Boycott of Film on Jesus Given Runcie Backing

LONDON — The archbishop of Canterbury, Robert A. K. Runcie, on Friday announced his support of Roman Catholic calls for Christians to boycott a new American film about Jesus Christ.

But a conservative London newspaper praised a ruling by a senior government law officer that the film, “The Last Temptation of Christ,” does not violate Britain’s blasphemy law.

“Christians have been under attack for almost 2,000 years,” the Daily Telegraph said in an editorial Friday. “It is not emphatically a faith so shallow as to be put at risk by the frivolity of Hollywood.”

Heated Protests

The film, which has raised heated protests in Britain, the United States, and other places, includes a scene in which Christ hallucinates about marrying prostitute Mary Magdalene .

The movie by Martin Scorsese has been playing to packed theaters in the United States. It is due to be screened in British movie theaters starting Sept. 9.

Runcie, the spiritual head of the Church of England and 70 million Anglicans worldwide, said Friday that parts of the movie cause “great offense and distress.” He said there were “sensible arguments for wishing the film wasn’t shown in this country.”

Asked about a call last month by Cardinal Basil Hume, the leader of 5.2 million Catholics in England and Wales, for Christians to avoid the movie, Runcie said, “I think that is a reasonable position, and I would support him.”

Runcie spoke at London’s Heathrow Airport on his return with his wife, Rosalind, from a vacation in the United States.

He told reporters that he had not seen the film while in the United States but said, “I have been reading the newspapers sometimes on holiday, and obviously there is much debate about it.

“I don’t think that I shall see it (in Britain) . . . . It’s not something that I want to see on the basis of what I’ve read and heard about it.”

A senior government official, Director of Public Prosecutions Allan Green, ruled Thursday that the movie does not violate Britain’s blasphemy law.

Activists opposed to the movie have said they will continue trying to get it banned in Britain.