By Giles Wilson
BBC
News Online
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Forget
Titanic. Forget Star Wars and Gone With the Wind. They are small fry
compared to the Jesus Film, which has been watched by more than two billion
people. And now the people behind it have their eyes on a new goal... Iraq.
There's no swearing. There are no sex
scenes. There's some violence, but that is integral to the plot. And
ultimately there's a happy ending.
That's where similarities to Hollywood end, though. There's no glamour, no stars, and
certainly no Cecil B DeMille.
At first sight, Jesus, or the Jesus Film
as it has come to be known, is an unlikely candidate for the title of most
watched - and most translated - film. Shot on location in the Holy Land, and with a white British Jesus, it is instead a
straight-faced retelling of Luke's gospel. It was made in 1979, by
coincidence the same year as Monty Python's Life of Brian.
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Jesus
played by Brian Deacon, a Shakespearian actor
Filmed
in Israel, mostly with Yemenite Jews
in the cast
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But how, while it is
virtually unknown in the UK and many other Western countries,
did it ever receive such an enormous worldwide audience? And how did it get
translated into more than 760 languages and dialects, among them Uyghur, Jorai, Karakalpak, Hakka, Mongo-Nkudu and Nosu Yi?
The reason is simply the work of an
American evangelical organisation, Campus
Crusade. Funded by its supporters and well-wishers, it sends teams around
the world, even where they are not particularly welcome. There they record
new translations of the film, organise screenings
to inquisitive crowds in improvised cinemas, and distribute copies to
whoever they can.
Rather than concentrate on places like
the UK, its focus is on the far corners of the world,
although it has of late been sending unsolicited VHS copies to US
households.
Among the crusade's goals are to make a
translation for every language. With some 7,000 languages on the planet it
has some way to go yet.
The crusade's controversial plea
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But another of its goals
almost guarantees that a degree of controversy will surround its work.
Visit the organisation's website and a banner
advertisement will invite you to "Send videocassettes of 'JESUS' to Iraq". And to help it speak specifically to
Muslims, the organisation has a powerful new
tool.
Rather than address the differences
between Christianity and Islam, the project has made a new, 15-minute film,
which highlights their similarities, particularly the common ground of the
creation story. The new film's British director, Andi
Hunt, says: "The purpose of it was always to create context for the
story of Jesus... Jesus is in the Koran, he's a big part of the Islamic
faith, so a lot of care was taken in the introduction to keep that viewer
in mind."
Even though sensitivities were heightened
by the shadow of war in Iraq, the new film received its premiere in a village
in a politically volatile - but staunchly Islamic - area of northern Egypt. The project members took a screen, a 16mm
projector, and some leaflets.
Documentary-maker Deep Sehgal filmed the screening as part of a six-month
venture to record the work of the project. His film, Selling Jesus, is to
be broadcast in the UK on BBC Four next week.
"Follower of Jesus" Paul Eshleman
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"The events we
witnessed were often bewildering," he says. "But what struck us
most was the utter normality of those who were willing to risk their lives
for Christ.
"These are not Stepford
Christians with glazed expressions and dogmatic platitudes. These are
dedicated, caring and liberal people who believe that they have stumbled
upon the one great Truth, and will die for their right to share it."
From palatial premises in Florida, Paul Eshleman, the
head of the crusade, looks the part of the archetypal American evangelist.
And yet his words don't quite fit the part, preferring for instance to be
called a "follower of Jesus" rather than a Christian. "The
word Christian is so loaded with things that have been done in the name of
Christ," he says.
Conviction is one thing - diplomacy is
however another. Even the fact that the organisation
calls itself a crusade pinpoints the delicacy of the issues at stake,
particularly after President Bush used the term - and quickly dropped it -
after 11 September.
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In
2001, US aid workers Dayna Curry and Heather
Mercer were arrested by the Taleban
They
had shown the film to an Afghan family (but weren't working for the
project)
George
Bush welcomed them home: "It's been an uplifting experience to talk
to these courageous souls"
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Eshleman offers no apology for spreading the gospel he
believes.
"People ask 'Why do you go to those
far away places?' It's because those people haven't had a chance. That's
all we want to do - to give them a chance to hear the message of Christ in
an understandable language near where they live."
It is people like John Meyer, one of the
team which goes into the field to make new translations of the film, who have put that vision into practice - and put the
film into the record books. "I'm willing to lay down my life for
Jesus, should it come to that," he told Sehgal.
"So if there's a recording in a war-torn country, I'm more than
willing to go. Or anywhere else, to be honest."
Selling
Jesus was broadcast in the UK on BBC Four on 22 July at 22:00 BST. It is repeated on Sunday
24 August at 23:20 BST.
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