Three weeks before the release of "The Passion of the Christ," a graphic
portrayal of the torture and crucifixion of Jesus, Christians nationwide
are busy preparing to use it in an immense grass-roots evangelistic
campaign.

Mr. Gibson, who produced, directed and largely financed the film, has
tried to stoke their enthusiasm by screening it the past two months for
at least 10,000 pastors and leaders of Christian ministries and media.
Many emerged proclaiming it a searing, life-changing experience.

Now those leaders are buying blocks of tickets, encouraging church
members to invite their "unsaved" friends and co-workers and producing
television commercials that start with scenes from the movie and finish
with a pitch for their churches.

"I don't know of anything since the Billy Graham crusades that has had
the potential of touching so many lives," said Morris H. Chapman,
president of the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention,
the nation's largest Protestant denomination. "It's like the Lord
somehow laid in our lap something that could be a great catalyst for
spiritual awakening in this nation."

The movie opens on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 25, and Christian groups are
already distributing merchandise to capitalize on the moment. There are
lapel pins in Aramaic, the language of much of the film, and "witnessing
cards" to give those who ask about the pin; door hangers for the
neighbors; one million tracts asking moviegoers to "Take a moment right
now and say a prayer like this," and a CD-ROM for teenagers that
features a downloadable picture of a nine-inch nail like those that
pinned Jesus to the cross.

Although Mr. Gibson is Roman Catholic and the movie is replete with
Catholic touches, like the Stations of the Cross and the centrality of
Mary, influential Pentecostal and evangelical leaders have embraced it
anyway, seeing its value as a tool in evangelism. Evangelical Christians
account for 30 percent to 40 percent of the American population, and
many of them have recently been hearing their leaders declare that the
nation is primed for a return of the ecstatic Great Awakenings that
moved Americans in the 18th and 19th centuries to convert to
Christianity in droves.

Mr. Gibson's film company has hired several marketing firms experienced
in reaching Christian audiences, including the publicist for the Rev.
Billy Graham. But much of the promotion was initiated by an assortment
of ministry agencies, churches and individual Christians.

One of these, the American Tract Society in Garland, Tex., proclaims on
its Web site that the movie is "one of the greatest opportunities for
evangelism in 2,000 years." Daniel Southern, the society's president,
said his group had produced two tracts tied into the movie, and expected
one to sell over one million copies. The only involvement of Mr.
Gibson's company, Mr. Southern said, was in granting permission to use a
movie photograph on the cover.

"This is an unprecedented opportunity that the average Christian needs
to seize," Mr. Southern said. "You'll run into people at work who've
seen the movie, and you can say, `Have you ever thought about why Christ
had to die?' And then you can say: `This tract has one take on that and
I'd like to share it with you.' And you hand them the tract."

Teen Mania, an evangelical group that holds youth crusades in stadiums,
says at least 3,000 leaders of church youth groups have bought CD-ROM
kits that instruct young people in how to use the film to deepen their
own faith and bring their friends to accept Christ.

The film is rated R because of the violent scourging and crucifixion of
Jesus that occupies much of its two hours. Ron Luce, president of Teen
Mania, says children would benefit from seeing it, and the CD-ROM
supplies information to persuade parents to allow their children to attend.

"This isn't just violence for violence's sake," Mr. Luce said. "This is
what really happened, what it would have been like to have been there in
person to see Jesus crucified."

Mr. Gibson invested $25 million of his own into the movie and has told
supporters that he regards it as a spiritual calling. He has suggested
that he is aware of the film's potential use in evangelism. In a
promotional brochure for the movie given to 4,500 participants at a
recent "Global Pastors Network" conference in Orlando, Fla., Mr. Gibson
says, "I hope the film has the power to evangelize." He has told
screeners in churches that on the movie set, he witnessed agnostics and
Muslims converting to Christianity.

A spokesman for Mr. Gibson, Alan Nierob, explained the outreach efforts
as more in the interest of marketing than evangelism. He said that
although "The Passion of the Christ" was being released on about 2,000
screens by Newmarket Films, it did not have a large marketing budget to
pay for focus groups and advertising.

"We don't have that luxury here," Mr. Nierob said. "So you've got to do
what you can to get the film out there, get supporters, get word of
mouth. That's really the grass-roots approach." Mr. Nierob likened it to
the word-of-mouth and Internet buzz that turned "The Blair Witch
Project" into a sleeper hit.

Mr. Gibson's company held early screenings of the film in churches led
by pastors renowned in Christian circles for pioneering evangelization
techniques. They include the Rev. Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community
Church in South Barrington, Ill.; Bishop Eddie L. Long of New Birth
Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta; and the Rev. Rick Warren at
Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., author of the best seller "The
Purpose-Driven Life."

Mr. Hybels was host to 4,500 viewers at a screening in his church last
month, and said in an interview that he had invited a "sample group" of
a dozen "nonchurchgoing community leaders and businessmen" to gauge
their reaction. He said all 12 reported that the film "piqued their
curiosity" about Jesus and caused some to go home and dig out Bibles
they had not read for years.

Although the film has been praised by some Roman Catholics and promoted
on some Catholic Web sites, Catholic clergy members and bishops have not
latched onto it as a tool for church-building as the evangelicals have.

The same brutality in the film that has caused such an emotional
response among many Christian filmgoers has alarmed some Jewish leaders
who say it could stoke animosity toward Jews.

Christian supporters of the film say it merely adheres to the Bible. But
some Jewish leaders say that it distorts the Scriptures and that they
are alarmed at the prospect of the movie's being accepted as gospel.

David M. Elcott, director for interreligious affairs for the American
Jewish Committee, said, "It would be a deep disappointment to the Jewish
community if this movie would become the vehicle for teaching
Christianity, even within Christian settings."

Christian leaders predict that the film will have a long afterlife on
tape and DVD for use in homes, churches and Bible study classes. Some
cautioned that the film's graphic brutality would limit its usefulness
with youngsters and in some cultures.

But others said that missionaries would eventually adopt it as a
conversion tool much like "Jesus," a 1970's film distributed by the
group Campus Crusade for Christ. That film has been translated into more
than 800 languages and shown in hundreds of countries.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company