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Director defends gay Jesus play |
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Written by Garrett Bithell
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Thursday, 24 January 2008 |
 Leigh Rowney, the director of Corpus Christi, a play that depicts Jesus as a gay man who is seduced by Judas and conducts a gay marriage for two apostles, has spoken out against criticism from religious leaders.
As reported in Sydney’s Sun Herald newspaper on Sunday, January 20, the Anglican Bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsyth, has labelled the play by Terrence McNally, which opens at New Theatre on February 7 as part of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, ‘deliberately offensive’. Australian Family Association spokesperson Angela Conway said the play ‘borders on blasphemous’.
“I belong to a church community that embraces anyone who wants to come and worship,” Rowney, a practicing Christian, told MCV.
“I’m directing the play because I wanted to explore what I believe is a problem with contemporary Christian communities where gay people feel unwelcome.
“I want to believe in a God of love and a God of compassion, and I don’t want to believe that by virtue of your birth and your DNA … you are damned for all time because you just don’t fit. That is not a way I want to live and it’s not a belief system I want to embrace.
“I believe that Christianity can embrace homosexuals and that you can be actively homosexual and have an open relationship with the Christian God.”
New Theatre’s Artistic Director Louise Fischer has also responded to the condemnation.
“Corpus Christi was written in a quest to find humanity in religion and to explore the universality of God’s love,” she told MCV.
“We are not exploiting or trivialising religion or the Christian faith but rather exploring the attitude of the church towards homosexual Christians.
“The decision to stage [the play] was not taken lightly and was based on…our commitment to producing theatre that not only entertains but has artistic merit and provokes robust debate. It is a metaphor for the power of Christ’s message to show tolerance and love in the face of bigotry and hatred.”
Rowney concurs. “If yours is a living and functional faith that’s going to contribute something to the world, which it should be, you’ve got to embrace the possibility of including other people.”
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