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Play portraying Jesus Christ as a homosexual described as blasphemous

An Australian church leader has condemned a play, which depicts Jesus as a gay man and who conducts a gay marriage for two apostles, describing it as ‘historic-nonsense.’

By: Christian Today Australia
Monday, 21 January 2008, 8:34 (EST)
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An Australian church leader has condemned a play, which depicts Jesus as a gay man and who conducts a gay marriage for two apostles, describing it as ‘historic-nonsense.’

The Anglican Bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsyth, expressed his disgust to a Fairfax news publication saying the play, named Corpus Christi, was deliberately offensive. Furthermore, he discouraged people from seeing it, saying life was too short.

"It is deliberately, not innocently, offensive and they're obviously having a laugh about it," he was quoted as saying. "It's historical nonsense and I wouldn't want to go and see it. Life's too short."

In 1997, the play was originally opened in the U.S. It drew harsh criticisms when it was performed in the U.K. Stephen Green, the director of an U.K. prayer ministry, who watched the play, said it was deeply offensive and disgusting.

“It was just as blasphemous as playwright Terrence McNally boasts it is in his introduction to the script. I could hardly believe how offensive, insulting, crass and disgusting it was as well,” he said.

The play is deeply offensive to evangelical Christians because it portrayed Jesus as a promiscuous homosexual who encouraged his disciples to get drunk and who is at odds with his Father, quoted the Christian voice website, with its director, Mr. Green, who watched it.

In 2006, the Sydney Anglican Archbishop, Dr. Peter Jensen, said homosexuality was a matter of life or death issue for the Anglican Church and to accept it would be to call it holy even though God labelled it a sin which must be repented for.

Another Christianity tenet which was, implicitly, trampled on by the play was the notion that Jesus Christ was a sinner through his sexual behaviour. Phil Roberts, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, said it was difficult for people to be identified as Christian and yet believe Jesus Christ was a sinful man.
“It's pretty hard to believe that Christ was not sinless and call yourself a Christian," he told the Baptist 2 Baptist publication.

The play is due to be opened next month as part of Sydney’s annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade.


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