Mel Gibson's father is a Holocaust denier?

Cafe Society
1

Watching one of the morning shows today with an interview with some obscure people mouthing off about Mel’s Jesus flick, one of them mentions that Mel’s father is a well-known Holocaust denier.
Is this true?

If it is, then how respectful is Mel to his father’s kookiness? Is Mel a denier?
Oh Mel, say is isn’t so!
I am a tremendous fan of Mel Gibson’s work, but that is now being put up on the fence. I haven’t seen his Jesus movie, but IF he IS a denier and is anti-semetic, I’ll have to dismiss him and his father as evil ignorant bigots. If Mel’s not, then I’ll keep seeing his movies and enjoy them, and I’ll probably check out the Jesus flick and enjoy it, too (as an entertaining STORY, not as some literal depiction of a historical figure).

I love the fact that this movie (assuming it is not PURPOSEFULLY anti-semetic) causes so much trouble. After 2000 years, people are still ready to stab eachother over religious views. Lovely. Are we in the Gaza Strip now?

I enjoyed Scorsese’s Last Temptation of Christ because it dealt with the symbols/metaphors of Jesus’s life. Any literal/fundamentalist interpretation of Jesus’s life is bound to fail. Why? Because the friggin’ bible is a book of metaphors! Brilliant, deep, spiritual metaphors! It’s not a history book!!
Jesus H. Christ! (sorry, little rant there)

2

Read 'em & weep: from snopes .

3

Also, check out the lengthy thread on this topic in the BBQ Pit, titled Mel Gibson’s Pa—Nuttier than a Stuckey’s Log.

4

The article in Qburn’s link contains this:

So, you can go ahead and keep on keeping on in your affection for Mel.

5

Thanks Qburn for the snopes dope! They always rock!

Well, I guess until something is heard from Mel’s mouth, I won’t assume he holds the views of his father who appears to be a nutjob (World Trade Center bombing done by “remote control”!!! Uh…yeah.)

I can understand the fundamentalist reasons why Holocaust deniers say their crazy shit (a good read about them is Denying History by Michael Shermer), but if I were Mel I’d feel like speaking out somewhere and saying “Hey, I love my dad, but he’s a loon.”

I do find his retro-Catholic church schtick to be cool. Vatican II made catholicism into catholicism for lazy dummies. The mass in latin though…eh. What’s the point unless you know latin?

And the Mel Gibson production of Bill O’Reilly’s novel? WTF??!!

6

Which made me wonder why the film was sent to the Pope, if Mel really **doesn’t ** believe John Paul II is a legitimate Pope.

7

I heard he threatened someone after they said his father was a Holocaust denier. He said something like, “He didn’t deny it happened, he just said that six million was too high” or something like that.

Hey Mel? I don’t care if your father IS 85 years old, if he’s gonna go around saying shit like that, I’m gonna call him on it.

8

Much of the allegations are based on the fact that Gibson, by his own admission, used the teachings of Anne CatherineEmmerich (1774-1824), a mystic and allegedly stigmatic illiterate German nun*whose writings most definitely contained anti-semitic sentiment and imagery**, as part of his source material for Passion. Exactly which portions he used are unknown as of yet, though two rabbis who literally snuck a peek were certainly critical, citing among other things that

Gibson also admits to removing a scene with the High Priest Caiphas for fear that Caiphas’s non-Scriptural dialogue would result in his harassment by the JDL and other Jewish groups. (I’d love to see the footage.) Then there’s Mad Mel’s response (“I want to kill him. I want his intestines on a stick. I want to kill his dog.”) to (the admittedly often obnoxious) Frank Rich’s attack on Hutton Gibson’s beliefs. (It must be admitted that Rich gave a better riposte than Gibson, offering to trade his intestines on a stick for Gibson’s “brain on a toothpick” and mentioning that he doesn’t have a dog.)

My own main objections the film (which I haven’t seen yet) has been from the historical errors clearly available in the trailer and the portrayal of the historically very (perhaps too) straight*** Herod Antipas as an effeminate and implicitly gay figure as described elsewhere on SDMB.

*Though many sources list her as a saint, has not been canonized, only beatified

**Her writings most definitely contained anti-semitic sentiment and imagery. (Among other things she was passionately opposed to Jewish children who had been baptized into Catholicism [regardless of who baptized them] being reared by Jewish families [this was long before Edgardo Mortara] , mixed marriages between Christians and Jews [even those who converted], etc.).

***Antipas stole his second wife, Herodias, from his half-brother Philip (Herodias was also their niece, though this was neither illegal nor uncommon among wealthy Jewish families of the time), so pissing off his father-in-law from his first marriage (the King of Petra) that he spent the rest of his abbreviated reign at war with him. He was later so consumed by lust for his own stepdaughter/niece/grandniece, Salome, that he offered her half his kingdom for an erotic dance. (Salome received a Baptist on the half-shell for her gyrations, then later married another of Antipas’ brothers and produced children who, due to multigenerational incest, were the granchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, grandnephews, great grandnephews and cousins of the Herodian dynasty’s eponymous founder, Herod the Great.)

9

Link to Eve’s thread about Mel’s dad, which has been raised from its grave and is currently shambling around the Pit, trying to eat the brains of other Pit threads.

Just like Jesus!

10

Sigh. No, Jesus isn’t a zombie, he’s a vampire. God, the historical ignorance of kids today…

11

I thought He was a werewolf?

Hmmm…

12

So Jesus has turned on his own people?

13

How did we get from Mel’s 80 year old dad having controversial opinions to Jesus being a zombie, no vampire, no a werewolf?

This dogpile is way scarier than Mel’s dad.

14

No, Levdrakon, Holacaust deniers are much much scarier than any silly jokers in this thread. Age notwithstanding.

(re Mel’s movie: I find Jesus teachings more interesting than his death. Why fixate on the Passion and Resurrection, unless you’re a fundamentalist wacko?)

15

(re Mel’s movie: I find Jesus teachings more interesting than his death. Why fixate on the Passion and Resurrection, unless you’re a fundamentalist wacko?)

thanks Well He’s Back, that is an excellete point. Muy excellente!

16

I find Jewish teachings more interesting than their historical victimization. Why fixate on the ruminations of an 80 year old man about some events in Germany sixty years ago, unless you’re a fundamentalist wacko?

Excellete point! Muy excellente!

Sheesh.

17

I was just about to reply with a humble “Ahhh, Touche!”
but then I read that last post once again carefully.

Here, I’ll cue some music for you:
“One of these things is not like the others…”