Scuffle Breaks Out During ‘Last Temptation’ Protest

Push finally came to shove over the controversial film “The Last Temptation of Christ” late Friday when a scuffle broke out at the MainPlace mall in Santa Ana between security guards and Christians protesting the film’s exhibition.

One man, Michael Sanders, was detained for allegedly assaulting a guard, but the struggle was mostly ideological rather than physical, security personnel said, and Sanders was freed.

Christian radio talk-show host John Stewart of KYMS-FM charged that the protesters’ civil rights were violated by security’s refusal to let protesters into the mall to pass out leaflets. But security personnel said demonstrators ignored repeated requests to leave their picket signs outside the mall and then walked to the AMC theaters and marched around the lobby, singing hymns and refusing requests to leave.

Theater manager Monica Dashwood said she asked for help from security because the pickets were disrupting business. Lawyers from the Rutherford Institute, a Christian civil rights group, will try to negotiate a workable policy for “Temptation” protests with mall management, Santa Ana attorney David Llewellyn said.

Christian groups protesting the film contend that it presents Jesus Christ in a distorted and inaccurate fashion. Filmmaker Martin Scorsese has said that the movie is an expression of his own faith.