Since Easter week is upon us and all Christians are in the celebratory mood of celebrating Jesus’s ultimate sacrifice in dying for their sins upon the cross, it is only natural for a Christian man such as myself to feel the need to write an article commenting on Christianity. Easter is one of the most important if not the most important holidays in the Christian calendar, and is one of the few united holiday that Christians, regardless of denomination, celebrate.

There was something I saw however, the Sunday before Easter that really opened my eyes to the Christian spirit in the United States. “The Passion: New Orleans” was a Fox primetime event held in the city of New Orleans that depicted Jesus during the final days of his life, including his crucifixion and resurrection from the dead. The show contained a mixture of pre-recorded videos along with live segment shootings that showed “The Last Supper," Judas's betrayal of Jesus, and Jesus’s crucifixion by Pontius Pilate, along with Jesus restrictions of the dead in a modern setting.

All of these events were sent to songs such as “Mad World” by Tears for Fears and “Home” by Phillip Phillips, and including cast involving singers such as Seal and Chris Doughty. All of the live session was set in New Orleans with crows of hundreds of thousands of people along with a national airing that was watched by millions around the world. It was an impressive display of spectacle, vividness, and imagination. You think the reviewers would say something super positive right? Not exactly.

Several reviewers said that while they found the spectacle to be impressive, they thought it could have been better. Matt Hale of the New York Times equated “The Passion" as “to being like a Super Bowl Halftime Show” and stated issues with part of the broadcast, but he did state the resurrection scene was very solid. Other reviewers stated while there were good and bad parts, there were some very noticeable issues. They thought the crowd interaction was great, but the way it was presented could be improved. Having read through all of this, I have developed a different conclusion about “The Passion."

While I admittedly did not watch “The Passion” all the way through, it didn’t take much for me to see the Christian spirit through the crowd. To me, this show represented Christianity in all its glory, and the beauty that is Christianity. Here are some of the things I find that “The Passion” is one of the best live displays of the Christian Spirit out there.

Performance

Throughout the entire performance, a majority of the performance was played through pre-recorded scenes that featured dialogue true to the Bible set on the streets of New Orleans. While I thought some of the acting in these scenes went fairly well, I was more impressed with the music in these scenes. While I listened to the song “Home” being played on my flat-screen television thousands of miles away, I felt some sort of inter-connection with my own Christian spirit. The duet between Jencarlos Canela and Prince Royce was not only solid through their voices, but the chemistry the two shared on staged. The way Canela would sing to Royce gave a very similar impression to what I could imagine if I saw actual Jesus and Peter talking to one another, and the intensity of the moment made it feel real. I found that the live scenes were much more interesting watch than the pre-recorded scene, as these actors were being put on the spot to perform. I thought Tyler Perry’s narration to be a little dry at times, but he did well in transitioning from part to part and casting the emotion of the audience while being fair to other religions. I loved Seal’s depiction of Pontius Pilate, as his whole demeanor depicted the cold, swift executioner that I thought of Pontius Pilate to be. I loved the emotional reaction on Canela’s face as Jesus was being judged by Pontius Pilate in front of the crowd, as his emotions just seemed so genuine. While there were at times where I thought some of the actions were overdone, I thought it captured the Christian spirit by the actions emotions of it. The “Passion” in particular is the first time that such a Christian event received a primetime audience on Fox, and I thought it was able to deliver an emotional, Christian feeling that the audience was looking for.

The Crowd Reaction

This is where I really feel that the Christian Spirit was captured on this show. The fact that the performances took place on a stage in front of thousands of people really gave me a sense of how important the Christian faith is in New Orleans, and in how people choose to express their faith. Since my dad’s side of the family of New Orleans and I have visited New Orleans through my entire life, I could feel the intensity of watching the scenes being filmed on Bourbon street and the people marching in the streets towards the spectacle. With a city that has suffered so much since Katrina, this performance really showed the religious faith of this city. Through the solid broadcasting that Fox provided, I was awestruck by watching thousands of people carry a giant, white cross through the streets that I had once walked as a kid when visiting New Orleans. During the live segment involving Jesus crucifixion, people were going into hysterics screaming “Jesus” as Canela was dragged onto the stage in handcuffs and people were praying left and right through the entire performance. The fact that people were getting this emotional over this performance shows what the Easter story means to the people of New Orleans, and I was overwhelmed by the way everyone was affected by it. If the crowd wasn’t as emotional as it were, it would have taken a lot away from the overall performance of the show.

To be fair to the critics who criticized the performance, I could be seen as having some sort of bias since New Orleans has a big place in my heart. The critics wrote the reviews they did based on how they thought the performance went from an impartial standpoint, and kept out any personal biases. The reality of the performance is that it probably could have been stronger, and it could have been more meaningful if it had done several other things. The fact that Christianity takes a backlight in the media and receives little if any coverage has been true for several years, and often times Christian can even be scrutinized in the media in general. “The Passion," however, is a major step forward into spreading the word of Christianity and its positivity across the world. Despite the fact that it may not have had the best performance from an outside standpoint, its expression of Christian faith is something to be exemplified.