NZ churches join push to lower censorship of the passion

Evangelical churches and the Catholic Communications Office are backing a push to lower the R16 rating of Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ so younger children can view it.

The film, which graphically portrays the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, is due to be publicly screened in New Zealand tomorrow, Ash Wednesday.

The Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) last week gave the film a R16 rating based the film's treatment of violence, cruelty and horror.

In the film, Christ is caned by two Roman soldiers until he is covered with bleeding wounds and then scourged with cat-o-nine-tails with hooks and blades attached.

A crown of thorns is hammered on to his head and he is repeatedly whipped as he stumbles along the route to his crucifixion, where nails being driven through his palms are shown in close-up.

But watchdog group, the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards (SPCS), today lodged an application for the rating to be lowered to allow younger children to see the film, accompanied by an adult.

"...the story of the last 12 hours of the life of Jesus and His subsequent Resurrection is of such a high level of significance, historically, culturally, socially and spiritually, that many children aged 13-15 would want to see this film and would greatly benefit from seeing it. This story, more than any other, has shaped the direction of Western civilisation," the letter, to the secretary of Internal Affairs, said.

The group is being backed by the Catholic Communications Office -- the mouthpiece for the Catholic church -- and a grouping of 350 evangelical Christian churches and organisations called "Vison Network NZ" which includes some Anglican and Presbyterian members.

The film's Australian rating allowed 15-year-olds to go with an adult and in the United States children under 17 could go with an adult, SPCS secretary David Lane said in the letter.

Mr Lane said the film's violence was not gratuitous and it had a "superb moral message of the triumph of love over persecution".

He urged the OFLC to reclassify it as an educational film, open to accompanied viewers as young as 13.

The SPCS is a watchdog group normally opposed to gratuitous violence in movies.

Mr Lane said while SPCS contained many Christians it was a secular organisation which aimed to reduce the amount of gratuitous violence, especially sexual violence, on movie screens.

Lindsay Freer of the Catholic Communications Office said they supported the application to lower the rating so that Year 11 students -- 15-year-olds -- could be shown the movie in Catholic schools.

It was not a formal position of the national Catholic church, but "some" bishops and schools she had talked to, including Auckland Bishop Pat Dunn, who had seen the movie, felt the same way.

Mrs Freer said past films about Christ had been "rather sanitised".

"He was flogged. He did have this crown of thorns hammered into his head. He was nailed to a cross. It was a brutal act and it's something that underpins the whole of the Christian faith, why he did it, out of love."

Vison Network NZ national director Glyn Carpenter said parents had the right to make that judgement call for their children.

"The film is of such importance to a large number of people, not just Christians, because it depicts an historical event of enormous significance... in my view it faithfully depicts what we believe the history to be and the violence and the brutality was just an integral part of that.

"So it would be very hard to present that story accurately without that violence there."

The network represents 350 evangelical churches and bodies including World Vision, Baptist, Assembly of God and some Presbyterian and Anglican churches.

But chief censor Bill Hastings was resolute today the rating would not be lowered ("if I was to reconsider it, I might reconsider it up") and warned the film's violence would "traumatise" children.

"Once (parents) got into the theatre and saw hooks and blades hooked into Christ's flesh and then whipped out again, for example, they would have a lot of traumatised kids on their hands and regret having taken their kids there."

However, classrooms' applications for an exemption to show the film to under-16s for educational purposes would likely be successful if they gained parental consent, he said.

"But as far as general release is concerned, we made a finding that the extent and degree -- the very intense degree, the huge extent and the manner and which the violence is shown in this film -- would disturb children if not actually traumatise them."

The violence differed from the average Hollywood movie as it was all directed at one person, "relentlessly", graphically and repeatedly, he said.

Britain had just revised its restriction up to 18, he said.

Mr Hastings said that "faith" had been considered in his decision and the Catholic, Jewish, Baptist and Presbyterian representatives consulted all felt the violence was more concerning than the spiritual message.

"New Zealanders are not 100 per cent Christians either, and I'm not in the business of privileging one religion over another."

There was "no way" the rating would be changed by tomorrow, and any change would take months.

- NZPA