The Revealer has tried to respond to a light touch for reasons snarkily implied above — and because we’re looking forward to being a part of what should be a more intriguing conversation at a special conference, “Who Owns The Passion?” to be convened by The Center for Religion and Media on March 12.

But today’s Passion news demands special notice — Mel Gibson has cut a scene, reports The New York Times‘ Sharon Waxman. And not just any scene, but the one that might have been for some the high point of the film, the bit in which a Jewish high priest, Caiaphas, calls down what Waxman describes as a curse on the Jews, as told in Matthew 27:25. (As it happens, that’s not actually what happens in that particular chapter and verse, but the Times‘ editors evidently don’t have a Bible on hand. A job for the Gideons!)