CAprrAL TIMES, October 4, 1989
Film showing
By David A. Blymire
Capital Times Staff
As sixty demonstrators gathered to
protest Harrisburg Area Community
College's showing of the film. The Last
Temptation of Christ, strong autumn
winds blew around the auditorium like
the controversy that has surrounded the
film since its release in 1988.
The conservative Christian
protesters, who came to voice their
opinions of the film's portrayal of Jesus,
handed out religious pamphlets, and
formed a large circle in front of the
auditorium, in which they quietly sung
hymns and prayed.
"We believe the film to be
slanderous and blasphemous of the Son
of God," said George Boutieller Sr.,
pastor of Brookfield Bible Church in
Harrisburg. "The filmmaker doesn't
know the gospel."
The Christ of the film, he said,
"was confused, immoral, angry and not
sure who he was."
Boutieller and others admitted they
had not seen the film.
"I've never seen the movie," said
Odds are, students know little about college's neighbor
Odd Fellows' home has been around since 1875
Mary Lee Schaal , le
Cap ard' Threes Staff
Just a stone's throw from Penn State
Harrisburg, a stately Georgian mansion
rises from a broad expanse of lush green
lawn dotted with imposing evergreen and
oak trees, with its white columns and
brass cupola that invite passers-by to
ponder its contents. Could it be the
campus, or is it perhaps a relocated
mansion from a southern plantation?
"Students wander in thinking it's the
college ," said Pat Peavy,
Activity/Volunteer coordinator at the
Odd Fellows Home located on Route
230 just outside of Middletown.
The home, established in 1875 by the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, has
been undergoing major renovations for
the past several years, and is even more
grand looking on the inside than it is on
the outside.
The renovations have changed small,
dingy rooms with cracked plaster and
single windows into personal care suites
with brightly flowered drapes, carpeted
floors, and a modern call system that
allows residents to contact the nursing
stations in the event of an emergency.
Elevators provide easy movement
between floors, and the wide, carpeted
hallways lined on both sides with sturdy
wood and brass handrails and brass
candle-like light fixtures.
In the carpeted chapel, Roman arched
windows line the sidewalls, and red and
blue hues of sunlight filter in through a
large stained-glass window behind the
altar. Antique wooden chalices and hand
made symbols of the Order of the Odd
Fellows are enclosed in glass cases along
the back wall.
They are fortunate, Peavy said, to
have such a beautiful chapel on the
premises. Not all nursing homes do.
A look into the personal care dining
COMMUNITY
protested at area college
Bud Smitley, the State Director of the
Fellowship of Christian Atheletes, "but
I don't have to get bit by a rattlesnake to
know its poisonous."
Before the group formed a circle,
one unidentified protester, who refused to
be interviewed, started shouting at
people going into the theater.
A lone counterprotester who carried
a sign that read "He who is without sin .
. . call me sinner," stood alongside the
protest group.
"I didn't want to be here," said Dan
Shutters, Pastor of St. Christopher
Lutheran Church, "but when I saw in the
paper that someone said its
blasphemous, I decided to come."
"I protest someone esle defining
what is sin for me, and claiming that
they only speak for God," he said.
"They should be pointing to an
alternative rather than saying you
oughtn't do this or that."
The protesters, however, denied they
were trying to tell people what to do.
"We don't have a right to keep
people from seeing the film," said
Smitley, "but we do have a right to tell
The Odd Fellows Home
room reveals a large stone fireplace,
more Roman arched windows along the
sides, and wood and brass chandeliers
hanging from the high ceiling. The
tables set with matc hing cloths and
napkins folded to fit in the coffee cups
await the diners, much as they would in
many fine restaurants.
A small group of residents gather in
the lobby near the dining room. Women
wear bright dresses, and most men wear
suits and ties. The terrazzo floor, the
brass handrails on the marble steps, and
the brass chandelier would blend as well
in the lobby of a first-class hotel as they
do here.
"It's almost lunchtime!" Peavy said
as he greets the reasidents with a smile
and often reaches out to touch a hand or
shoulder. Diners here are required to be
dressed. No nightgowns or bedclothes,
Peavy said -- a reminder that this room
is indeed part of a nursing home facility.
