Christian groups everywhere are up in arms over a new film that suggests that Jesus was born in the context of sexual assault.  An organization called the Christian Film & Television Commission has been speaking publicly against the film, “Jesus of Nazereth,” written by Paul Verhoeven.   Verhoeven was the director of other well-known films, such as “Total Recall,” “Showgirls,” “Basic Instinct” and “RoboCop.”

Verhoeven’s account of the birth of Jesus is enough to make most Christians shudder.  Rather than believing that the Virgin Mary was impregnated by God, the film says that the baby Jesus was born after his mother was raped by a Roman soldier.

The Blaze says that Jesus is depicted as an “ethicist and a radical prophet, whose message became too politically strong for the Romans to idly accept and endure.”

“[Verhoeven] wants to spread these lies and blasphemies to a much broader audience,” the group says in their petition. “He is a part of a group of “scholars” called “The Jesus Seminar” so it’s no surprise that he will be spreading doubt and confusion.”

Verhoeven has advanced degrees in math and physics and moved to Hollywood from The Netherlands in order to start making films.   He was eventually the only non-theologian admitted into the Jesus Seminar, a group of seventy scholars who study biblical history and philosophy, among other things.  So, the director is quite familiar with the bible, but doesn’t appear to have committed to any particular religion.

“The liberal media’s relentless persecution of the Christian faith shows yet again the double standard of bigotry. There’s no way a similar movie would ever be made claiming Muhammad was the product of a rape,” wrote Dr. Ted Baehr, the founder of the Christian Film & Television Commission.

But in spite of the protests, it is being reported that the film will likely go on as scheduled.  According to the Huffington Post:

“It seems unlikely that Christian protests will be able to prevent Verhoeven from making the film — he recently obtained funding — and the controversy may offer the film the kind of free publicity that helped Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Last Temptation of Christ,’ and Monty Python’s ‘The Life Of Brian.’”

–Black Blue Dog