ideafactory

There's a great article in the Dallas Morning News on 8-12-06 about the Mel Gibson/anti-Semitism controversy - from an angle I wish everyone could see.

I quote from an aricle titled "Mel isn't the only Sinner" by Rod Dreher:

"When news of his anti-Semitic diatribe broke, I hurried to my Beliefnet.com blog to join in the piling on. Later in the day, my oldest friend,J., emailed me to say he questioned my judgment in light of the upbringing we'd both had......Yes, Mel was wrong, said my friend, but consider that he was raised by a Holocaust-denying kook of a father. .....he might sincerely have been unaware of his anti-Semitism, and this ugly situation might yet be redeemed if he is not only made to see his capacity for evil ....but also allowed to believe in his own capacity for goodness."

"This episode could be moment of conversion, too, for all of us high-minded commentators who take comfort in not being like that booze-addled anti-Semite.....Who among us can say for sure what bigotry and crookedness lie hidden away in our own hearts, concealed from ourselves by our wealth, position or pride, awaiting a moment of weakness or stupidity to manifest? Who among us, having been laid low by our own vanity and meanness, wouldn't beg for mercy, for redemption, for the opportunity to show the world that there is more to us than our sins and failings?......Mel Gibson's public disgrace is an occasion for reflection on our own humanity. It's a moment to ponder the prescriptive wisdom in W. H. Auden's line:'You shall love your crooked neighbor with your crooked heart.'"