OKLAHOMA CITY — A number of pastors in Oklahoma City are expected to hold a prayer gathering outside of an upcoming play that puts a homosexual twist on the Bible.
The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told is being presented in the city by the OKC Theater Company, and will be held at the Civic Center Music Hall. The event, which will be held in a smaller room that seats 90 people, is said to be nearly sold out and additional performances have been scheduled.
However, pastors throughout Oklahoma City have expressed outrage over the production as it depicts God creating Adam and Steve, as well as lesbians Jane and Mabel, as the first humans. A number of sex acts are stated to be depicted during the show as well.
“We feel like we have a responsibility to speak out and say, ‘This is wrong,'” Steve Kern of Olivet Baptist Church told local television station NEWS 9.
Therefore, Kern and dozens of area pastors wrote a letter to the city, asking that The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told be prohibited from being performed on city property.
“In addition to a ‘fair amount of cursing’ (N.Y. Times review), this [production] calls for full frontal nudity, men simulating anal sex on stage, men simulating oral sex on stage and the promotion of bestiality,” the letter lamented. “But instead of this kind of gross pornography being shown in a XXX theater, it is supported by public dollars and hosted in a municipal facility.”
The pastors said that not only is the play sexually explicit, but it is also “openly offensive to Christians.”
“The playwright intentionally mocks and provokes Christians as it ‘retells the Bible from a flamboyantly gay perspective, beginning with the Adam and Steve in the Garden of Eden,'” the men wrote. “In addition, the writer calls Eden a ‘myth’ and says the Bible is ‘absurd.'”
However, in responding to the letter, facility manager Jim Brown said that the city does not have the legal right to deny the performance and suggested that the pastors contact the production company instead.
“Since the Civic Center is a city-owned facility, the First Amendment of the United States Constitution does not allow us to turn away productions based on their content,” he wrote. “If citizens disagree with specific performances, the most effective course of action is to contact the show promoter and voice your concerns.”
The production company told reporters that it has no plans to cancel the show as it does not want to “disappoint” those who have purchased tickets.
The pastors plan to hold a prayer gathering outside of the Civic Center as the event moves forward on December 6th.
As previously reported, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told also drew outrage in Massachusetts earlier this year after it was scheduled to be performed by middle and high school students in South Hadley. Despite receiving an estimated 12,000 email complaints, officials allowed the program, which featured students from the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter, to go forward as scheduled.
The production first debuted in 1998 and also had a run in New York City.
Photo: News 9
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