Millet hasn't yet seen the film, but is among dozens of local clergy — including Catholics, Protestants, Jewish and some LDS leaders — who will attend a prescreening of the film on Tuesday. "I'm very much looking forward to it. I think to some extent we have, by nature, whitewashed what is a gruesome scene in the last 12 hours of Jesus' life. It's one thing to feel great gratitude for his love, but another thing entirely to feel the sense of deep anguish that none of us could understand in the slightest.

"This isn't Freddy Krueger. This is Jesus Christ."

He believes the film is "a sincere effort by people, both Christian and non-Christian, to show there was a tremendous price paid by Christ for our sins." Millet says while he doesn't normally see R-rated films, "one that would help draw me closer to God's son would seem to be one that I should be acquainted with."

As for the argument that declining to see the film would simply be a way to show obedience to God, Millet is not dissuaded.

"It seems to me that a mature approach to this issue would entail thinking through the principles that the leaders of church have taught us concerning what we ought to view and not to view. Through the operation of that principle, I personally have chosen to view the movie because it deals with the central act in human history.

"I've read this story before. I'm not expecting any sex scenes but certain things that will dramatize something that needs to be dramatized. . . . I don't want to see something that will sensationalize horror or death," but from what he knows of the film, Millet isn't concerned about that. "If evangelicals are right, this will impact the Christian world in a way few things have, so for us to ignore it is a bit of a slap in the face."

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E-mail: carrie@desnews.com