> > > Please do not delete this! Deleting it will show
> > > your lack of faith and a lack of respect for our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ who died for us!
> > > Please help!
Maybe deleting it will show lack of respect, but checking it out first will
show no lack of civil responsibility.
How right you are Spirit Rider. The following is from snopes.com.
BOTTOM LINE ==> ALWAYS CHECK THESE THINGS OUT BEFORE PASSING THEM
ALONG "JUST IN CASE".
The URL for this page is
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/gayjesus.htm
Please use this URL in all links or references to
this page
Claim: Jesus will be portrayed as a homosexual in an upcoming film.
Status: False.
Example:
[Collected on the Internet, 2000]
I can't believe it. There is a movie that is coming out in 2001
saying
Jesus and his disciples were gay! There is already a play that
went on
for a while, but never stopped! Maybe we can all do something!
Please send this to ALL of your friends to sign to stop the
movie from
coming out. Already certain areas in Europe have started to ban
it
from coming to their country and we can stop it too! We just
need a lot
of signatures and you can help! Please do not delete this! Show
your
faith and respect for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who died
for us!
Please help!
PLEASE SIGN AND SEND TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW! PLEASE. IF WE
WORK TOGETHER WE CAN BAN THIS!
Variations:
Sometimes the publication news of this upcoming film was gleaned
from is said to
be Modern People News; at other times it's Modern Film News.
Protest letters are directed to the Attorney General of either
Illinois or Alabama.
Origins: This piece is one of those examples that demonstates a good
petition never
goes away, even when the issue it addresses has long since been settled
(or was never
really an issue in the first place). The "gay Jesus film" petition
first hit the fan in 1984,
and by the end of 1985 more than a million Christians had written
protest letters in an
attempt to get this fictitious movie banned.
Yes, fictitious. There never was such a film in production, but this
petition was still
being circulated as recently as 1993:
[Collected on the Internet, 1993]
Modern People News has revealed plans for the filming of a
movie based on the SEX LIFE OF JESUS in
which Jesus is portrayed as a swinging HOMOSEXUAL. This film
will be shot in the U.S.A. this year
unless the public outcry is great. Already a French Prostitute
has been named to play the part of Mary
Magdalene, with who Christ has a blatant affair. We CANNOT
AFFORD to standby and DO NOTHING
about this disgrace. We must not allow this perveted world to
drag our Lord through the dirt. PLEASE
HELP us to get this film banned from the U.S.A. as it has been
in Europe. Let us show how we feel.
Detach and mail the form below to the address shown. Make a few
copies and give them to your friends.
Only one name per copy.
--------------------------------------------
------------
Attorney General Scott,
301 South Second Street,
Springfield
ILLINOIS 62606
Dear Attorney General Scott,
I would like to protest, in the strongest terms possible, the
production, filming, and showing of any movie
that supposedly depicts the sex life of JESUS CHRIST by MODERN
PEOPLE NEWS, 11030 West
Addison Street, Franklin Park, Illinois 60181.
Such a movie would be blasphemous and would be an outrage and
contrary to the truth. We urge you to
take proper action against this moral corruption.
NAME:...................................................
ADDRESS:.............................................
CITY:.....................................................
STATE:..............................CODE:..........
In the early incarnations of this call to arms, people were asked to
fill out an attached
form letter of protest and mail it to the Attorney General of Alabama.
The message
often contained the following postscript:
Evangelist Jimmy Swaggart recently reported that the above
mentioned movie HAS BEEN COMPLETED!!! According to Brother
Swaggart, the movie company has released word that the movie is
scheduled to be shown in various locations around the country
during
the Christmas Season. So, the time is short to put a stop to
it. We
sincerely hope that all spiritually and morally minded people
will band
together and keep this UNGODLY type of filth out of Alabama.
Many fell for it, including a radio station which happily passed the
story along to its
listeners and later had to retract it. According to Brunvand:
By later the same day the radio station [in Gadsen, Alabama]
personnel had attempted to contact Modern People News and had
been
in touch with the Alabama Attorney General's office. Following
these
efforts at verification, a statement was read on the air saying
that
although the attorney general had received between two and
three
thousand letters over a period of several weeks concerning the
supposed gay-Jesus movie, no evidence could be found that such
a
project ever existed. Modern People News, it was stated, seemed
to
have either gone out of business or changed their name.
In January 1985, Ann Landers ran a letter from the Attorney General's
office of Illinois
which tried to set the record straight. Now the publication was given
as Modern Film
News which supposedly had its offices in Illinois (which is how that
state got dragged
in). People were exhorted to write to Attorney General William J. Scott
. . . a man who
had last held that office four years earlier.
Dear Ann Landers:
The office of the Attorney General of the State of Illnois
respectfully
requests your assistance in combating an international chain
letter that
is distressing hundreds and thousands of Christians and those
of other
faiths as well.
The chain letter is a plea to protest "in the strongest
possible language"
the making of a movie in which Jesus Christ could be depicted
as a
swinging homosexual. Both this office and the Associated Press
have
chased down every possible clue and cannot find a shred of
truth in the
story that such a film was ever in production.
