Why are Christians Outraged about Documentary "Jesus in India"?
Movie reviewer Pete Hammond says of my new film, the feature documentary,
"Jesus in India" that it's "a fascinating and profound
film, a deeply spiritual journey." While, Jeff Wilser figures
it will "make Bill O'Reilly choke on his eggnog."
On the other hand, Nancy Dewolf Smith of the WSJ
called the film "pseudo-history" and "a cavalcade
of crackpots."
In fact, Jesus was a consummate crackpot in his
own time. If you had asked Jews of his day what they thought of
the man who declared "The Sabbath was made for man and not
man for the Sabbath," they would have told you: a nut-case.
So, who was that upstart?
Is it true that Jesus survived the crucifixion
and spent some years in India? The NY Times says that "Jesus
in India" sifts "through legends, myths and historical
evidence in an attempt to unravel the mysteries of the life of Jesus
of Nazareth from ages 12 to 30."
Some among the Christian orthodox would prefer
you never saw this movie, which is based on the quest of the maverick
author, Edward T. Martin, to prove that Jesus traveled in India
for several years. After decades of exploration in remote, exotic
locations in India, Nepal and elsewhere in Central Asia, from Afghanistan
to the Himalayas in search of the mysterious missing 18 years of
Jesus' life, Martin distilled his quest for the truth and his research
into the book, King of Travelers: Jesus' Lost Years in India (now
in a new revised edition).
While working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Afghanistan,
Martin had his first encounter with East Asian accounts of the historic
Jesus Christ, including the Indian legend that young Jesus joined
a caravan and took the Silk Road to the East, where he lived in
India with both Hindus and Buddhists before returning to the Holy
Land to begin his ministry.
An upstart himself among the fundamentalist Christians
of his hometown of Lampasas, Texas, Martin sold his house to complete
his research and travel, and publish his book, and remains a pariah
in his community for suggesting that some years of Jesus' life are
unaccounted for in the Bible, and that there is evidence that he
spent those years in India, and that he sent St. Thomas there.
Martin was ousted from his provincial church, and some members of
his family never spoke to him again, nor did they do more than flip
through the pages of his book.
The title told them all they needed to know—they
"knew" that Jesus was never in India, so why should they
read the book? Everyone was of the same opinion—that every
word of the Bible is true, without question, and that Jesus' "missing
years" have no impact on whether you go to heaven or hell.
So, why should I produce and direct a documentary
tracing Martin's journeys and revealing his controversial assertions
that, among other things, Jesus survived his crucifixion and is
buried in India?
First, I met Martin and read his compelling book
and found him to be a passionate man involved in a David-vs.-Goliath
battle like the protagonists in virtually all my films, and second,
Jesus as a historical figure has captivated me since my college
years at Princeton, but I was interested in a different interpretation
of Jesus than the one that is almost universally accepted.
My studies of the writings of the Hindu guru and
philosopher, Paramahansa Yogananda, convinced me that it's very
possible that Jesus traveled to India in response to the birth visits
of the Three Magi from the East.
I also found out that the Ahmadiyya Muslims believe
that Jesus—Issa, as they call him—did not die on the
cross, and lived to travel to India after most assumed he was dead
(or ascended to heaven), and that the Ahmadiyyas insist Jesus is
buried in the Rozabal in Srinagar, the very ancient "Prophet's
Tomb" that dates back to the era of Christ and has carvings
of the prophet's feet showing the scars of crucifixion.
Adding to the compelling nature of Martin's research,
I also learned from some of the most famous Biblical scholars in
the United States, including Professor Elaine Pagels of Princeton's
Department of Religion, that "We cannot rule out that Jesus
may have traveled to India."
And the third reason why I took on a film project
that I knew had the potential to set off an international storm
of controversy was—it's what I do.
Each of my films has challenged conventional thinking—from
"She Dances Alone," the movie starring Max von Sydow about
the great Russian ballet dancer who refused to perform as a protest
against WWI, to the Golden Globe-nominated "Roswell,"
starring Martin Sheen, a movie that I co-wrote and produced about
the notorious 1947 UFO incident that many believe marked the beginning
of the government's coverup of the existence of extraterrrestrials.
I also tackled two other subjects perfect for that
"cavalcade of crackpots" the WSJ spoke about: Vincent
van Gogh, in "Starry Night," and LSD guru, Timothy Leary,
in the film "Timothy Leary's Dead."
Upsetting religious tradition? Revealing hidden
truths about Jesus? A thrilling worldwide journey of spiritual and
historical discovery?
Stirring up outrage and controversy? I knew that
making "Jesus in India" would be an adventure of a lifetime.
It was six weeks of filming in India, making a
movie about the Prince of Peace while dealing with monsoons and
flooded roads, temperatures hotter than an Iraqi desert and incidents
of terrorism and violence in Kashmir. This was followed by months
of travel and filming at locations in London, the Vatican and throughout
the United States.
