It’s the usual mantra: Any art we don’t like is bad art and must be condemned and not shown to anyone, ever!
Concerned about a drama that depicts Jesus as gay, a diverse collection of the city’s religious leaders has banded together to denounce the play, scheduled to begin next month at the San Pedro Playhouse.
“Corpus Christi,” written by Terrence McNally, has ignited controversy in other cities for its coming-of-age story about Jesus growing up in that South Texas city during the 1950s. In the play, Jesus is curious about same-sex attraction, is bullied and later presides over a gay wedding at which he’s dubbed the “King of Queers.”
The religious leaders — ranging from a rabbi and an imam to Protestant regional overseers and Catholic bishops, all of whom belong to the San Antonio Community of Congregations, a local interfaith organization — plan to voice their disapproval of the play at a news conference scheduled for 1:30 this afternoon at Main Plaza.
You know, they could always just not go to the play.
Rabbi Aryeh Scheinberg of the Rodfei Sholom Orthodox congregation said he would stand today in solidarity with fellow religious leaders mainly to object to the offensive language in the play.
“It’s just a vulgar piece of literature, if you want to call it that,” he said. “I read excerpts, and it wasn’t so much the homosexuality. It’s just that it’s art without any responsibility to the sensitivities of others.”
Art that doesn’t respect peoples’ sensitivities?! Horrors! As usual, these characters seem to believe that religion should be above criticism, unorthodox artistic interpretation, or any sort of commentary that might put it in a bad light. The piece mentions that the group includes an imam, but this is why I always think it’s a bit funny when fundamentalist whack-jobs of other religions scoff at conservative Muslims for getting angry about depictions of Muhammad. This is the same thing. Unfortunately, the First Amendment in the United States of America doesn’t include the right not to be offended by anything, ever.
Related: There’s a fun little piece at AlterNet right now called “10 Great Things About America That Drive Conservatives and the Religious Right Insane.” I thoroughly enjoyed it, and you will too.
