If this film <Stigmata> was not generally dismissed by the
public, some folks might get cheesed about it, get up some gumption
and go picket it like they did 'Last Temptation of Christ'.  I dig
talking to picketers at these things.  I must warn you though, not
to argue with the religiously incensed who have not "remained calm";
it's like poking at the pissy raccoon in the dumpster with a stick.


Speaking of Last Temptation, I might as well drone on about it some
more.  This is a well-executed film that explores an interesting
hypothesis.  Christ was a man and so was imbued with the emotions of
a man.  What if his greatest secret wish was to continue living life
as a man and explore that to its fullest (i.e., get married, have a
family, bask in the good harvest, and just be happy)?  Would that
not be a reasonable thing for the devil to offer him to tempt him
off the cross?  If Christ was able to rebuke that temptation does
that not show people how much he was willing to sacrifice for them?
And also, would it make people feel closer to him, knowing about
his human side, and what he was willing to give up?

For the people picketing the film, the only objection was to J.C.
getting some (scrog) action.  They felt that they did not want to
see their major religious icon doing the deed and spreading his seed
(in the proferred temptation scenario) even with a spouse figure.
A few would rather have a squeaky-clean icon to inaccessibly hold
on high.  Some people understood what the film was saying, but
thought it was in better taste to just say that Satan tempted Christ
and leave it to the reader's imagination to fill in the blanks
or not even go there.

One dude said that we could hypothesize that Christ spanked the
monk (no pun) since he was a human male teenager, but we don't need
to explore that since it detracts from his power as a religious
icon, due to the goofy stigma that our society associates with
masturbation.  The ancient Greeks/Romans made their gods have human
foibles, so that people could relate to them, but we would rather
have some idealistic thing that we can aspire to.  Some were
concerned that youngsters might miss the general point of the
film and get a bad impression of their icon (despite the film's R
rating), i.e., that Jesus Christ is a rock (Super)star with groupies
and stuff.  Some people were cheesed that Mary Magdalene was chosen
as the spouse figure (talk about 'Unforgiven').  Needless to say,
this film needs to be viewed with an open mind.  Also, the music
in this film is excellently done.