Opinion: Mel Gibson's Trifecta

(July 15) -- Now the world wakes up about Mel Gibson.

Did it take his use of the 'N' word or his threat of domestic violence against his Russian girlfriend and mother of his child for us to conclude that he was a morally reprehensible human being who ought to be shunned?

Let's see. First there was the incident of his father denying the Holocaust. And when asked about his father's anti-Semitism, Gibson dismissed the question by saying that his father had never lied to him.

Then Gibson said in an interview with Australia's Herald Sun that all non-Catholics are condemned to hell (for good measure, he said he was sorry about that). This included his wife of 28 years, as Gibson so eloquently explained. "Put it this way. My wife is a saint. She's a much better person than I am. Honestly. She's, like, Episcopalian, Church of England. She prays, she believes in God, she knows Jesus, she believes in that stuff. And it's just not fair if she doesn't make it, she's better than I am. But that is a pronouncement from the chair. I go with it."

All this, of course, was against the backdrop of Gibson making a movie that perpetuated the greatest lie ever told, that the Jews killed Jesus. "The Passion of the Christ" was so inflammatory that when Pontius Pilate pleads with the Jews to stop their bloodthirstiness against Jesus, their response -- "Let his blood be upon us and our children" -- was said only in Aramaic, being the only line in the film not translated into English. Even Gibson understood the implication of the verse. Millions of Jews have been murdered throughout history due to the lie that they killed the son of God.

But Gibson was somehow motivated to repeat the lie in a major Hollywood epic and ended up making $300 million. Still, the world embraced him. What, a guy that successful, that rich? Why shun him?

What disgusted me most about America's attitude toward Gibson was when several prominent Jewish political conservatives came out to defend "The Passion of the Christ" as a great movie with a great message. They also swore that Gibson was not an anti-Semite. I said then that Gibson would be exposed as a Jew hater. That strong a current of animosity must, in time, manifest itself. I took little comfort in being proved right when Gibson had his drunken anti-Semitic outburst, declaring that the "f----ng Jews" start all the world's wars.

Anti-Semitism and racism go hand in hand, so sooner or later we were bound to hear that Gibson hates blacks too. Check.

And since so much racial prejudice is motivated by out-of-control rage, it followed that Gibson might have a wild temper that could be a threat to the women around him. Check.

But aside from his loathsome prejudices and alleged domestic abuse, I always said that Gibson was a religious charlatan and a pious fraud. And sooner or later he would expose himself as a selfish megalomaniac who cloaks himself in the veneer of religion to whitewash his stained soul.

Throughout the making of "The Passion of the Christ" we kept on reading that both Gibson and Jim Caviezel were going to Mass each day. Gibson had a private church built on his estate. The film was a religious project, a sacred undertaking.

Actually, it was simply a hate project. A way to settle his score with those "f----ng Jews" who even lied, according to Dad, about dying in Auschwitz.

Then Gibson left his wife, Robyn, the mother of his seven children, for his Russian girlfriend, thereby proving to the world that for all his protestations about a faith-based life, the only thing he believes in is his own selfish indulgence.

What Gibson must do is immediately issue an unscripted, public apology for his reprehensible statements about Jews and blacks and go seek serious counseling from a respected source for his loathsome prejudices.

If he refuses, or continues to live in denial, the rest of us ought to teach this Hollywood star a lesson that running around spewing hatred will not be tolerated on our dime.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, founder of This World: The Values Network, hosts "The Shmuley Show'" on WABC in New York City and is the author most recently of "Renewal: A Guide to the Values-Filled Life." Follow him on Twitter @RabbiShmuley.