semi-religious events had provided pretexts for anti-Semitic violence, made up "rules" for Catholic Passion Plays after Vatican II. She said that Christ's followers had to be represented as Jews: wearing yarmulkas and phylacteries, and possessing menorahs; that the Jesus party should make no references to "Christianity"; that no "high priests" should mock Jesus at the foot of his cross anymore. Also the line from the Johannine Passion narrative, about "His blood" being "upon us," and "upon our children's children" was struck from the liturgy of the Easter mass by John XXIII, through sheer papal prerogative, during his first Easter as pope. John said, "Let that verse be struck FOREVER from the liturgy." As you must know, Mel violated EVERY SINGLE ONE of these norms--and, like numerous other Catholics, I think this was quite deliberate, signifying his and his father's refusal to accept the changes of Vatican II.

About Costa Rica: it is the favourite foreign country of the person I love most in the world, John Kuchta (clemenceau). He went there on an eco-tour with his uncle and aunt, and got to practise his Spanish.

Re: I Would Do This For You...

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

Hm, I hadn't considered the fact that the faithful disciples didn't have their heads covered. I don't remember any explicit reference to "Christianity," which would have been anachronistic, or the high priests being present to mock at the crucifixion. It was pointed out to me that the "His blood" line was among the few parts left out of the subtitles. I'm a little surprised about the line being struck from the liturgy, as that seems almost like striking it from the Bible itself. (There are non-anti-Jewish ways to interpret the line, but I fully understand the difficulty in conveying any of them to those predisposed to hate Jews.)

Re: I Would Do This For You...

[publius-aelius.livejournal.com]

The Pope didn't strike it from the Bible, but from the liturgy; and it may have been only from the papal mass. It is now widely agreed among Biblical scholars that the Johannine Passion narrative is historically improbable and that it was larded with anti-Semitic passages, in order to curry favour with the Roman authorities, who had just bloodily suppressed the First Jewish Revolt (of 67-69 A.D.)
Also, don't you remember the high priest sitting on his donkey jeering, and finally riding away when the storm broke?
The line about the "blood guilt" wasn't captioned, for English and other European viewers, but it was left in in the film in Aramaic, a language very close to Arabic, and it was therefore understood in Arab countries, where, by all accounts I've read, it was loudly acclaimed.

Re: I Would Do This For You...

[deckardcanine.livejournal.com]

Fair enough, but I think there was another reason for John emphasizing the role of "the Jews." It had been pointed out that every prophet was rejected in his own land, so this would be the grand fulfillment.