The forthcoming Mel Gibson film, "The Passion of the Christ," has attracted a lot of attention, and there are concerns that its highly pejorative depiction of Jews will promote anti-Semitism. Partly in response to the film, (scheduled for release on February 25, 2004), but also to address root problems of historical misunderstanding about how anti-Jewish elements have grown up and been nourished within mainstream Christian belief and liturgy, a local interfaith coalition, The First Century Project, has organized a free community forum: The "Passion: Responses and Reactions" on Sunday March 28 at 3-5:30 PM at Sixth Presbyterian Church, corner of Forbes and Murray Avenues in Squirrel Hill.

Headlining the event are Sister Mary C. Boys, Skinner  and McAlpin Professor of Practical Theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York, the Reverend Dr. Peter A. Pettit, a Lutheran pastor and Director of the Institute for Jewish–Christian Understanding at Muhlenberg College, and  Rabbi Dr. Eugene B. Korn, former National Director of Interfaith Relations for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Sister Mary Boys is a powerful voice within the Catholic intellectual tradition arguing against "supersessionism," the assumption that Christians have replaced Jews as "God’s people."  She is the author of several books. Her latest, "Has God only One Blessing?: Judaism as a Source of Christian Self-Understanding," (Paulist Press) suggests its theme of the need for Christians to fully recognize the separate legitimacy and integrity of Judaism.

 The Reverend Peter A. Pettit has been actively involved with the Christian Scholars Group and other organizations seeking to counteract the centuries-long  "teaching of contempt" about Jews and Judaism.  Dr.  Pettit is one of the authors of a recent "Statement of Concern" about the Gibson film, drafted by a study group within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  Rabbi Eugene B. Korn has been involved in efforts to improve interfaith understanding for many years.  With Mary Boys, Dr. Korn was part of a Scholars Group that reviewed an early (Summer 2003) version of Mel Gibson’s film script, and suggested changes to improve its historical accuracy, which the Gibson team rejected.

In addition to the presentation at Sixth Presbyterian Church on Sunday, March 28, the Provost’s Office and the Dean of the McAnulty College of Liberal Arts at Duquesne University (with the Center for Interpretative and Qualitative Research, the Jewish Faculty Forum, and Campus Ministry) will be sponsoring a public lecture by Dr. Boys at Duquesne from 10-12 noon on Monday, March 29 in the Duquesne Room of the Student Union Building.  Please contact Dr. Angela Harkins at harkinsa@duq.edu for more information.  This event is also free and open to the public.

Peter A. Pettit will be making a presentation to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Southwest Pennsylvania Synod on Monday, March 29, from 9:30- 11:30 AM. For information, contact the Synod.

There will be a joint presentation by Mary Boys and Peter Pettit at the University of Pittsburgh William Pitt Union, Kurtzman Room, from 2:30-4:30 on Monday, March 29. This event, sponsored by the Honors College and The Department of Religious Studies, is free and open to the public.  For information contact 412-624-7880 or 412 624-5990.      

Peter Pettit will appear on a panel discussing the film at Seton Hill University on Monday, March 29 at 7PM. For information contact ncche@setonhill.edu or 724-830-1033.

The visit of Sister Boys, Pastor Pettit and Rabbi Korn to Pittsburgh is being coordinated by an interfaith coalition known as The First Century Project, P.O. Box 8225, Pittsburgh PA 15217.  The event is being co-sponsored by the more than 20 organizations from across the religious spectrum.  For information about the events or if you or your organization would be willing to co-sponsor, contact The First Century Project at the above address or, for quicker attention, at jumphook@aol.com.

- The First Century Project

The Rev. Dr. Peter A. Pettit serves as Director of the Institute for Jewish-Christian Understanding of Muhlenberg College (Allentown, PA). The Institute is a program agency of the College, devoted to increasing the appreciative and respectful mutual understanding of Jews and Christians on the campus, in the Lehigh Valley, and throughout our society. Through course work, continuing education programs, seminars for public and private secondary school students, clergy study programs, living-room dialogue groups, and other initiatives, the Institute has fostered such understanding between Jews and Christians since 1989. An annual highlight of the Institute’s work is the Wallenberg Tribute, which honors a contemporary leader in interfaith understanding in the name of the Swedish diplomat and Holocaust hero, Raoul Wallenberg.

Dr. Pettit is a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and served for 9 years as pastor of Hope Lutheran Church in Riverside, CA. He was raised in eastern Pennsylvania and is a graduate of Princeton University and the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Moving to southern California to undertake graduate work, he began to lead Jewish-Christian dialogue and study programs in the mid-1980s. His teaching has taken him into numerous local congregations, as well as colleges and universities affiliated with the Baptist, Roman Catholic, and Methodist churches and both Reform and Conservative Judaism, and into the extension programs of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and at Riverside. He earned his doctorate in Bible and Early Judaism at the Claremont Graduate University in 1993. He started at Muhlenberg College in 1999.