Results of surveys reflect generally positive response to 'The Passion'

One viewer wants to see a sequel on the Resurrection.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR RELIGION EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mel Gibson's controversial movie "The Passion of the Christ" is being enthusiastically received by area residents, although some found it too violent and anti-Semitic.
The movie on the last 12 hours of Jesus' life shows the Crucifixion in graphic detail.
The Vindicator Web site asked people to respond to an Internet poll and asked Vindicator News Contacts to comment on the movie via e-mail; others also offered their thoughts.
In the poll, people were asked, "Do you think the movie is well done?"
Almost 97 percent of the votes cast in the nonscientific poll answered affirmatively.
But John N. Billock, a member of Cortland Trinity Baptist Church, volunteered in an e-mail that he liked the movie so much that he hoped Gibson would do a sequel on Christ's Resurrection.
Vindicator News Contact Madonna Chism Pinkard of Cortland wrote that she loved the film.
"Anyone who sees it will feel it and will understand Christ's love for us," she wrote.
News Contact Stephen Kristan, a member of Old North Church in Canfield that had private screenings of the film, wrote, "The movie did a great job of depicting the stories in the Gospel."
The poll asked, "Do you think the movie is too violent?" Most respondents thought it was not, but roughly one-fifth thought it was.
Kristan wrote the movie was gruesome, "but that made it realistic."
A few Jewish leaders on the national scene who saw versions of the movie before its release said it was anti-Semitic. As a result, Gibson pulled a line of dialogue that referred to a curse on the Jewish people.
The poll asked, "Do you think the movie is anti-Semitic?" Ninety percent answered "yes." Other respondents to the Web poll disagreed but made no comments.
Billock wrote that he did not believe the movie is anti-Semitic.
Christians believe "that we are all responsible for [Jesus'] death. We all share in that burden, not just the Jews, not the Romans, or even Judas, for that matter," he wrote.
The Vindicator poll also asked, "How did the movie affect you?" About 85 percent indicated a positive effect.
Despite concerns about violence and anti-Semitism, no votes were cast in the poll for the movie having a negative effect. About 15 percent of the votes were for "no effect."
wilkinson@vindy.com