Nashville, Tenn., Dec 14, 2003 / 22:00 pm
According to Chonda Pierce, a best-selling Southern comedienne with an audience of 1.5 million nationwide, a private screening of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" in Nashville, Tenn., shocked the country music world.
“I don't think I have words to convey to you the overwhelming observations last night at the movie,” she wrote in a personal testimony on her Web site.
The private screening was attended by about 200 of the biggest names in Nashville’s country and Christian music world, including producers, songwriters and artists.
The movie began after an opening prayer. “As the story unfolded and the brutality of what we were watching set in people were moaning. I will never forget it,” she wrote.