Modern Film News, which reported the film plans, has been out
of
business for more than two years. Moreover, 90 percent of the
protest
mail that has been overwhelming our staff is addressed to the
former
attorney general, William J. Scott, who has been out of office
longer
than four years.
Despite our efforts to get the word to the public that the
chain letter is
a hoax, we continue to receive approximately 1,000 protests
every
week and at least a dozen phone inquiries each working day. The
inquiries and protests have come from 41 states, Canada, Puerto
Rico,
New Zealand, Australia, Cambodia, Spain, Brazil, the Dominican
Republic, India, the Philippines, Guatemala, Costa Rica and
Portugal.
We have concluded that the "Jesus movie" rumor originated in
1977
when a suburban Chicago publication, Modern People News,
reported
that certain interests in Europe were planning such a film and
requested that readers express their opinion of the purported
project.
The result was the chain-letter protest, which, for some
unknown
reason, has been revived and is again sweeping the world.
We are appealing to you, Ann Landers, to help us get the word
out.
The scope of your readership and impact on millions of
newspaper
readers around the world cannot be overestimated.
The postage and phone calls, not to mention the valuable time
of
employees, run into a great deal of money that could be used
for so
many worthwhile purposes. Will you please help us?
-- Neil F. Hartigan, Attorney General, State of Illnois
Dear Attorney General Hartigan:
Hoaxes die hard and the zanier the hoax, the more difficult it
is to
convince people that it is not true.
If any of you, my readers, receive a copy of that wacky chain
letter,
take my word for the fact that there is not an iota of truth in
it. And
please tell friends that chain letters are illegal and should
be tossed
into the handiest wastebasket or fed to the nearest goat.
Blasphemy -- even the hint of it -- is enough to mobilize good
Christian soldiers
everywhere.
In 1988, Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ reaped massive
publicity -- and
long lines at the box office -- after fundamentalist Christians
picketed theaters. The
uproar wasn't over a gay Jesus, merely one who both questions his fate
and who has a
dream about a sexual relationship with Mary Magdalene. The film remains
controversial to this day.
We take our religious icons seriously, as Denis Lemon, editor of the
British publication
Gay News, found out in 1978. He lost his appeal against conviction for
blasphemous
libel involving poem he had published about a Roman centurion's
homosexual love for
Jesus. Though the nine month suspended sentence was set aside, the $900
fine
against him and $1,900 fine against his magazine were upheld.
A non-film version of a work similar to the one described in the
petition was produced
in 1998, when Terrance McNally's dramatic offering Corpus Christi
(inspired by the
then-recent beating death of Matthew Shepard in Laramie, Wyoming) began
previews
at the Manhattan Theater Club in New York. As described by The New York
Times, it
"retells the Biblical story of a Jesus-like figure - from his birth in
a Texas flea-bag hotel
with people having profane, violent sex in a room next door, to his
crucifixion as 'king
of the queers' in a manner with the potential to offend many people."
And it did. The Manhattan Theater Club's announcement of the play as
part of its fall
season was greeted with bomb threats promising to "burn the place to
the ground" if
the production opened. In May 1998 the theatre announced it was pulling
"Corpus
Christi" from its line-up. A week later it changed its mind,
reinstating the play to its fall
roster. Caught between cries of censorship on one side and outraged
sensibilities on
the other, the theatre had to make a choice.
Additional security measures were taken during the play's run to
protect both the
actors and the audience. The Catholic League for Religious and Civil
Rights
(self-described as the nation's largest Catholic civil rights group)
planned an
opening-night protest at the theatre involving busloads of people from
as far away as
Baltimore and Philadelphia as well as nuns, priests and lay people from
Long Island.
"Hopefully we'll send a message that this is basically unacceptable,"
said William A.
Donohue, the league's president.
Corpus Christi continues to play various theatres from time to time (it
completed a
four-week engagement at London's Pleasance Theatre in late 1999) and is
undoubtedly
the "play that went on for a while but never stopped" referred to in
the current
petition. There are no plans to make a film of it, however.
Barbara "crock of ages" Mikkelson
Last updated: 21 April 2000
The URL for this page is
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/gayjesus.htm
Please use this URL in all links or references to
this page
"Spirit Rider" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> on 05/05/2000 08:47:46 AM
Please respond to "Spirit Rider" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Josh" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Stacey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
"alejandro martinez bonda" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Rachel Day"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Greg Farmer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Sarah"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Timothy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (bcc: Robert D Hamilton/Page Digital)
Subject: Re: [RR] Re: new Jesus video
> > > Please do not delete this! Deleting it will show
> > > your lack of faith and a lack of respect for our Lord and Savior
Jesus
Christ who died for us!
> > > Please help!
Get real.
Probably some chain letter to see if Christians will
jump.Its nothing but hear say becuase nothing backs it up.
No Urls, no newspaper stories nothing.
Later,
Noel"Spirit Rider"Bell
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