Whenever we protest a movie or work of art, we are invariably asked why we are drawing attention to what offends us. But isn’t that what all anti-defamation organizations do for a living—protest bigotry? Actually, in our case, it is more complex than that.
If the offender is well known, or has his work prominently displayed, we have to protest. But when a nobody wants to get our goat so as to become a somebody, we let them hang. This happened recently with the movie “Sinner.”
“Sinner” portrays a traditional Catholic priest as cruel and deranged while depicting a dissident priest as compassionate. Laced with sexual overtones, the script is as silly as it is anti-Catholic.
“Sinner” is one of those independent movies making the rounds at various film festivals in quest of a distributor, and this explains why one of the film’s publicists sent a DVD copy to Bill Donohue: she wanted help in promoting it.
Donohue sent a letter back to her. “So sweet of you to think of me—thanks for sending ‘Sinner.’ Basically what it comes down to is this: the Catholic League only goes after anti-Catholic movies that merit the big leagues. Sorry, but ‘Sinner’ didn’t make the cut.”