Now three years later, after a lengthy and arduous
phase of post-production, the film has had its U.S. premiere on
the Sundance Channel (which showed it three times in December of
2008), and the DVD has been released with an additional 80 minutes
of provocative bonus materials. The film even has a magnificent
music score by Brian Thomas Lambert, which we've released as a soundtrack
CD.
And the debate rages on! Some have accused the
film of advocating religious "revisionism," although it
is not an attempt to revise so much an attempt to address omission.
The Bible does not discuss the activities and travels
of Jesus from ages 12 to 30, and so we are not revising anything,
we are trying, as the New York Times indicated, to "sift through"
legends, myths and historical evidence in an attempt to plug a hole.
In the world of film, we call the problem of the lost years of Jesus
a "jump cut."
In one sentence in the Bible, 12-year-old Jesus
is expounding to the rabbis in the Temple in Jerusalem. In practically
the next sentence, he is thirty years old being baptized by John
the Baptist at the River Jordan. That's a tough edit. What fell
on the cutting room floor? What was left out?
Once you open the door to Jesus' youth having been
partially spent in India (after a lengthy journey with merchants
on the Silk Road), you open the door to other questions and issues,
a door that orthodox Christians, from the fundamentalists of Texas
to the Catholic clergy at the Vatican, have locked shut.
"Jesus in India" pulls the door from
its hinges, while giving experts on all sides the chance to state
their case. Such luminaries as the Dalai Lama, two professors at
Georgetown University, an apostolic nuncio of Pope John Paul II,
and the "Pope" of Hinduism (the Shankaracharya) are featured
in the film.
The Self-Realization Fellowship of Paramahansa
Yogananda, in a full page at their website, declares "Jesus
in India" to be "groundbreaking" and commends it
to their members and devotees for viewing.
Len Kasten, in the March-April 2009 issue of Atlantis
Rising, writes:
"This film . . . has the potential to revolutionize
Christianity by virtue of the humanization of Jesus. By taking away
the godlike status conferred upon him by Constantine, and showing
him as the brilliant and courageous spiritual teacher who succeeded
in bringing together three great religions of the world, it removes
the superstition and ritual from Christianity yet leaves the world
with a magnificent message of hope and renewal."
The implications of the film promise an upheaval
that may ultimately be unsettling to those who hold inflexible and
orthodox views about Christianity, Biblical accuracy and religious
history. You can read all about it in Edward T. Martin's second
book: Jesus in India: King of Wisdom—The Making of the Film
and New Findings on Jesus' Lost Years.
Watch the trailer, hear music from the soundtrack,
and get more information about the movie, "Jesus in India,"
at
www.jesus-in-india-the-movie.com
(A Presentation of Paul Davids Productions, Inc.
and Yellow Hat Productions, Inc., Distributed to Television Worldwide
by NBC-Universal) Available to the media are review copies of the
DVD, "Jesus in India" and the new book, Jesus in India:
King of Wisdom—The Making of the Film and New Findings on
Jesus' Lost Years.
Paul Davids was Marvel Productions' production
coordinator for the original "The Transformers" TV series
(many episodes of which he also wrote), and he went on to executive
produce and co-write Showtime's now-classic film, "Roswell"
(1994), nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Motion Picture for
Television. He made his directorial debut with the feature documentary
"Timothy Leary's Dead" in 1997. The husband and wife team
of Paul and Hollace Davids are also noted for authoring six "Star
Wars" sequel books in the early 1990's for Lucasfilm, published
by Bantam, which sold millions of copies worldwide and which came
out in many languages. Those books include The Glove of Darth Vader,
The Lost City of the Jedi, Zorba the Hutt's Revenge, Mission From
Mount Yoda, Queen of the Empire and Prophets of the Dark Side.
Paul Davids, who wrote and directed "Starry
Night," followed that Yellow Hat Productions film with two
other Yellow Hat independent features that he wrote and directed,
and which he produced with Hollace Davids: "The Artist and
the Shaman" (2002) and "The Sci-Fi Boys" (2006).
Both "Starry Night" and "The Sci-Fi Boys" were
picked up for distribution by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
and NBC-Universal's International Television division (Universal
City Studios Productions LLLC). "The Sci-Fi Boys" won
the prestigious Saturn Award in Hollywood from the Academy of Science-Fiction,
Fantasy and Horror as Best DVD of 2006. It also won the coveted
international fan-based Rondo Award as Best Independent Film on
DVD and three EBE Awards. More information is available on these
films at
www.pauldavids.com
and also at
www.starrynightmovie.com
Source: Paul Davids, Producer/Director of
"Jesus in India" www.jesus-in-india-the-movie.com
|