Issues@Hand
AFA initiatives, Christian activism, news briefs
July 1998 – The notorious National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), controversial for funding perverse and blasphemous art, has done it again. This time the organization has helped to support a play that depicts Jesus as a homosexual who has sex with his apostles.
Playwright Terrence McNally’s latest work, entitled Corpus Christi, focuses on a Christ character named Joshua. McNally has written numerous gay-themed plays, and has been the recipient of three Tony awards for his work.
Corpus Christi is being produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club, Inc. (MTC), which The New York Times describes as “one of the most prolific and influential theatrical entities in New York City.” A spokesman for MTC said the play will probably open either on Broadway or off-Broadway this fall.
According to an NEA press release, MTC received an $80,000 grant from the NEA to “support a major, two-year initiative to create and develop new plays and musicals during 1997-99.” The NEA is a government agency created and funded by Congress, despite enormous pressure from conservatives.
“The NEA continues to sponsor organizations who seem to despise morality in general and Christianity in particular, and they use taxpayer money to do it,” said Allen Wildmon, AFA director of public relations. “Corpus Christi may very well be the most blasphemous concept ever supported by this rogue agency.”
The NEA typically defends itself by arguing that grant money does not go directly to producing offensive plays. “That’s a typical response,” Wildmon said. “The NEA and those getting NEA money basically play a shell game. The tax dollars went to MTC, which used the money on a non-offensive play, but that frees up money that can go to something like Corpus Christi. The grant monies may not be directly paying for it, but indirectly fund this filth.”
Wildmon also blasted conservative legislators who have refused to kill the NEA as promised. “Pro-family conservatives in Congress have told us repeatedly they were going to eliminate the NEA,” Wildmon said. “AFA has found countless examples of pornographic materials funded or supported by the NEA. When will Congress act?”
The description of Corpus Christi in MTC’s brochure said: “From modern day Corpus Christi, Texas, to ancient Jerusalem, we follow a young gay man named Joshua on his spiritual journey and get to know the 12 disciples who choose to follow him. In this world premiere, Terrence McNally gives us his own unique view of ‘the greatest story ever told.’”
According to The New York Times, which obtained a draft of the play, Corpus Christi portrays Joshua as having a long running affair with Judas, sex with the other apostles, and a sexual encounter with an HIV-positive street hustler. The draft ends with what appears to be a homosexual taunt directed towards orthodox Christians: “If we have offended, so be it. He belongs to us as well as you.”
The play also borrows and then twists dialogue from the New Testament. The Pontius Pilate character asks Joshua, “Art thou king of the queers?”
Joshua answers, “Thou sayest.”
William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, called Corpus Christi “sick beyond words,” and added, “There’s obviously a very deep problem in the artistic community.” The League has started a letter-writing campaign against the play. Donohue has promised to “wage a [publicity] war that no one will forget.”
After the initial announcement of the play’s content caused outrage in the Christian community, the plans for Corpus Christi were scrapped. A statement released by MTC cited “security problems” as the reason.
But pro-homosexual factions within the artistic community retaliated immediately: some MTC patrons demanded refunds while others withdrew donations to the organization; one famous playwright protested by pulling his current work from MTC’s line-up; other leading playwrights began circulating a petition asking
MTC to reconsider its decision, calling the cancellation“a capitulation to right-wing extremists and
religious zealots.” 
