In the latter part of February, within the space of one week, Comedy Central managed to assault Christ and the Catholic Church on three occasions.
“Corporate” is a show most Americans have never heard of. They are not missing anything. The February 14 show was its idea of a Valentine’s gift to Catholics: it portrayed a lay person dressed like a nun who gives an advertising executive the finger.
She works for a group of mega-churches, the Glorious Salvation Ministries, and is interested in hiring the ad company to do a marketing campaign. An employee of the ad firm shows up wearing an oversized rosary, suggesting that both characters are Catholic.
Of course, in real life, mega-churches, and groups with a name like Glorious Salvation Ministries, are Protestant entities, not Catholic. But if the goal is to take liberties with Christian iconography, it makes sense to rip off Catholicism; the mainline churches offer little to exploit.
None of this is worth getting too excited about, but knowing that Comedy Central hires a large number of anti-Catholic bigots, we knew they would not stop there.
At the end, the nun-like character is shown sucking a cross-shaped popsicle seductively. She smiles, saying, “My favorite flavor—the blood of Christ.”
The writers, directors, producers, and actors are sick people. We thought that would be the last of it, but then Jake Weisman reared his ugly head.
Who is this guy? Weisman is the co-creator and writer of “Corporate” (he also stars in the show). He blew up after reading what Bill Donohue said about the show. Weisman even went so far as to threaten to “bring the whole system down.” He was referring to the Roman Catholic Church.
Weisman made his threat on Twitter. His incendiary comment was in response to Donohue’s statement about the February 14th episode of “Corporate.” To show how debased our culture has become, there was a flood of filthy responses on the Internet supporting Weisman. They cannot be reprinted here; some were aimed directly at Donohue.
“In one sense,” Donohue replied, “I am happy Weisman made this threat. While Hollywood was not always a bastion of anti-Catholicism, in the past half-century it has certainly evolved into one. Let’s be honest: If Jews were portrayed the way Hollywood portrays Catholics, it would be labeled the premier anti-Semitic industry in America.”
Donohue wrote to Robert Bakish, president of Viacom, about Weisman’s public admission of anti-Catholic bigotry. “If anti-Catholicism were treated as seriously as sexual harassment is these days,” Donohue told the press, “Hollywood would become a ghost town. In the meantime, Bakish has a hotheaded bigot on his hands. This calls for a serious response.”
Weisman was so incensed by Donohue’s decision to report him to Bakish that he went on an obscene Twitter rampage against him. “Personally,” Donohue said, “I really don’t care what he says about me, but I do care about his filthy tirade against Jesus Christ.”
The worst of Weisman’s tweets was a remark he made about Christ that was so patently vulgar that we will not even use asterisks to describe it (we did in the online version of the news release, where adults access our work).
We live in a time when Hollywood is engulfed in one sexual scandal after another, and while this has provoked a responsible pushback, stars like Weisman continue to defile Christ with impunity.
“If someone spoke about his mother the way he does about Jesus, he would go ballistic,” said Donohue. “But maybe I overestimate him—he is so crude that he may not care.”
Bakish needs to have someone call this guy in and hold him accountable. To do nothing is to say that when it comes to vile hate speech directed at Christianity, Hollywood is incapable of being shamed.
You can write to Bakish at Viacom, 1515 Broadway, New York, New York 10036.
