Mel Gibson: My Wife is Going to Hell

As many readers may know by now, Mel Gibson is "Catholic" in only a loose sense - he belongs to a movement of "Old Catholics" who reject everything that has happened in the Roman Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council, including that Council and all the popes that have been elected. This means that Gibson holds to much older views of Catholicism and religion, which means that the thinks his own wife will go to Hell because she's not a Catholic (not that he really is either).

MSNBC reports:

Gibson was interviewed by the Herald Sun in Australia, and the reporter asked the star if Protestants are denied eternal salvation. “There is no salvation for those outside the Church,” Gibson replied. “I believe it.” He elaborated: “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.”

There's a poll there which asks "Is Mel Gibson one bead short of a full rosary" - I voted "yes" and encourage you to register your opinion as well. The responses are largely in the "yes" direction, and I wonder how much of that is due to the story in question here. It's pretty morbid to devoutly follow a religion that teaches the person you love dearly will spend eternity suffering torment simply because they don't belong to a particular church - and despite the fact that you think of them as being a better person than you.

In essence, Gibson believes that heaven is a place for members of a particular sect regardless of how good they are and that "better" people are denied heaven. It should tell us something about the quality of his character that he would worship such a god.

Read More:

• Roman Catholicism
• Popes
• Antisemitism
• Vatican Council II
• News and Commentary on Mel Gibson's The Passion