PASSION AND GIBSON FAMILY VALUES

I've been staying out of the controversy over Mel Gibson's pet project Passion, the film about the crucifixion of Christ which has been accused of being anti-semitic--I haven't seen it and I don't plan to, so for all I know Mad Max is getting a bum rap. However, I've just learned about where his father is coming from regarding Jews.

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

Days before the release of Mel Gibson's film about the death of Jesus, which some critics say could fuel anti-Semitism, his father has told an interviewer that the Holocaust was mostly "fiction."

Steve Feuerstein -- host of Speak Your Piece! -- said he interviewed Hutton Gibson for a segment of his show to be broadcast Monday by the small Talkline Communications Network.

According to a transcript released by the network, Hutton Gibson said, "It's all -- maybe not all fiction -- but most of it is," when asked about his views on the Holocaust.

He added: "They claimed that there were 6.2 million (Jews) in Poland before the war and after the war there were 200,000, therefore he (Hitler) must have killed 6 million of them. They simply got up and left. They were all over the Bronx and Brooklyn and Sydney and Los Angeles."

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Certainly, my parents and I differ on many key issues, so it might be very unfair to judge Mel by his father's kooky statements. But I'd be a fool to believe that my family's thinking has not influenced my values, morals, and ethics: Mel Gibson was clearly raised in an anti-semitic home. I think that, given the criticisms of his film seen in the context of his father's Holocaust denial, the onus is on Gibson to explain why his film does not portray Jews in a negative way.

And maybe Jesse Jackson just slipped when he called New York "Hymietown."

And maybe David Duke really did stop being a racist when he quit the Klan in order to run for public office.

And I got some really great swampland in Louisiana to sell you for really cheap...

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