Bishop, Schuller Join Voices Urging ‘Temptation’ Boycott

Two of Orange County’s most prominent religious leaders--Roman Catholic Bishop Norman F. McFarland and the Rev. Robert Schuller--have joined ranks to urge that their congregations boycott the film “The Last Temptation of Christ.”

Their urgings came as concern over the movie continued to spread through Orange County congregations. With the movie opening Friday in Los Angeles and seven other cities, some religious leaders were recommending a wait-and-see attitude, while others joined the boycott bandwagon.

In Newport Beach, the Rev. John A. Huffman Jr. said the lay board of the 3,500-member St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church is expected to decide today whether to urge a boycott of director Martin Scorsese’s film, which is not yet scheduled to be shown in Orange County.

Evangelical Protestant denunciations of the film, starting last month and recently joined by Southern Baptist and Eastern Orthodox condemnations, have particularly focused on a scene showing Jesus making love to Mary Magdalene in a dream episode. But church voices have also objected to the characterization of Jesus as an imperfect, allegedly “wimpy” figure.

And on Tuesday, as the U.S. Catholic Church officially rated the film “morally offensive,” condemnations came from two other California bishops and two prominent nuns, including Mother Teresa.

McFarland, who has not seen the movie, endorsed the growing protest in a pastoral letter to be read in Catholic churches on Sunday. He is calling on the half-million Roman Catholics in the Diocese of Orange to join him in boycotting the movie and businesses “in any way associated” with Universal Pictures, which is releasing the film.

McFarland, who said in an interview that he did not consult Los Angeles Archbishop Roger M. Mahony or any other bishop before drafting the letter, wrote that the nationwide protest “is not an attack on freedom of speech or religion. It is a cry of anguish from millions of hurt and offended people whose deepest religious sensibilities and most revered convictions of Faith are being assaulted.”

The bishop said he did not intend to judge Scorsese’s sincerity in making the film, or question the director’s motives.

And in an interview Tuesday, McFarland joined Archbishop Mahony in strongly disassociating himself from those protests that have been tinged with anti-Semitism, including picketing that has targeted Universal’s chairman, Lew Wasserman, who is Jewish, for releasing a so-called anti-Christian film. McFarland termed such protests “the most repugnant of all religious bigotries. You don’t add one evil on top of another. That’s uncalled for and unconscionable. . . . We’re sharing concerns, but we should concentrate on the content of the movie.”

On Monday, Schuller issued a letter to viewers of his “Hour of Power” television program and members of his Crystal Cathedral congregation in Garden Grove who had sought his advice about the film, according to his executive administrative assistant Warren Duffy.

“I have not seen the film, but I do trust the judgment of my good friends Lloyd Ogilvie, (pastor of Hollywood Presbyterian Church) Bill Bright (president of the Campus Crusade for Christ) and other outstanding Christian men and women,” says the letter from Schuller, who is en route to South Korea for an international church conference.

“Like them, I find this portrayal of Jesus to be insulting and certainly insensitive to the faith of a majority of Christians in America. I would be equally horrified if such a negative portrayal of the central figure of any major faith were released, causing pain and hurt to any of their followers.

“No, I will not walk protest lines,” Schuller wrote. “Nor will I take valuable Sunday morning worship time--which is God’s best opportunity to encourage his people with positive thoughts--to speak on such a negative subject.

“But I personally will not see this film. Neither will my family nor will my close friends. And I will encourage everyone who I can influence not to support this motion picture,” he said.

Huffman, pastor of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church of Newport Beach, said he will recommend to the 21-member board of lay elders meeting today that there be a boycott of the film if the movie indeed depicts Jesus in a negative manner.

“I expect them (the elders) to take a strong action if the content proves to be what it seems to be. I would even say, ‘Boycott Universal products.’ ”

Huffman said he is concerned that he has not yet viewed the film personally and added that Universal should give a screening for Orange County ministers. “It’s up to Universal, in my view, to make available either the actual script or a screening if they want to quiet any fears of the Christian community,” he said. “If Universal doesn’t show us the movie, if that information is true, we have very, very deep concerns about it.”

