Dallas CEO Has 'The Passion' For Giving
by Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
February 9, 2004
(AgapePress) - A Texas businessman wants to be sure that thousands of non-Christians have a chance to see Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ.Arch Bonnema is a Southern Baptist businessman who has spent $42,000 to reserve all 22 screens at a suburban Dallas theater complex. Bonnema, who is giving away 6,000 tickets to The Passion, says he and his wife felt called to do this for God.
Bonnema and his wife, who attend Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, decided several years ago that they were called to tithe 50 percent of their income, rather than the traditional 10 percent commanded in the Bible. "In 1991 we made the decision to start doing that, and we didn't have this budgeted into it. It was quite a sacrifice on my wife's [part] too, because we had other things that we'd planned on doing," Bonnema says.
However, the Texas couple felt strongly that this sort of sacrificial giving was something God wanted them to do. The expense of reserving the Dallas cineplex and giving away tickets to The Passion is only the latest way they have found to use their wealth to serve Christ and bring others to him.
Bonnema says he has had no trouble giving away tickets to the screening of the Mel Gibson film, which tells the dramatic story of the last 12 hours of Christ's life before His crucifixion in Jerusalem. "I gave 3,000 [tickets] to our church," the Texan notes, "and we have a pretty big church -- we have about 20,000 people in our church. So they're using it through the different outreaches."
Another recipient of Bonnema's generosity is Dallas Theological Seminary, which has a student body of 1,300. The Christian businessman felt that people studying for the ministry would benefit greatly from seeing the movie, so he gave the seminary a thousand tickets.
The already much-talked-about film, which has been rated R for its realistic and graphic scenes of violence, is based on several sources, including the Bible's books of John, Luke, Mark and Matthew, as well as the book The Mystical City of God by St. Mary of Agreda and the diaries of St. Anne Catherine Emmerich as collected in the book, The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. A number of Evangelicals and other Christian leaders who have previewed the film praise it for its faithfulness to scripture, and the powerful impact of its narrative.
Many churches across the U.S. are reserving entire theaters for the February 25 opening of The Passion of the Christ. Evangelical marketing firms are providing free promotional kits and movie-related sermons.
