Watch your mouth

Today's blasphemy round-up:
In England, a group called Christian Voice wants to bring a case against the director general of the BBC and the producer of the award-winning musical Jerry Springer--The Opera for blasphemous libel. The offense carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. They say the opera portrays Jesus as a "coprophiliac sexual deviant."

(They should take a few pointers from the real professionals. In Sudan, British primary school teacher Gillian Gibbons has been arrested for insulting Islam's Prophet by letting her class of 7-year-olds name a teddy bear Mohammad).


Future blasphemy round-up:
No one has charged David Heriot yet with blasphemy, but he plans to direct The Aquarian Gospel, a story of Jesus' missing years from ages 13 to 30. Heriot previously directed the self-help motivational documentary The Secret. [Now there's some actual blasphemy] The Aquarian Gospel will trace Jesus' journeys from Israel through India, Tibet, Persia, Greece and Egypt as he encounters people of all creeds, classes and faiths. Modern-day spiritual leaders will fill cameo roles, portraying prominent historical and religious figures that Jesus encountered.

In the same vein, German filmmaker Robert Sigl's The 13th Disciple will trace the journey of two German archaeologists looking for evidence that Jesus visited India. They find Jesus had an evil twin brother who is reincarnated in the present as the scheming head of a religious sect.

Heriot's plans seem most troubling to me. Will he cast Benny Hinn as Zaccheus? The Dalai Lama as his own previous incarnation? I don't know... Just don't let Shirley MacLaine play Mary Magdelene. That would be a crime.

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