Devlin Thompson sent me this link which is to a form letter that the Monty Python folks sent out when there were advance protests about their film, Life of Brian. The protests were quite ridiculous and they struck me, as so many of these things do, as a case of so-called "leaders" pouncing happily on a topic they thought could whip up donations and some show of power.
I mean, you just know that when Jerry Falwell saw that tasteless parody Larry Flynt published about him [Falwell] having sex with his mother in an outhouse, the Right Reverend was not horrified and mortified as he later swore in court. No, he was all, "Hey, we can use this to get our flock mad enough to give us money!" The Life of Brian protests were of the same stripe and I was pleased to hear the Pythons say later that it had all been good for their box office.
I'll take issue with one thing in their form letter, though…
It [the film] does not ridicule Christ, nor does it show Christ in any way that could offend anyone, nor is belief in God or Christ a subject dealt with in the film.
No, it doesn't ridicule Christ but I don't think it's possible to show Christ without offending someone. And saying that the movie didn't deal with belief in God or Christ is like Russ Meyer claiming his films didn't deal with large bosoms.