Mel Gibson, anti-Semite

Fair warning – you’re not all going to like this.

I waited a little while to make up my mind about this, but I’m going to have to agree with Barbara Walters when she said, “I don’t think I want to see any more Mel Gibson movies.” I’m saddened and disappointed by his actions and just can’t imagine supporting him in any way after what he’s said. I won’t be watching any more of his movies – either at the theatre or on DVD or even on television.

I’m of the mind that you speak with your actions and with every dollar you spend. I used to be a huge NBA fan, and after the players strike in the summer of 1998 I was so disgusted by both the players and the owners that I decided to stop supporting the NBA. I haven’t spent a single penny on anything related to the NBA in nine years and I probably never will again. No hats, no t-shirts, nothing else – I don’t even watch the games on television anymore. Those of you living in St Louis might wonder where’s the big sacrifice in that – St Louis doesn’t even have an NBA team, nobody in St Louis cares about the NBA. That may be true, but as I was growing up basketball was the center of life. In high school, basketball was the only sport that mattered. And we were good. We went to the State Championship regularly – both boys and girls teams. My family is from Kentucky – and that means I’m a Wildcats basketball fan. So of course, I was also a big NBA fan – specifically a Bulls fan. So it was a sacrifice for me. There have been other things in the past (I won’t go into detail with all of them) that I’ve decided not to support – once I found out where the money really goes to in the end.

So let’s get back to Mel Gibson. I really liked him. What woman of my generation didn’t? The Lethal Weapon movies, Tequila Sunrise, Bird on a Wire, Braveheart, What Women Want. An attractive movie star who has been married to the same woman for over twenty-five years and has seven children with her – no philandering or other scandals; that sounds like a good strong man. A person you can really admire and feel good about going to their movies and enjoying yourself.

Then he released The Passion of the Christ and I didn’t get a chance to see it in the theatre. I certainly heard a lot about it – both pro and con. J and I both wanted to see it, but didn’t want to spend the money to see it in the theatre. I heard a lot of commentary claiming that the movie was anti-Semitic, but nobody that I personally knew (that actually saw it and discussed it with me) thought it was. I heard about his father and his extremist views – the most commonly reported being his assertion that the Holocaust never happened. But we’ve all got family members who believe things we certainly don’t believe – trust me, I can give you a very long list of relatives whose beliefs disgust me. So I didn’t white-wash Gibson with the sins of his father.

However, after hearing of his anti-Semitic tirade while being charged with a DUI last week, I believe it now. Mel Gibson is a bigot. And there’s no excusing it. He was drunk. I get that. Shockingly enough, I’ve been drunk myself. A lot. And I’ve done and said a lot of stupid things while drunk, I’ve made an ass of myself, I’ve fallen and hurt myself, I’ve spent time with people I probably wouldn’t have chosen to spend time with had I been sober. But do you know what I’ve never done while drunk? I’ve never once gone off on a tirade of bigotry. I’ve never said awful things about a portion of the human race based on their heritage, race, skin color, sexual preference or religious beliefs. Why? Because that’s not the way I feel – I’ve never felt that way, I’ve never even considered saying such things because it’s the furthest thing from my mind. Drunk or sober – words such as those that came out of Mel Gibson’s mouth would never come out of the mouth of a person who didn’t actually believe it. I’m sorry, but I do believe that the old adage rings true here, a drunk man’s words are a sober man’s thoughts.

I’ve read his statements to the press, carefully crafted and released by his publicist. I see that he’s extremely remorseful and full of regret – but to me, he regrets that he’s wrecked his career, that he got caught being the hypocrite he has so vehemently denied being for so many years. He regrets saying what he did, when he said and to whom he said it – but I do think he meant it. Here is Gibson’s second statement to the press:

Mel Gibson’s statement, released to the news media early Tuesday, five days after his drunken driving arrest in Malibu:

There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of anti-Semitic remark. I want to apologize specifically to everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words that I said to a law enforcement officer the night I was arrested on a DUI charge.

I am a public person, and when I say something, either articulated and thought out, or blurted out in a moment of insanity, my words carry weight in the public arena. As a result, I must assume personal responsibility for my words and apologize directly to those who have been hurt and offended by those words.

The tenets of what I profess to believe necessitate that I exercise charity and tolerance as a way of life. Every human being is God’s child, and if I wish to honor my God I have to honor his children. But please know from my heart that I am not an anti-Semite. I am not a bigot. Hatred of any kind goes against my faith.

I’m not just asking for forgiveness. I would like to take it one step further, and meet with leaders in the Jewish community, with whom I can have a one on one discussion to discern the appropriate path for healing.

I have begun an ongoing program of recovery and what I am now realizing is that I cannot do it alone. I am in the process of understanding where those vicious words came from during that drunken display, and I am asking the Jewish community, whom I have personally offended, to help me on my journey through recovery. Again, I am reaching out to the Jewish community for its help. I know there will be many in that community who will want nothing to do with me, and that would be understandable. But I pray that that door is not forever closed.

This is not about a film. Nor is it about artistic license. This is about real life and recognizing the consequences hurtful words can have. Its about existing in harmony in a world that seems to have gone mad.

Some of this I believe, and some of it – not so much. The bottom line is that no matter how heart-felt and sincere his apology sounds, there’s no way to know whether or not it’s all true. We cannot read his mind, we can’t look into his heart and know how he truly feels. We can only go by what he tells us. And to me – what he tells us while drunkenly berating a Jewish police officer during a DUI speaks more to his true thoughts and feelings than a statement released through his publicist aimed at damage control.

He says in part, that being a bigot is against his religion. In defending himself against being called anti-Semitic he said “hatred of any kind goes against my faith”. True. But so what? That certainly doesn’t mean you aren’t a bigot. Just because it’s against your religion to do or be something – doesn’t mean you aren’t. I’m also a christian, I believe in God and have a strong personal faith. I believe that to lie is a sin, that to covet what isn’t yours is a sin, that many of the things I do are sins – but does that mean I don’t do them, because I believe those things are wrong??? No – it means I do them, even though I know it’s wrong. That I know I shouldn’t, and struggle not to – but it doesn’t mean I don’t do it.

All of that being said, I’m not saying that I’m absolutely right. I hope that I’m not. I hope he isn’t the person I now think he is. I’ll watch, I’ll listen and maybe I’ll be convinced that I’ve misjudged. Because apparently, unlike Mel Gibson, I have an open mind.