OSLO, March 30, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Norwegian man says that watching Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ motivated him to confess to two bombings he committed in the 90s. Johnny Olsen, a neo-nazi and convicted murderer, walked into the offices of the Dagbladet newspaper Saturday and came clean over the bombings of Oslo’s Blitz House, a self-styled ‘counterculture center’, a gathering spot for young left-wing extremists. Olsen’s lawyer, Fridtjof Feydt, told Aftenposten news, “He said that it was the film that made him realize that he had to show his hand. He has been preoccupied with Christianity, guilt, punishment, atonement, suffering and conversion during the 10 years I have known him. It has been a long process but the Jesus film made the difference. Now he shows true regret and is ready to make amends,” he said. “It is important that two of Norway’s worst attempted assassinations are cleared up. It is my way of creating more peace in the world,” Olsen told Dagbladet. Olsen served 12 years of an 18 year sentence for murdering two men in 1981. In related news, a judge in France has rejected the bid by three Jewish men to have the Passion film banned. The three allege the film will fuel anti-Semitism.
“The film in question, which is a very realistic adaptation of the final hours of Christ’s life, cannot be considered an incitement to hatred and violence against Jews or an affront to their dignity and security,” Judge Florence Lagemi wrote in the ruling. “Making Jesus’ death the main motive for anti-Semitism and age-old persecutions of Jews would amount to a narrow and simplistic view of Mel Gibson’s film.”
As of Monday, the Passion of the Christ had grossed over $316 million U.S. in North America; the film has made $59 million overseas.