Preacher: Christian Group Demands Cancellation of 'Blasphemous' Series

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Preacher: Christian Group Demands AMC Cancel 'Blasphemous' Series

By Kevin Melrose

Published Aug 25, 2017

Following this week's episode of Preacher, which opens with Jesus having sex, One Million Moms is calling for the series' cancellation and an apology.

One Million Moms, a conservative Christian initiative that's taken aim at Fox's Lucifer, Archie Comics and ABC's The Muppets, is demanding the cancellation of Preacher and an apology from AMC for this week's episode, which opens with a scene of Jesus having sex. Or "s-x," as the group writes on its website, to bypass internet filters.

A project of the nonprofit American Family Association, which is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, One Million Moms asks its members to sign a petition for the cable network to immediately cancel the "sacrilegious" adaptation of the Vertigo comic by Garth Ennis and the late Steve Dillon.

"AMC would never in a million years air a show that defamed Muhammad in a similar fashion," the petition reads, in part. "I urge AMC issue an apology for blaspheming my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and cancel the blasphemous program, Preacher immediately." The initiative's call to action claims the drama "blasphemes Jesus in the latest episode with the Son of God depicted as a lying s-x p-rvert."

The cold open of the episode, titled "Dirty Little Secret," shows a virgin Jesus having sex with a married woman the night of his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, a flashback that ties into Preacher's mythos involving The Grail, an organization formed to protect the bloodline of Christ.

But, One Million Moms warns, "The disgusting episode does not end there. The program closes by portraying Jesus’ descendant as mentally handicapped as a result of inbreeding. He urinates on the preacher, Jesse Custer, because He doesn’t know better, and then shows him His privates."

The group has targeted Lucifer twice, petitioning Fox in 2015 to cancel the comics-based series, and then, when that wasn't successful, organizing a boycott against one of its sponsors, the Olive Garden restaurant chain. One Million Moms also took aim at DC Comics and Marvel for the depictions of gay characters in their titles, and tried to pressure retailer Toys 'R' Us to stop selling the Archie comic featuring the wedding of gay character Kevin Keller.

Although all of those efforts fell flat, One Million Moms claimed victory in ABC's cancellation of The Muppets, which the group singled out in 2015 due to its “perverted nature.”