The Corpus Christi Film is a Hoax

I've received two emails now supposedly as part of a petition to get a film called Corpus Christi banned. Corpus Christi is allegedly a filmed version of the controversial Terrence McNally play of the same name which depicts Jesus and his disciples as homosexuals.

The major problem with this petition is that it's a hoax. As far as I'm aware, there are no such plans to film such a play, and even if it were being produced on a shoestring budget somewhere in the hope that a handful of gay film festivals might show it, it's unlikely to come to a cinema / DVD store anywhere near anyone who is likely to be offended by it.

The funny thing is that it's not even a new hoax. I remember it the first time around from the late nineties when people at least had the excuse that they didn't really know what email was. FilmChat blogged about a recurrence in 2005 also mentioning the similarly suspicious Jesus porn film Him. In case anyone needs further proof, hoax spotting website Snopes, in a piece written c.2000, has plenty of information about it including a claim the fact that this rumour has been circulating since at least 1985. And the DVD Corpus Christi is simply a documentary about the historical Jesus. Whilst you're at it, you might like to glance at Snopes' religion category.

As a rule of thumb, emails asking you to forward them to lots of people - particularly if accompanied by any one of the many forms of emotional blackmail - are usually hoaxes.