The Naked Truth  
By Dr. Hilliard Lackey
 The Passion of The Christ sends powerful message

    Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of The Christ is an emotional
spiritual experience that gives a powerful message that we should love 
one
another even when it hurts.
    Many adults, including me, are going to the movies for the first 
time in
years just to see this visual representation of a well-known Biblical 
story.
Pastors, ministers and other church leaders are buying blocks of 
tickets and
taking entire congregations. Some observers project this will 
eventually
become the most watched screenplay of all times.
     Personally, my movie-going days stopped when my children decided 
that
taking a date was more exciting than taking Dad. Since then, I had been
content watching movies on television, VCR or DVD. That is, until my
curiosity got the best of me and I felt compelled to see The Passion 
of
The Christ. 
     My chosen venue was the Malco Theater in Southhaven, Miss. It was
Thursday, February 26, the second day of that movie's assault on the 
minds
and hearts of the general public.
    There were familiar faces at the entrance as I recognized old 
friends
and acquaintances from the Greater Memphis Area. In the lobby was a
different breed of patrons from what I believed to be the usual. 
Instead of
starry-eyed young couples and giggling bands of teenyboppers, there 
were
mature and very mature ill-at-ease adults. I got the idea that many of 
them
hadn't been to the movies in quite some time.
     The movie started on time, 7:50 p.m., with no long intro, no long
rolling of credits or stars. It went straight to the Garden of 
Gethsemane
where a silhouetted Christ was agonizing over His impending date with
destiny. That's when watching the movie metamorphosed into experiencing 
the
movie. If any doubts remained, they disappeared soon after Satan 
appeared
and Christ stomped a crawling serpent to smithereens accompanied by
spine-tingling sound effects.
     The startled audience gasped, grabbed the edges of their seats or 
clung
to a user-friendly neighbor. This was no longer a movie.  That's all I 
am
going to share. No person should substitute written or spoken accounts 
of
this movie for the spine tingling, mind-boggling, spiritual renewing
experiencing one gets in person.
     Give Mel Gibson credit, his screenplay engulfs, enthralls and
captivates the audience for two hours and six minutes. Churchgoers and 
Bible
readers become eyewitnesses to a well-known storyline. They know the 
story
but seeing is believing. They see the pitfalls of a rush to judgment, 
the
folly of prejudice, the irony of not recognizing truth. They see love 
itself
exemplified, tried and crucified. Awesome.


     The naked truth: Unlike the scores of movies I watched as a 
youngster
at the New Roxy and Savoy theaters in Clarksdale, Miss.,   The 
Passion of
The Christ  is a unique experience.

     It gives viewers a gallery seat to witness how God?s love wrapped 
in
human form can go unrecognized when we refuse to see. By movie's end, I 
was
ready to love one another as I have loved you. This includes any
enemies I may still have who have yet to witness The Passion of The
Christ. 

(Dr. Hilliard Lackey is Senior Education Consultant for Young Sanford
Marketing and Media Services, 3396, Park Avenue, Memphis, TN 38111. 
E-mail
hlackey@bellsouth.net.)

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