Peavy's office is a small glasse-in
cubicle between an activity room and an
area being used for physical therapy. A
wheelchair bound man sitting quietly in
the activity room, with his helmeted
head moving only occasionally, and a
woman strapped into an upright therapy
apparatus, moaning softly, serve as a
the truth."
Those interviewed from among the
420 people who filled the auditorium to
its legal capacity also disagreed with the
protesters.
"It didn't change my beliefs," said
Joseph Bryner, a student at Penn State
Harrisburg. "The driving motivation for
m to see the film was to see what the
controversy was about."
"I felt the movie portrayed a human
Christ; almost a frightening Christ, that
the average Christian isn't aware of--he
didn't want to die," Bryner said. "I
enjoyed the movie."
A pastor saw the film as a
"provocative interpretation of the Jesus
story."
"I don't think its offensive," said
George Yoder, Pastor of First Lutheran
Church in Carlisle. "The more I think
about it, the more positive I feel."
"Some elements of the tradition
were authentic and some were not
authentic," he said. "It was a typical
movie presentation of Jesus."
Campus security reported that no
major incidents occurred, and that the
photo
on Route 230.
reminder that some of the residents will
not be able to enjoy the beautiful garden
setting or the carefully laid table in the
dining room.
The corridors in this area, too, are
wide and brightly lit. They sparkle with
cleanliness, but are lined with people in
wheelchairs, often not speaking
coherently, lap pads providing warmth
for aged legs.
The home buzzes with life and
activity for nearly 140 residents; some
bedridden and requiring around-the-clock
skilled nursing care, and others needing
only the occasional assistance that can
be provided by a sheltered environment.
One of the more fortunate residents is
Clarence Brown, formerly of
Myerstown, who moved to the personal
care section with his wife on Aug. 3.
"I had a stroke on March 29," Brown
said. "I wanted to make the decision
when I could do it myself, rather than
wait until it became a burden for
someone else."
Brown, at first partially paralyzed by
the stroke, now gets around with just a
cane, and often walks down to the
benches near the road to enjoy the
outdoors.
Perched atop Brown's head is a white
protesters were "orderly and well
behaved."
"We prepared for the worst, and got
the best," said John Fritz of Physical
Plant Services at HACC.
"It served its purpose," he said. "It
established the Democratic right to
discuss these matters--we had the movie,
we had protests, we had people come to
see the movie and we had
counterprotest."
The protest movement got underway
through the influence of various
evangelical leaders.
According to Boutieller, an unamed
representative from the National
Association of Evangelicals was hired to
promote the movie within the
evangelical community.
"He saw the film and was
disgusted," Boutieller said.
Psychologist and radio personality
Dr. James Dobson got involved in the
movement when he sent newsletters to
his listeners bearing the headline
"Hollywood's War on Christianity,"
urging people to protest the showing of
the film.
cap bearing the emblem of the Odd
Fellows, three overlapping rings. The
symbol, with the letters "F", "L" and
"T" in the rings, also adorns the faded
sign along Route 230, and the cupola
centered on the roof of the brick
building.
The letters stand for friendship, love
and truth, Odd Fellows' Grand Secretary
Willis Robinson said.
Robinson lives and works in a
smaller buildiing just west of the home
that serves as the headquarters for the
organization's Grand Lodge of
Pennsylvania.
At one time, the organization,
following its commitment to relieve the
distressed and educate orphans, had eight
old-age homes and four orphan homes in
Pennsylvania.
Now, only two old-age homes are
left, Robinson said. He added that
membership in the Order has gone from
a high of 22,000 in 1922 to about 9,000
today.
The name Odd Fellows stems from
the organization's origin in 18th century
England, when men who formed a
mutual aid fraternity to work among the
distressCd and underprivileged were
labeled as "old fellows."
According to administrator David
Mills, the home in Mi4dletown is now
run by a non-profit charitable
corporation established under
Pennsylvania law. The home retains the
Old Fellows' name, but admissions now
are on a first come, first served basis.
Old Fellows are not guaranteed
admission to the home, Mills said,
which is not always understood by
members of the Order.
He said funds for the extensive
renovations that have taken place have
been generated over the last seven years,
more Odd Fellows on 15