Edwards Cinemas Chain Won’t Run ‘Last Temptation’

The Edwards Cinemas, which operates dozens of theaters in Southern California, will not show “The Last Temptation of Christ” because of its “denigrating” portrayal of Jesus, according to chain officials.

“We don’t want to show a film that is in any way denigrating to the image of Christ,” said Jim Edwards III, president of the Newport Beach-based theater chain, the first to announce a boycott of the film.

Meanwhile, fundamentalist minister Rev. R. L. Hymers Jr., whose protest campaign against the film has been widely criticized as anti-Semitic, slashed and spray-painted a movie screen Saturday outside a synagogue said to be attended by Lew Wasserman, chairman of MCA Inc., parent company of Universal, which is releasing the movie Friday. Hymers warned that “theater owners should think twice about showing this film” or the same might happen to their screens.

About 150 members of Hymers’ Fundamentalist Baptist Tabernacle congregation joined the protest outside the Wilshire Boulevard Temple. But several members of neighboring Christian churches criticized Hymers’ tactics. “This is an embarrassing moment for Christians,” said the Rev. William Boggs, chairman of the Mid-Wilshire Parish Assn.