Paris Jackson is under fire.
The only daughter of the late Michael Jackson is facing backlash for portraying Jesus Christ — considered the ‘messiah’ of the Christian religion — as a lesbian.
Why is this depiction being met with a backlash, though?
In the upcoming film Habit, Paris Jackson plays a “street smart party girl” with a “Jesus fetish,” whatever that means. When her character — whose name has not been released — gets caught up in a drug deal gone wrong, she uses her ingenuity to get out of the situation by portraying a man.
Not just any man, of course — but the man Christians all over the world consider their Lord and Savior.
Naturally, this depiction is being met with a backlash .
As of Sunday, over 290,000 people have signed a petition on Change.org to prevent the distribution of the film. According to the petition, the film is “Christianophobic garbage.”
“A new blasphemous Hollywood film is predicted to come out soon depicting Jesus as a lesbian woman,” the petition reads. “The film “Habit” stars Paris Jackson who plays the role of “lesbian Jesus”. Distributors haven’t picked it up as of yet, so let’s please spread awareness and wake people up to the Christianophobic garbage that is spread nowadays, but is somehow accepted and praised by society.”
Uh — wait, what?
Never mind the fact that Paris Jackson isn’t quite portraying Jesus Christ as a lesbian — but is this really the first time that Jesus Christ has been “wrongfully” depicted?
Through the years, a man who lived in the desert in what is, today, Palestine, has been depicted in the mainstream as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed quasi-rock star who speaks with a British accent .
And it’s well within an artist’s right to take a license when it comes to depicting things that they want in his/her own works of art. That includes depictions of things people hold most sacred — including Jesus Christ.
Paris Jackson may have a lot of reasons for coming under fire. But doing her job — being an actress and playing a role — isn’t one of them.