2 Step Back From Film Protest Over Anti-Jewish Tone

Two evangelical leaders of the protest against Universal Pictures’ “The Last Temptation of Christ” disassociated themselves Friday from a series of fundamentalist-led demonstrations in Los Angeles that growing numbers have decried as anti-Semitic in tone.

Through airborne banners, statements and graphic protests, the Rev. R.L. Hymers, pastor of the Fundamentalist Baptist Tabernacle, has argued that release of the film this fall will bring hatred upon Jewish people, because Lew Wasserman, chairman of MCA Inc., parent company of Universal, is Jewish. In turn, several Jewish and Christian spokesmen have argued that Hymers himself is fueling hatred by his words and actions.

The National Conference of Christians and Jews joined Friday in objections expressed earlier by the American Jewish Committee and Roman Catholic Archbishop Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles over such demonstrations.

Started Protests

Additionally, two evangelical Protestants who started the wave of protests against the film said that Hymers has acted on his own and harms their efforts.

“It grieves us to see this,” said Tim Penland, who organized Southern California evangelical opposition to release of the film after resigning as a Universal consultant because the film was not ready for a promised screening for key conservative Protestants.

“It happens to be that Wasserman, a man we respect, and Sidney Sheinberg (president of MCA) are Jewish, but Martin Scorsese (the film’s director) is Catholic and Paul Schrader (the scriptwriter) has a Protestant background. We just feel that Universal’s decision was a bad business decision.”

‘Very Unfortunate’

“It’s very unfortunate,” said the Rev. Donald Wildmon of Tupelo, Miss., referring to Hymers’ tactics. Wildmon has urged the 330,000 people on his American Family Assn. mailing list to petition local theaters against showing the movie and has threatened to call for boycotts of MCA-owned enterprises.

Conceding that he did not know the top officials at Universal, Wildmon nevertheless contended that the primary motivation is “money” and that studio executives convey “a hostility toward Christians” that is a common, “pagan” attitude among “the Hollywood elite.”

Opponents of the movie, which has not yet been released, are mostly evangelical Protestants and conservative Catholics. The film, based on a 1955 novel by Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis, is a fictional account of Jesus’ life emphasizing his human side.

Protesters have complained that the movie portrays Jesus as “wimpy” and have noted as particularly offensive a sequence in which Jesus dreams of making love to Mary Magdalene. They have asked Universal not to release the film.

Some other religious leaders, including the Episcopal bishop of New York and the California-area public communications director for the Mormon church, have recommended that individuals make up their own minds about the movie.

Universal Pictures moved Thursday to counter the campaign against the movie’s distribution with full-page ads that said the film is constitutionally protected under freedoms of speech and religion.

Likewise, in Washington, Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, on Friday issued a statement supporting member companies’ “absolute right to offer to the people whatever movie” they wish. The “only issue is whether or not self-appointed groups can prevent a film from being exhibited to the public or a book from being published or a piece of art from being shown.”

The National Conference of Christians and Jews said protests against Wasserman “have deteriorated into an all too familiar scapegoating of Jews,” according to a statement by Robert M. Jones, executive director of the organization’s Southern California office.

Supports Right

While supporting the right of protest against films that citizens find morally offensive, Jones said, “I find reprehensible and irresponsible charges against Lew Wasserman and the MCA officials who are Jewish as being anti-Christian.” Protesters should “stick to the real issues” relating to the film’s content, said Jones, who described Wasserman as “a responsible, charitable civic leader.”

The concern about anti-Semitic aspersions arose after Hymers led a protest by about 200 people at Universal Studios last Saturday and was quoted as saying, “These Jewish producers with a lot of money are taking a swipe at our religion.”

A small plane overhead pulled a banner saying, “Wasserman Fans Jew-Hatred W/Temptation.”

On Wednesday, Hymers and about 15 of his followers demonstrated in front of Wasserman’s Beverly Hills home. A person portraying a bloodied Christ was “lashed” by another protester dressed as a movie executive with fake blood on his hands.

Anti-Jewish Chants

Irv Rubin, national chairman of the militant Jewish Defense League, said he sympathizes with evangelicals who feel the film offends their faith, “but Hymers wants to make a Jew-hating thing out of it.” Rubin said the group was chanting, “Jewish money, Jewish money.”

Hymers, who once conducted prayers for the death of liberal U.S. Supreme Court justices, also announced Friday that another demonstration against Wasserman will take place Sunday morning before services at his church in downtown Los Angeles.

Reached by telephone Friday, Hymers declined to answer a reporter’s questions.

Not all demonstrations and protests of the film have been linked to Hymers. For example, a crowd estimated by police at 600 to 700 people picketed MCA headquarters Thursday in a protest sponsored by Christian radio station KKLA-FM.