Springer Opera: Christians should face the music -Jan 12, 2005

Christians have missed a golden opportunity to debate important moral and ethical issues by pursuing protests against ‘Jerry Springer – The Opera’, screened last night on BBC2, the director of Ekklesia has said.

In a statement issued after the screening of the opera on BBC Two at the weekend Jonathan Bartley said; “During the opera, the character representing Jesus is challenged to respond to accusations of injustice and make sense of the world’s problems."

"His response is to say ‘respect me’ without giving any meaningful answer or explanation to his accusers.”

“Through their protests, Christian campaigners have reinforced the very stereotypes of God and Jesus Christ that they are protesting against. Christians would have done far better to take the opportunity to engage meaningfully with the important moral issues of life, relationships, justice and the problem of evil, that the opera raises, ” Ekklesia’s director continued.

Christians who see some merit in the show and who oppose banning it from late-night TV have told Ekklesia that they do not wish to be named because of what one described as “the unhealthy climate of abuse against dissenters stoked up by moral panic tactics.”

Ekklesia’s director also suggested that the protests could well lead to charges of double standards and hypocrisy against the church. The protests against the opera come at a time when many Christian campaigners continue to protest against proposed legislation that would prevent incitement to religious hatred, on the grounds that it might prevent Christians from criticising other religions.

Jonathan Bartley continued; “Christians will now be seen as wanting to have their religious cake and eat it – happy to defend their right to criticise other faiths when it suits, but protesting vigorously when anyone raises questions about their own beliefs.”

Before the show was broadcast Christians burned their television licenses in protest, posted private names and addresses of BBC executives on a web site leading to threats of violence against their families, and exaggerated the number of swearwords contained in the production by counting every expletive uttered by each member of the operatic chorus.

The BBC said on Sunday that it had received just 317 calls since the broadcast, more than half of which had been supportive of The Opera.

A spokesperson said this was a higher than average number of calls in defence of a programme.