Mel Gibson’s Fundamentalism
July 14, 2010Henry Baum No Comments »I wrote a book, North of Sunset, about a movie star who’s driven insane by celebrity – starts believing he’s above the moral code of regular people. I wrote another book, The American Book of the Dead, about a fundamentalist Christian president who starts believing he’s the Messiah. These two plots are related. It would be tempting to think that Mel Gibson is the real-life embodiment of both these things – an insane fundamentalist celebrity. That’s true, but it’s also true that he’s a mean drunk.
But not completely. Here’s some info about Mel Gibson’s church:
Gibson’s secretive sect is not recognised by the Catholic Church because it does not acknowledge the authority of the Pope or the Vatican and rejects the universally accepted teachings of the Second Vatican Council….
Gibson’s church, which offers a daily morning Mass in Latin, follows an antiquated ideology of Catholicism dating back to the 16th century.
Female followers must abide by a strict dress code requiring them to wear veils over their hair and long skirts. Pants are banned.
The last one is the most telling, of course, because he’s a misogynist prick. Not just misogynist, but murderous. Listening to Mel Gibson’s rants is like being inside OJ’s mind before the murders. It’s not just normal drunken anger, it sounds demonic, which is particularly telling given that his story about Jesus didn’t focus on peace, but violence. Say what you will about the ADL, but there’s truth to this:
“If it’s true what’s reported, frequently hatred, bigotry and prejudice, which is controlled, explodes at moments of stress and crisis,” said Rabbi Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. “Liquor loosens the tongue of what’s in the mind and in the heart, and in his mind and in his heart is his conspiracy theory about Jews and hatred of Jews.”
Given the torture porn of “The Passion,” a lot of people saw this coming. It is a plainly insane movie. What is just as insane is that people were moved by the endless flagellation of a spiritual figure. Mel Gibson is evidently an abusive person, and he was willing to abuse – not just his mistress – but his savior. This is demented.
But what’s also demented is the number of apologists you’ll see online. If you go to Radar Online, you’ll see many, many comments defending Mel Gibson and claiming Oksana Grigorieva drove him to it, she’s a gold digger, etc. To them, quotes like this are reasonable.
(Click for all)
So celebrity doesn’t just drive certain movie stars crazy – it drives followers crazy as well, much like religion. Mel Gibson’s actions are totally indefensible, as are the Pope’s on sex abuse, or Pat Robertson’s on virtually everything. Perhaps the truth will always come to the surface – it just takes years. Which means Palin may one day have a hard Shakespearean fall, and everything that’s so obvious to many people will become obvious to her adherents. Except religious leaders say stupid things constantly and people look for ways to justify it. Such is blind devotion – and why I think Hollywood is just as anesthetizing as religion.
Mel Gibson is an incredible blend of both movie star and religious figure, which is why his fall is so important. Anything that exposes the hypocrisy of fundamentalists is good by me. Apologists of Mel Gibson’s actions today aren’t that much different than apologists for the “Passion of the Christ” – they both excuse violence. I’ll grant the difference: “The Passion” inspired increased piety. Mel Gibson’s murderous rants accomplish nothing. But mixing violence and religion is as dangerous for Christianity as it is for radical Islam – and Mel Gibson’s rants today are just proof what kind of dangerous mind that movie came from. There are millions of fans of “The Passion” that are likely disgusted by Mel Gibson and feel betrayed, but they shouldn’t. They should feel betrayed by “The Passion.”
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