A Tie-In Made in Heaven

Repeated endorsements from the unofficial leaders of the evangelical world -- Billy Graham, Focus on the Family's James Dobson and Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren, for instance -- carry a multiplier effect through the ranks of thousands of pastors. Warren, whose church recently bought 17,000 tickets, has promoted the movie heavily on his www.pastors.com website and will send out a special newsletter to 115,000 pastors next week encouraging them to promote the movie and use it in their teaching.

Catholics, however, have been more tentative in their embrace. The reasons include a general institutional disdain for promoting commercial ventures, an uneasiness over reigniting a centuries-long prejudice against Jews, and Gibson's heretical brand of Catholicism.

A screening last summer was well received by more than 300 Jesuit priests at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, members of an order known for intellect and independent views. But it would be antithetical to Catholic tradition for the Jesuits and other clerics to set up websites or sell tickets to movie theaters they reserved.

Nelvin Vos, executive director of the Society for the Arts, Religion and Contemporary Culture in Maxatawny, Pa., a group of artists and theologians, said many Catholics are wary of definitive interpretations of Scripture. "It's difficult to get it balanced," said Vos, who has yet to see the movie. "Gibson tries to be totally objective. That's part of the movie's strength and part of its problem."

Still, some conservative Catholics have shown enthusiasm for "The Passion." "It will move you the way no [other] movie ever has or will," William A. Donohue, president of the conservative Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, wrote in a review sent to his group's 350,000 members. "To be sure, it is tough to watch at times, but then again there is no way to sugarcoat a scourging and a crucifixion, and Mel Gibson is not a sugarcoating kind of guy."

Few Jewish leaders have been invited to screenings, and that has left many rabbis frustrated and unable to comment on "The Passion." Leaders from two Jewish organizations who recently have seen the film denounced it, saying it had the potential to inspire anti-Semitism. However, the chance of a boycott supported by Jews is unlikely, observers say.