The Rev. Jerry Falwell declared “war” Friday on the Martin Scorsese film, “The Last Temptation of Christ,” while denouncing groups that have been using opposition to the film to fan anti-Semitism.
“I’ll certainly speak out and decry every statement or action that in any way fans anti-Semitism,” Falwell said at a news conference at the National Press Club. “Any decent Christian should do that, any decent American should do that.”
Falwell was responding to questions about fundamentalist groups who have made anti-Semitic remarks in denouncing the film and Lew Wasserman, chairman of MCA, the entertainment conglomerate whose Universal Pictures subsidiary is producing the movie.
“There are some who are clearly fanning anti-Semitism,” Falwell said. “It is wrong, it should be opposed. It changes the subject. The subject is not who are the officers of MCA and Universal.
“The issue is, this publicly owned company has blasphemed the savior, the Lord Jesus. It is not a Jewish issue, it is a monetary issue.”
The film, which is based on a 1951 novel by the late Nikos Kazantzakis, depicts Jesus as resisting his divinity. Falwell said the makers of the movie are not necessarily anti-Christian, but had created “blasphemy for profit.”
At the same time, the minister said the makers of the film made a business decision that lacks the sensitivity to realize that “there are those extremists out there who will use this film in a way that is very devastating to the relationships that exist between Christians and Jews.”
‘NUTS WHO ARE OUT THERE’
He said that he and others have spent a “long time building bridges” between Jews and Christians.
But, Falwell added, “there is no way to suppress or control the nuts who are out there.”
Falwell read part of a letter of support to his opposition to the film from Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein of Chicago, head of the Holy Land Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
“A production of any kind that blasphemes Christianity, profanes the faith of its adherents and assaults the sensibilities of its devotees is an affront, not only to the Christian community, but to Jews and all decent Americans alike,” Eckstein wrote.
Falwell called the hastily scheduled news conference because Universal announced that it would release the film Aug. 12, a month earlier than previously scheduled.
Falwell outlined five types of action he plans to take as part of his war on “The Last Temptation.” They include educating the public about the film, urging people never again to attend a theater that shows the film, local picketing of theaters that show the film and a letter-writing and telephone campaign to MCA and Universal officers.
The fifth and most important act, according to Falwell, will be a boycott of MCA and all its subsidiaries, as well as companies that have common board members with Universal and MCA, and companies owned or run by major shareholders of MCA.
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