The Anti-’Dogma’ Dogma

Kevin Smith, parochial enemy No. 1, tramps down a theater aisle in baggy jeans, making his way to the front of a Sunset Boulevard screening room.

He is about to show his new movie, the one that certain Catholics protested so vehemently that the Disney studio didn’t dare release it.

Standing left of curtain, the 29-year-old writer-director from New Jersey jokes that he can’t wait to have his film seen “by a bunch of godless, soulless, narcissistic Los Angelenos.”

As for Disney . . .

“Somewhere, they must be cryogenically unfreezing Walt,” says Smith, who generally says pretty much whatever comes to his mind.

Somewhere else, there are individuals who do not believe that anybody should see Smith’s film or hear what he has to say, people who have pledged to say whatever comes to their minds, fair being fair.

For a comedy, this film sure did get the Catholic League’s leaders hot under the collar.

“Remember,” reads a disclaimer on screen that begins Smith’s movie, as the curtain parts, “even God has a sense of humor.”

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For reasons unbeknownst to us, the Roman Catholic faith has become the arts and entertainment flavor of the month. Reverential television movies devoted to the hallowed lives of Mary and Jesus . . . an execrable museum exhibit in Brooklyn that attracts the masses while offending many who attend Mass . . . a provocative Broadway play with allusions to the sexuality of the 12 apostles . . .

. . . and now “Dogma.”

Its creator, Smith, is a devout Catholic who dares explore (exploit?) the teachings, tenets and mysteries of his church with a diabolical humor that tests the depths of tastelessness. He is neither proselytizing that non-Catholics should convert nor advocating that his fellow parishioners boldly seek out new places or reasons to pray. He offers nothing but a spectacle to make one laugh and think.

Wretched excess to the max, “Dogma” is a vulgar and violent story of two expelled angels living in limbo in Wisconsin-- where a halo is nowhere to be seen but a cheesehead hat can be bought at the airport--until a loophole is found through which they can return to heaven. No ecclesiastical target is spared by the time this film ends, with angels armed with automatic weapons.

A day after his picture’s first L.A. screening, Smith and a guest are seated on a terrace of his hotel suite, just a couple of Catholic guys shooting the breeze.

“Could a non-Catholic have made this film?” he is asked, more or less for the sake of discussion.

“I doubt it,” Smith says.

“Because it’s politically incorrect?”

“Because it was so hard for me to make it, and I’m somebody who loves the Catholic church,” he says.

In a Catholic upbringing, one is taught that God’s capacity for forgiveness is immeasurable, that unqualified love for one’s fellow man and tolerance are among life’s greatest virtues. It is a religion in which one needs to accept on faith the miraculous, believe the unbelievable. Villains and harlots are depicted in the Bible, but are not judged harshly by a deity who forgives their flaws.

Righteous anger, however, fuels the Catholic League, an organization based in New York that seems to delight in squashing those who dare oppose its views.

“Just last year,” it boasts in its own news release, “we crushed the Disney/ABC [television] show ‘Nothing Sacred.’ Now we’ll tackle ‘Dogma.’ ”

The league must have a full agenda these days.

There was the New York museum scandal, with the mayor and others wanting no one to see an art exhibit of questionable taste. There is the controversial stage play “Corpus Christi,” which drew protesters in New York and London and had theater owners battening their hatches for its premiere in Orange County.

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But none of this is new.

Ten years ago, “Jesus of Montreal” was a provocative film that ended up Oscar-nominated for best foreign film. Peter O’Toole was nominated for Best Actor in 1972 for playing a lunatic who dresses as Jesus and sleeps on a cross.

The many objections to “Dogma” include its casting, with pop singer Alanis Morissette appearing as God. In 1988, though, Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ” included singer David Bowie as the man who ordered Christ’s crucifixion, Pontius Pilate.

“The people who are offended by my film, they probably feel that they’re being attacked as Catholics,” says Smith. “They make it so personal. It’s just a film.”

“But if a film seemed anti-Semitic, shouldn’t someone Jewish protest it?” he is asked. “Or if a white director’s film uses the N word, shouldn’t an African American be offended by it?”

“I can see that,” Smith says, “but as a Catholic, you’re not an ethnicity or a minority. You’re not born to it. It’s a chosen faith.”

His film has opened, and there is no turning back. The director can do little else now but see if he is damned or praised.

Some Catholics won’t forgive him. The good news is, God will.

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Mike Downey’s column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Write to him at Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053. E-mail: mike.downey@latimes.com.