The Many Faces of Jesus

"The Sex Life of Jesus" redirects here. For the scriptural and historical Jesus' sexuality, see sexuality of Jesus.

The Many Faces of Jesus, alternately The Sex Life of Jesus or The Love Affairs of Jesus,[a] is a screenplay and abandoned film by Danish writer and director Jens Jørgen Thorsen, which pornographically depicts Jesus engaged in homosexual and heterosexual sex acts, as well as drunkenness and robbery. After Thorsen announced his plans for a film in 1973, having secured funding from the government-run Danish Film Institute, the depiction of Jesus' sexuality immediately created controversy in Denmark and abroad: Thousands of Christians protested in the street, two parties ran on a platform against the film in the 1973 Danish general election, and opponents of the film firebombed the Danish ambassador's residence in Rome shortly after Pope Paul VI condemned it. Thorsen failed to secure funding in at least three countries, was blocked from producing the film in at least two,[b] and was personally banned from entering the United Kingdom—where Queen Elizabeth II made a rare comment on a public matter, calling the planned film "obnoxious" through a spokesman.[7] Even after Thorsen abandoned his plans in 1978, Canada's Revenue Minister banned import of the film despite acknowledging uncertainty as to whether it existed.

A Danish translation of the screenplay was published as a book in Denmark in 1975; Grove Press in the United States declined to publish an English version in subsequent years.[c] Thorsen won a partial legal victory in 1989, when a Danish court overturned the government's determination that The Many Faces of Jesus violated the moral rights of the authors of the canonical gospels, but declined to regrant the funding. He subsequently made a non-pornographic film about Jesus, The Return  [da], which received lackluster reviews. In the United States, a long-running hoax emerged falsely claiming that a movie similar to The Many Faces was in production, which has endured as a chain letter for 40 years.

  1. ^ Stevenson 2015, p. 237.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference gade-thorsen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Reuter 1976a; NC 1977.
  4. ^ Taylor 1976; Lewiston Daily Sun 1978; Jones 1980, p. 129; Dean 1989.
  5. ^ Hull Daily Mail 1976.
  6. ^ Hull Daily Mail 1976; Dean 1989.
  7. ^ AP 1976; Newburn 1988, p. 61.


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