I?ve heard it said that you shouldn?t meet your heroes because if you did meet one, he would likely cease to be your hero.
Every celebrity or statesman, every athlete or artist is human. Every human is deeply flawed, capable of foolishness, weakness and evil. That?s why we don?t put people on postage stamps until after they?re dead.
We need heroes, though. We often find them in people we know only through a media filter, because something they have said or done or created resonates with us. Sometimes they inspire us to do something worthwhile. When we think we spotone, we imagine the details we don?t know to complete the picture. It?s easier to do that than to look for inspiration to someone we actually know, someone whose faults we see with their strengths.
Since his drunk driving arrest, we?ve seen in painful detail Mel Gibson?s faults all over the papers and cable news. Though I would have never said Gibson was my hero ? if I do have one, it?s Johnny Cash, another Christian who had his own infamous mug shot moment in 1965 when he brought amphetamines back from Mexico ? his work has inspired me. “Braveheart” is one of my favorite movies and “The Passion of the Christ” is the most powerful work of art I have ever seen.
So the alcoholism saddens me, and the bizarre, indefensible anti-Jewish remarks deeply disturb me. My Sunday school teachers taught me to respect the Jewish people and to revere the Jewish religious tradition. And I think many Christians in modern-day America feel the same way. But I also think that many of those same Christians, especially evangelical Protestants, feel more scandalized and betrayed by the fact that the man who made “The Passion” revealed himself a vulgar alcoholic than by the fact that he is, at some level, a kooky anti-Semite.
For others mistrustful of Christianity, the incident confirms the “The Passion” as anti-Semitic and Gibson as a hypocrite. There?s nothing secularists enjoy more than seeing someone who professes to have moral standards fail to meet them.
As Gibson makes his way through rehabilitation, the legal process and the inevitable public apologies, criticism will continue to mount. Most of the criticism will be warranted, but I hope people will remember that Gibson, despite his fame and his failure, is not that different than the rest of us.
Gibson spoke with Diane Sawyer in the 2004 run-up to the release of “The Passion.” He said his commitment to Christianity emerged when he was considering suicide. Instead of killing himself, he admitted that he had reached “the height of spiritual bankruptcy” and turned to the Gospels.
No doubt Gibson feels bankrupt again. While being arrested, Gibson reportedly said “my life is f—ed.” Comments like that, along with behavior like going 90 mph in a 45-zone with a bottle of tequila in one hand, suggest Gibson may have been suicidal again. He may indeed be struggling with depression or another mental illness along with the alcoholism. But whatever his problems, they can only serve as an explanation for his behavior, not an excuse.
“Pain is the precursor to change, which is great,” Gibson said in the Sawyer interview. “That?s the good news.” How Gibson decides to change to address his current pain will show the content of his character. I hope he finds the inspiration to help him make the right choice.
Aaron Keith Harris writes about politics, the media, pop culture and music and is a regular contributor to National Review Online and Bluegrass Unlimited. He can be reached at [email protected].
