c. 2005 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Easter is that time of year that conjures up images of bunny rabbits, Easter bonnets, jelly beans _ and Mel Gibson?

The actor/director who unveiled his blood-soaked vision of Jesus’ last hours in “The Passion of the Christ” last year is back with a “softer” version that hits at least 500 theaters nationwide on Friday (March 11).

“The Passion Recut” is something of a Second Coming for Gibson, a devout Roman Catholic whose film was snubbed by Hollywood despite heartland appeal and a global box office gross of $611 million. Gibson promises to release his film each year at Easter _ a prospect that, for better or worse, could make the film a permanent part of the American Easter experience.

Gibson said he cut six minutes of “some of the more horrific aspects” from the film, in part to broaden its appeal for younger viewers. The original was rated “R”; the recut also would have been rated “R” but is being released without a rating.

Some fans say the film reinforces what they see as the central message of Easter and at the heart of Christian faith: the immense suffering that Jesus endured to save sinners.

“Prior to the movie, the depiction of Christ’s crucifixion was stained glass windows,” said the Rev. Jim Buckman, whose Springfield, Mo., church will screen the film again the night before Easter. “It was almost surreal, it wasn’t really reality.

“Gibson set out to show everything. He wanted to show every blow, every strike. He didn’t make it nearly what it could have been.”

Churches have found many ways to incorporate the film into Easter observances _ from group outings to weekly viewings alongside the Stations of the Cross every Friday during Lent. Down the road from Buckman’s church, all 37 adult Sunday school classes at James River Assembly of God in Ozark, Mo., are spending the four weeks before Easter studying the film.

Buckman was so taken with the movie that he now projects a half-dozen still images from the film during weekly Communion at River of Life Lutheran Church. He says it’s like a 21st century icon, a visceral way for worshippers to meditate on Jesus’ words, “This is my body, which is given for you … ”

His flock’s reaction to seeing snippets of Gibson’s film each week? “They loved it,” he said.

In many ways, the film has become a sort of theological Rorschach in which viewers gauge their own beliefs and comfort zones when confronted with Jesus’ bloody human death.

Christian fans of the film say it is impossible to get to Easter Sunday without first enduring Good Friday, the crucifixion day portrayed by Gibson. The Rev. John Bartunek, a Catholic priest who was a consultant on the film, credited Gibson for putting “flesh and bones” back on Jesus.

“The meaning of Easter isn’t bunnies and jelly beans,” said Bartunek, author of the new book “Inside the Passion.” “If (the film) becomes a fixture, great, I say. Great. It reminds us of what Easter is all about.”

While the edited version spares viewers some of the most graphic violence in the original film, critics say it still contains troubling overtones that seem to blame some of Jesus’ fellow Jews for his death.

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, remains a vocal opponent of Gibson’s film. He criticized Gibson for responding to the concerns about violence but not how the film portrays the Jews.

“To have available, year in and year out, this perverse, hateful, inaccurate version of the Passion which is totally out of sync with Christian thought and today’s theology is troubling,” Foxman said.

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Jews aren’t the only ones who are concerned. Peter Pettit, director of the Institute for Jewish-Christian Understanding at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa., called Gibson “shameless” for exploiting Christian piety in his film.

“I would never want the images of this film to become the standard by which this story is known, recognized or remembered,” said Pettit, a Lutheran.

Some, like Pettit, wonder if “The Passion” will become such an Easter staple that it will become what “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” is to Christmas or “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” is to Halloween.

Not so fast, says one pop culture expert. Robert Thompson of Syracuse University predicted limited appeal for the film as long as families have to “go out, pay the money and get the babysitter” to see it at the local multiplex.

“The things that do the best are the things that can have the whole family participate,” he said. “There are a lot of parents who don’t want to pack up the family and bring them to this thing.”

Even some fans are hesitant. Brad Wicks, the education minister at James River Assembly of God who revamped Sunday school classes around “The Passion,” said the film is sobering.

“It’s not something you’re going to watch all year-round, like `Let’s pop some popcorn and put `The Passion’ in,”’ Wicks said. “It’s not fun to watch, it’s not people’s favorite thing to watch, but it’s something they need to see.”

MO/RB END ECKSTROM