But Huffman also expressed worry about the current furor. “One of my big concerns is (that) we are promoting the film in the midst of all this controversy. My God does not need my defense. I think sometimes we tend to overreact.”

Some Orange County evangelicals have already taken forceful positions on the film. In a taped sermon to his followers in July, the Rev. Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, who has not seen the film, called it a “horrible, sacrilegious blasphemy against our Lord.”

Smith linked the film to what he considered other “immoral” developments in society, such as instruction in AIDS prevention in local high schools. In his sermon, he also told followers that they would be “guilty” of displeasing God by seeing pictures released by Universal and by visiting Universal Studios.

Others Postpone Verdict

Other Orange County religious leaders have decided to see the film before taking a position on it.

“Because I haven’t seen it and I haven’t seen a script, it’s hard to have any opinion on it,” said Pastor Tim Timmons of the 6,500-member South Coast Community Church in Irvine. “We are basically holding off until that is done. I hate to influence my people in any way unless I know what I am talking about.”

Rabbi Henri Front of Temple Beth David in Westminster said he has spoken briefly with his congregation about the movie but also was inclined to reserve judgement.

“Inasmuch as nobody has seen the movie, only an idiot would make a comment about its contents,” Front said. “However, as evidenced by some of the things that have happened in recent days, there is no lack of idiots in our community.”

Front, however, said he is concerned about the demonstrations attacking Wasserman and other Jewish executives of Universal.

“What is important is (the author on whose novel the film is based) is a Greek Orthodox . . . and Scorsese is a Roman Catholic and he did the movie. . . . I don’t know why these bigots always happen to pick on the poor Jews who are distributing the picture.

“But there is no accounting for hatred and ignorance and stupidity,” Front added.

However, he defended the validity of the original book--the 1955 novel of the same title by Nikos Kazantzakis. The novel was controversial then and Kazantzakis was excommunicated by the Greek Orthodox Church and denied burial in Greece in 1957.

‘A Fantastic Work’

“The book was a fantastic work, a spiritual tribute to the Christian God. It was a world-acclaimed novel. What the movie is like remains to be seen. But I do wish people would see the movie before they talk about it. And that includes me.

“I think the Christian community has got to be able to look a little more honestly at the human third of the triune deity. Some people are able to look at the human side of Jesus’ life and accept it and understand it. . . . Others are threatened by it, and I think they have to examine why they are threatened by it,” he said. “It’s a Christian problem and not a Jewish problem.”

But the Rev. George S. Stephanides of St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church of Irvine, who read the 1955 novel while a seminarian, called the book “blasphemous to our faith” and said that boycotting the film version “is not a matter of censorship.”

Stephanides has advised congregants who are interested in the film to read the novel before seeing the movie. “I told them it wouldn’t be of any value to see it,” but that he wouldn’t “forbid” anyone from seeing the film or participate in any organized protest activities.

But Pastor Edward G. Hunter of First United Methodist Church of Santa Ana said that if the film is “not that objectionable . . . I might even suggest (to congregants) that they do see it. . . . I’ve seen a lot of stuff that Hollywood does--’Elmer Gantry’--and that hasn’t hurt the church.

“My feeling in general . . . is the Christian faith stands on its own merits. If a film like this could destroy the Christian faith, it would have been destroyed a thousand years ago. If the Spanish Inquisition couldn’t kill the church, this can’t.”

However, Assistant Pastor Robert Black of First Baptist Church of Garden Grove said there are grave concerns among his 800-member congregation. “They came to us literally en masse in protest . . . wanting us to do something,” he said. “We believe they have the right to make any film they want and that isn’t the problem.”

Black said those who have come to him believe that the film “is offensive and the people who made it are not sensitive to a good portion of the community that is Christian.” He added that there would be fewer protests “if there was some basis for it (the film) other than fantasy, someone’s novel. . . . It is degrading and offensive to literally all we believe.”

Black, who also has seen briefing papers but not the movie, has not publicly recommended boycotting the film. “I don’t have to,” he said. Members of the congregation “are advising each other. They will not see any film that Universal is making or attend any theater that is showing it.”

Times staff writers Mark I. Pinsky and Jess Bravin also contributed to this article.