While many Christians in South Australia and around the country have denounced an Adelaide Fringe Festival show called ‘Come Heckle Christ’, including calls for it to be removed from the program, one Adelaide church has chosen a different way to respond.

A promotional image for controversial Adelaide Fringe Festival show ‘Come Heckle Christ’, that starts next week.

Para Vista Seventh Day Adventist Church is inviting people to come to their church on Thursday night at 11pm – the same time that ‘Come Heckle Christ’ is being shown at the Tuxedo Cat venue in Adelaide.

“We will praise Christ while the opposition Heckles!” wrote Garry Hodgkin, senior pastor, in a letter to his congregation last week.

He told Eternity that many in his congregation feel very strongly about the “Come Heckle Christ” one-man show, which has been marketed as an opportunity for people who “enjoy yelling at Jesus while watching a dramatic re-enactment of everyone’s favourite fairy-tale: the crucifixion of Jesus The Christ.”

“Our young people in particular have been very upset about it,” says Garry. “So we just want to give an alternative, something positive that they can do in response. So on Thursday night (and every time the ‘Come Heckle Christ’ show is on) we’ll have music, people sharing stories of faith, what Christ has done in their lives.”

A campaign to remove ‘Come Heckle Christ’ from the Adelaide Fringe Festival programme has been running for the past month. Reverend Fred Nile from the Christian Democratic Party launched an attack on the festival’s sponsors via Twitter in January: “why is @sagovau & @banksa sponsoring antichristian hate at the @adelaide_fringe festival ‘Come Heckle Christ’? #auspol”, while Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson wrote to the South Australian Premier asking for the show to be stopped.

“While I am a strong advocate for freedom of speech and supporter of the arts, I believe this production is extremely offensive to people of any religious persuasion and insulting to many South Australians,” the Archbishop wrote.

“It is outrageous and entirely inappropriate for this sort of anti-Christian, blasphemous performance to be included in a public festival such as the fringe.”

Fringe Festivals are run across the country, and ‘Come Heckle Christ’ appeared in the Melbourne Fringe Festival in late 2013 without much controversy. However, when Jerome Appleby from the South Australian branch of the National Civic Council discovered the show was part of the Fringe Festival program in Adelaide, he began a campaign against it. He started a Facebook page ‘Stop ‘Come Heckle Christ’ Blasphemy’, and is encouraging people to write to Fringe sponsors and the Premier to express their concern.

The Premier of South Australia, Jay Weatherill, who is also the Minister for the Arts, wrote to constituents who had expressed concern this week saying:

“I find the title deeply offensive, as will many in our community. This show seems to me to be in poor taste and designed to cause outrage in the community. I believe the best response to this juvenile attempt to grab attention is to ignore it. I certainly will not be attending.”

Indeed, the creator of ‘Come Heckle Christ’, Josh Ladgrove has said the show’s title is deliberately provocative. “I love it,” he says of the attention the show has garnered from Christian groups in uproar. In comments made to Yawp magazine, he says, “I’m glad that the conversation has got people talking about it. Art is about creating controversy and conversation … I’m actually surprised by the reaction. I myself am a moderate Christian agnostic and if people actually came to the show, they would see that the show is pro-Christianity.”

But Garry at Para Vista says that Ladgrove is “pushing it” with that comment. He hasn’t seen the show but while he doesn’t like the sentiment or the deliberate antagonism, he doesn’t believe the show should be stopped.

“I acknowledge that this guy has a right to speak freely. I treasure our country and the freedoms we have here. I think that’s important to maintain … if this individual is closed down by Christians because they don’t like what he’s saying, what’s to stop others closing down a church which shares its beliefs? It’s a dangerous road to walk, to cut across freedom of speech.

“And that’s why we’ve taken the direction we have. We wanted to do something, because I personally think the show is inappropriate, but this is something more positive.”