Mel Wants Help from the Jews

I believe this is called chutzpah:

There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of anti-Semitic remark. I want to apologize specifically to everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words that I said to a law enforcement officer the night I was arrested on a DUI charge.

Aside from maybe, “Wow, I never realized what a total asshole I am until now,” that was all he should have said. But no.

I am a public person, and when I say something, either articulated and thought out, or blurted out in a moment of insanity, my words carry weight in the public arena.

A moment of insanity? Nice try. Normally when people get drunk, their honest thoughts come out, not some crazy shit they’ve never thought before. I’ve never said, “Man, George Bush is a great president!” after a couple of martinis.

The tenets of what I profess to believe necessitate that I exercise charity and tolerance as a way of life. Every human being is God's child, and if I wish to honor my God I have to honor his children. But please know from my heart that I am not an anti-Semite. I am not a bigot. Hatred of any kind goes against my faith.

The problem isn’t so much what’s in his heart, but what’s in his head—and that seems to be some pretty nasty stuff. And that’s the problem with the kind of “faith” to which conservatives subscribe; it’s not meant to be of the mind. One’s “heart” may have embraced a faith that forbids hatred, but unless the mind follows, unless the mind constructs and embraces a framework of genuine equality, that faith is impotent. An uncontemplated faith is irrational, and has no capacity to contain irrational hatred.

I'm not just asking for forgiveness. I would like to take it one step further, and meet with leaders in the Jewish community, with whom I can have a one on one discussion to discern the appropriate path for healing.

See? See? I’m not an anti-Semite! I’ll spend time with Jews!

I have begun an ongoing program of recovery and what I am now realizing is that I cannot do it alone. I am in the process of understanding where those vicious words came from during that drunken display

Dear Apple: Check the tree. Love, Shakespeare’s Sister

and I am asking the Jewish community, whom I have personally offended, to help me on my journey through recovery. Again, I am reaching out to the Jewish community for its help. I know there will be many in that community who will want nothing to do with me, and that would be understandable. But I pray that that door is not forever closed.

Prediction: In six months, Mel Gibson will be wearing a red Kabbalah bracelet.

In all seriousness, Gibson clearly realizes he’s fucked up. Fucked up as in “has made a mistake,” and fucked up as in “has serious issues.” And, okay, I admit, it strikes me as a little stupid on its face that he’s begging the Jewish community to help him overcome his anti-Semitism, but, on the other hand, he could learn a bloody thing or two, and if there’s an extremely forgiving and patient rabbi willing to teach him, asking for his help isn’t the worst thing Gibson could do.

But in addition, maybe Mad Max could move beyond the Thunderdome of religion and consider taking on some advice that isn’t faith-based. Even devoutly religious people aren’t required to exclusively trust to faith; if they were, their Almighty wouldn’t have given them free will and the faculties for rational thought. It’s not meant to be an either-or proposition, in spite of what the faith-based community would have us believe.