COLORADO SPRINGS -- Actor Mel Gibson won rave reviews from religious leaders here this week after asking them to make sure his upcoming film, "The Passion," accurately depicts the Gospel.

The star of the "Lethal Weapon" series said his Christian faith inspired the movie, which depicts the final 12 hours in the life of Jesus Christ (pictured, left). Gibson is still looking for a distributor.

The script, which Mel Gibson co-wrote, is based on the diaries of St. Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824) that are collected in the book "The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ", on Mary of Agreda's "The City of God" and on the New Testament Gospels by Luke, John, Matthew and Mark.

"I'm not a preacher, and I'm not a pastor," Gibson said Thursday. "But I really feel my career was leading me to make this. The Holy Ghost was working through me on this film, and I was just directing traffic. I hope the film has the power to evangelize."

Gibson visited New Life Church and Focus on the Family. Among those who watched clips of the film was Ted Haggard, New Life's pastor and president of the National Evangelical Association.

"It conveys, more accurately than any other film, who Jesus was," Haggard said.

"I was very impressed," added Don Hodel, president of Focus on the Family. "The movie is historically and theologically accurate."

Gibson financed the $25 million film, co-wrote the script and directed and produced the movie, which stars James Caviezel as Christ. The film was shot in the Aramaic language of the time, but subtitles were in place during Thursday's showing.

Gibson said he attended Mass every morning during filming because "we had to be squeaky clean just working on this."

"It was a strange mixture of the most difficult thing I've ever done, along with this incredible ease," Gibson said. "Everyone who worked on this movie was changed. There were agnostics and Muslims on set converting to Christianity."