Gay Jesus film hoax
Since around 1979, a chain letter has falsely claimed that a film is in the works in which Jesus will be depicted as gay and involved in a promiscuous swinger lifestyle.
The narrative has morphed over time to claim that the supposed film is an adaptation of the 1997 play Corpus Christi, which does depict Jesus as gay, although not in a sexualized manner.
In 1985, Attorney General Neil Hartigan wrote a letter to advice columnist Ann Landers asking for her help in publicizing the film's nonexistence.
[1] The 1970s saw a massive letter-writing campaign seeking Christians' assistance in preventing a fictitious attempt by atheist activist Madalyn Murray O'Hair to ban religious content on television.
In reality, O'Hair was involved in no such effort and the Federal Communications Commission terminated an investigation into religious programming on educational networks.
[4] Outrage grew among Baptists, partly due to an incorrect statement by a prominent pastor that the film was under production in the United States.
Hatfield, also a Baptist, responded that neither Congress nor president Jimmy Carter had the power to prevent the film's production.
[8]) Four months later, Modern People News reported that the tentative plans had been dropped, and gave the results of a poll that had been included with the first article: 99% of respondents opposed a production.
[8] Two years later, however, Modern People Productions—which had never itself expressed any intention to make the film—began to receive new messages of protest, often assuming that it was the would-be producer.
[10] The Register the same year described a Des Moines pastor who read in a religious publication that it was a hoax and explained this to a parishioner who gave him a copy of the chain letter.
[3] Charles Loise, a pastor from Salem, Oregon, who fact-checked the claims with the National Association of Evangelicals, told the Statesman Journal that "It is unfortunate that we as Christians are so gullible, or perhaps I should say naïve".
The Alabama letters also often included a claim—attributed to evangelist Jimmy Swaggart—that the film had been completed and was due for release during the Christmas season.
[1] In 1980, Illinois attorney general William J. Scott began to receive letters demanding that he ban the non-existent film.
[12] In January 1985, Hartigan wrote to the Chicago-based syndicated advice columnist Ann Landers, explaining that his office was receiving "approximately 1,000 protests a week" and that the matter was "distressing hundreds and thousands of Christians and those of other faiths as well" from "41 states, Canada, Puerto Rico, New Zealand, Australia, Cambodia, Spain, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, India, the Philippines, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Portugal".
[19] A version of the e-mail quoted in 2012 begins (grammatical and typographical errors sic):[20]The movie Corpus Christi is due to be released this June to August.
