Religious leaders pronounce playhouse play “vulgar”

La Prensa de San Antonio.- The upcoming San Pedro Playhouse production of “Corpus Christi,” a play that depicts Jesus as gay, has unleashed criticism from religious leaders who say the work is vulgar.In a letter sent to the playhouse, religious leaders asked the playhouse to reconsider showing the play.

“It is difficult to understand who would be served by such a profane and disrespectful depiction of Jesus Christ, who is the object of love and worship in a community whose religious roots run deep,” the letter states.

“The play frequently places vulgar and obscene words on the lips of Jesus (Joshua in the play) and his disciples. The play’s references to the character’s name change to Joshua because ‘Jesus’ sounds too Mexican is a further affront to our Hispanic population and hurtful to those who carry that name with honor and reverence.

The tasteless picture of Mary would also be offensive to Christians as well as our brothers and sisters of the Muslim faith who hold her as a significant figure in their religion. Finally, the Last Supper scene shows great disrespect for a moment and a teaching that is so sacred to Christians. There are many other examples of this portrayal that seems to be done only for its shock value.”

The religious leaders also point out in the letter that “it would be easy, but inaccurate, to dispose of our concerns as a homophobic response to the depiction of Jesus as a homosexual leading a band of homosexual apostles. While many may find this characterization troubling, we feel that the crude portrayal of the homosexual men in this play is, at best, an exaggerated caricature that is insensitive also to our gay and lesbian community.”

But the executive director of the playhouse defended the production, saying the play has a positive message.

“Although it does contain vulgar language and adult situations, as many modern plays do, it has a positive message about not bullying and loving everyone and not discriminating against anyone, and we feel the positive message outweighed the vulgar language,” said DiAnn Sneed, executive director of the playhouse.

“We feel it’s our mission as San Antonio’s oldest art organization to try and serve all the population of San Antonio by providing something for everyone and have a diverse section of shows almost as diverse as our population. Some of the shows are not going to be appropriate for certain segments of the population and we just do the best we can at offering something for everyone,” she added.

At a news conference on Tuesday, religious leaders stood side by side in the city’s downtown plaza to denounce the play.

Sam Sanchez, publisher of QSanAntonio.com, which provides online news on the gay community, attended the conference.

“It’s a work of fiction,” he told one critic. “Have you read the play?”

Later, in a statement, he said, “My main concern is that when the ‘holy men’ of our city stand in the public square and denounce a gay play, they, by implication, give religious homophobes permission to speak out against gay people which in turn could result in violence or death threats.”

Distinguished playwright Terrence McNally grew up in Corpus Christi and is gay. The play is scheduled to run from June 17 to July 10.

Religious and arts community leaders were asked after the conference how they thought Jesus would respond to the controversy.

Bishop Oscar Cantu, auxiliary bishop of San Antonio: “Just as the San Pedro Playhouse has freedom of speech, with freedom comes responsibility. It’s a highly offensive play, and we also have a voice. I think (Jesus) would first of all treat everybody with utter respect. This is a call to reflect on our responsibility when we are presented with something highly offensive. I think Jesus would voice the same concern.”

Rev. Dr. Paul Ziese, pastor, MacArthur Park Lutheran Church: “We should love our neighbor as ourselves and this play does not portray love.”

Rev. Tom Heger, pastor, Beacon Hill Presbyterian Church: “Tuesday’s press conference was fairly easy. It hit all three easy hot button issues – religion (Jesus); sex (homosexuality); and bad words (the f bomb). That is an ok place for the interfaith community to start but it would not be an ok place for us to end. Let’s begin with I will stand with you when you are feeling hurt or maligned. I will never say to you to get over it, or oh just be patient, things are changing. When it’s a gay teenager and there is bullying in the school and this kid says, ‘Will you stand with me? This hurts.’ The faith community says, ‘Yes, I will stand with you.’ It is an important experience to say if you are hurting, I will stand with you. Here is the danger – we get distracted by easy flashy things, like cheap television. I think Jesus would say, ‘Well done good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a small thing and now I will give you a big thing to work on,’ and I think that Jesus would say now get on with the serious stuff. If one could presume to know the mind of God, I think damaged children in a poor educational system would bring tears to the eyes of God more than a four-letter word in a community playhouse. Let’s use the relationships we are forging to begin to bring the faith community to the truly crucial issues and they seem to be framed by the state’s budget. They are bigger and more permanent and more intractable issues. And as long as the state is doing a moral document with its budget, we need to say that it is an inadequate document. The image I have used with church kids is that the state budget is like eating ice cream four days in a row because it tastes really good and then you get sick. So we pass a state budget and it feels really good and in four years, we have permanently damaged a generation of school children. It’s short-sighted at best and irresponsible at least and shamefully immoral.”

Sneed: “I would not under any circumstances suggest that I could respond on behalf of Jesus. I just don’t feel that is appropriate. My understanding of Jesus is that he was kind and loving and these were all his children. That he would embrace everyone regardless of status and that is my interpretation of what I understand about Jesus.”

Jeanne Goodlin, executive director of the San Antonio Community of Congregations: “I think (the play) is evil and vile. The play is disgusting. It’s a no brainer. This isn’t a question of controversy. It’s just a vile piece of literature and Jesus would clean the money changers out of the temple. In Christianity, we are called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world and I believed we did that (Tuesday). We shone a light on something that is not very pleasant, and hopefully we have encouraged folks to think on a higher plane, to be kinder to each other and to be very careful and be considerate and supportive of other faith groups.”