Corpus Christi and Transformation Cincinnati are nine days and a thousand miles apart - as opposite as a hugging and a mugging.

One will lift the human spirit in prayer - the other uses faith as a flimsy prop for the gay-rights agenda.

According to the author, Corpus Christi is a play written to compare Jesus Christ to Matthew Shepard, a homosexual who was killed in a 1998 hate crime. According to reviews, it depicts Christ and the apostles as gays, and the character representing Jesus has a homosexual relationship with the character of Judas.

Art is not truth

"Very few Christians are willing to consider that their Lord and Savior was a real man with real appetites, especially sexual ones,'' said the author, Terrence McNally.

Maybe that's because most Christians know the Bible says Christ resisted temptation of any kind.

But never mind the truth. This is "art.'' Or at least what passes for it.

The Know Theater will open Corpus Christi at Gabriel's Corner in Over-the-Rhine tomorrow. Hundreds of protesters are planning to picket Saturday night, said Thomas McKenna, vice president of the Roman Catholic organization Tradition, Family and Property, headquartered in York, Pa.

"It's just a sick portrayal of our Lord Jesus Christ," McKenna said. "It's totally made up and mocking of our faith."

"Blasphemy'' comes from the Greek words for "injure'' and "reputation,'' he said - and this play fits the description the way hot fits hell.

McKenna's goal is to stop the play. Good luck. A play that offended a mere handful of Muslims was canceled by Playhouse in the Park this year. But it's always open season on Christians.

If the play is not canceled, the protesters will pray for God's forgiveness and to express their sorrow, McKenna said.

They won't be alone.

Transforming a city

The following weekend, thousands of Christians from churches all over Cincinnati will pray together in Great American Ball Park on June 21.

The goal of Transformation Cincinnati is to ask God "that Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky be transformed into a Christ-centered city of prayer that provides refuge for all people.''

Here's the hard part: "refuge for all people'' doesn't mean Christians only. It also includes anti-Christian "artists'' who insult God and deeply offend Christians because religion is the last refuge of traditional morality.

The goals of Transformation include: "We only have one enemy, and it is not each other. "

"God wants us to come together in unity, not uniformity.''

"Love God - Love each other. Quit focusing on crime and race and economic issues and turn to God for answers.''

Corpus Christi uses faith as an insult. Transformation uses faith to overcome insults.

Where would Jesus go if he came to Cincinnati for a weekend? I believe he will be in both places.

For the rest of us, the choice is as easy as light and darkness.

E-mail pbronson@enquirer.com or call 768-8301.