This guy Rutten really doesn’t like this whole Passion thing at all.

As a popular scriptural verse declares, “by their fruits shall you know them.”

But there’s also something to be learned from the configuration of the bough that bears the fruit.

Take, for example, the straightforward way in which those concerned with Mel Gibson’s soon-to-be-released movie, “The Passion of the Christ,” continue to express their reservations and apprehensions, as compared with the filmmaker’s continued evasions concerning nearly every significant issue raised by the controversy.

Start with the fact that, from the outset, Gibson has allowed himself to be characterized as a Catholic and has reinforced that impression by seeking the Vatican’s approval of his film and then publicizing a purported papal endorsement. Reams of sympathetic publicity continue to describe Gibson as “a devout Catholic.”

In fact, he is not. Catholics belong to churches that recognize the pope as their religious leader. If you don’t, you’re not a Catholic. It’s as simple as that. What Gibson would rather not discuss is his membership in a schismatic group that has appropriated various pious practices and sacramental rites from preconciliar Roman Catholicism, but which rejects the contemporary church’s leaders and teachings. Among the most important of those teachings is a complete rejection of any interpretation of the Passion that attributes a particular or continuing responsibility for Christ’s execution to the Jewish people.

Because Gibson attends — indeed, finances — a church that rejects such teachings, other questions arise: For instance, in an interview with commentator Peggy Noonan to be published in the forthcoming Reader’s Digest, Gibson says, “My dad taught me my faith, and I believe what he taught me. The man never lied to me in his life.”

Fair enough, but Hutton Gibson — the filmmaker’s father — is a well-known Holocaust denier.

Reader’s Digest declined to make a full text of the interview available to The Times, but in the brief promotional excerpt released this week, Noonan is quoted as asking, “You’re going to have to go on the record. The Holocaust happened, right?”

Gibson replied, “Yes, of course. Atrocities happened. War is horrible. The Second World War killed tens of millions of people. Some of them were Jews in concentration camps. Many people lost their lives. In the Ukraine, several million starved to death between 1932 and 1933. During the last century, 20 million people died in the Soviet Union.”

Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, responded that “reading this, I have to conclude that, at best, Mr. Gibson is ignorant and, at worse, he is insensitive. War was not the cause of the Holocaust; Jews died because of who they were. The Holocaust is different in kind from other historical tragedies because it’s about people being slaughtered for who they were. Comparing it to the famine in the Ukraine, which was terrible, is nonetheless ignorant and insensitive.”

Foxman also said he was “troubled by the cavalier way in which he treats the question of his father’s influence. I respect people who respect their elders. But Mr. Gibson says his father never lied to him and yet he has been lying for years to the world about the Holocaust. Saying everything his father said is true puts him in a very strange position, since his father is a public Holocaust denier.”

Like Foxman, Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, found Gibson’s sentiments disturbing and, Tuesday, sent the filmmaker a two-page letter. It reiterates Hier’s belief that Gibson’s “Passion” “portrays Jews in a very negative manner and can once again stereotype them as being collectively responsible for the death of Jesus.” Hier, who saw the film recently, also endorses the ADL’s request that Gibson attach a cinematic postscript to his film specifically rejecting any anti-Semitic interpretation.

“Given the controversy stirred by your forthcoming film,” Hier wrote, “I had hoped that your remarks on the Holocaust during your interview with Peggy Noonan for Reader’s Digest would be an opportunity to take us in an entirely new direction. Sadly, according to the excerpt I read, I was mistaken. Rather than showing understanding for what historians regard as the most telling example of man’s inhumanity to man in the history of civilization, you diminish the uniqueness of the Holocaust by marginalizing it and placing it alongside the horrors and suffering of people caught up in conflict and famine.”

In an exchange of letters over the weekend, Gibson replied to Foxman’s request for a meeting and cinematic postscript by writing: “You are a man of integrity and a man of faith and I do not take your concerns lightly. It is my deepest belief, as I am sure it is yours, that all who ever breathe life on this Earth are children of God and my most binding obligation to them, as a brother in this waking world, is to love them. I hope and I pray that you will join me in setting an example for all of our brethren; that the truest path to follow, the only path, is that of respect and, most importantly, that of love for each other despite our differences.”

On behalf of the ADL, Foxman replied, “Unfortunately, your letter does not address any of the issues we raised in our most recent correspondence, and the concerns that we have been raising all along since we first reached out to you in March 2003.

“Your words do not mitigate our concerns about the potential consequences of your film, ‘The Passion of the Christ’ to fuel and legitimize anti-Semitism. Nor do they address the questions we raised in our letter and in our public statements following the screening of your film in Orlando. How will the film be viewed by others? Could the images of your film be used by those who are disposed toward hatred to harden their hearts? And you do not address our hope that as a responsible filmmaker you might take steps — such as adding a postscript — to ensure that your audience does not walk away from the film convinced that Jews bear responsibility in the Crucifixion.

“So far you have not responded to our request of 11 months for us to meet. We look forward to having the opportunity to meet with you to further discuss our concerns.”

At one recent screening of “The Passion of the Christ,” Gibson was asked who the critics of his film are. According to David Elcott, U.S. director of Inter-Religious Affairs for the American Jewish Committee, who was a member of the audience, Gibson replied: “They are the forces of Satan or the dupes of Satan.”

Given those sentiments and his unbroken record of evasion and deception, perhaps Foxman had better not hold his breath.