My cousin, Morticia, just saw Mel Brook’s Apocalypto.  She thinks I should see it.  I refuse.  First of all, I won't patronize that anti-Semite, and I've heard that it is also anti Native American.

What is your advice? 

Signed, 

Disgruntled

First of all I think you mean Mel Gibson.

Though I have heard Mel Brooks called an anti-Semite, he is a comedian. 

As for Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitism, well, he really did try hard to eliminate anti-Semitism from the Passion of the Christ.  I saw it with an orthodox Rabbi, who thought it was great.  If Mr. Gibson is an anti-Semite, it is amazing to me that he struggles so hard to overcome that particular vice.  He really did work hard to strain out any anti-Semitism from the Passion.  I  remember the endless focus groups and revisions.  I wish all the people who are anti-Polish or anti-Arab or anti-African American or anti-anything would try as hard as Gibson has.

By the way, many if not most Arabs in the U.S. are Christian, and life has been pretty tough for them.  Enough of this chatter, on to the film!

No, Disgruntled, if that is your real name.  I don't think you should see the movie.  It’s not for the faint hearted and, yes, it is quite violent.  It accurately portrays central American social and religious life before the coming of Christ.  Native Americans are portrayed as loving and laughing and vicious and bloodthirsty and shallow and profound.  They are kind to their own and not so nice to their enemies. They loved nature and the environment and exhausted their resources at the same time.  They are not unlike us. 

Above all it portrays the sacrificial system that sustained native American life in central America and Mexico before the coming of Christ.  It is estimated that between forty and sixty thousand (40,000 to 60,000, yes that’s thousand) people were sacrificed annually on native altars to feed the gods, perhaps half of them being children offered to Tlaloc the rain god, their still beating hearts were ripped from their bodies and offered to the gods and their heads and bodies were separately hurled down the temple steps. 

I know it’s not polite to mention this, but as we've seen Mel has a tendency to not be polite about certain things.  It really is disgusting.  It would be like a graphic portrayal of the human sacrifices we make in the millions to the gods of Style, Convenience and Capitalism in the Temples of Abortion.  That would simply be tasteless.

The movie deals with the barbarity of human beings without Christ.

We who are Christian are capable of horrible things.  Without Christ, we are capable of far worse. 

In short, the movie deals with reality, so I suggest you not see it.  Some people just shouldn't be exposed to reality.

Yours truly,

Rev. Know-It-All