The Great Victorian Sacrilege

What happens when freedom of artistic expression offends freedom of religion? A nationwide controversy arose when America's first professional Passion play was pronounced a ""sacrilege"" by Protestant ministers. This work shows that Salmi Morse and his play were actually the victims of the Protestant church's struggle to maintain power during the late 1800s. What happens when freedom of artistic expression offends freedom of religion? A great controversy arose when America's first professional Passion play, staged in San Francisco in 1879, was pronounced a "sacrilege" by Protestant ministers (Salmi Morse's play, The Passion, was in reality a pious description of the Gospel story). This work shows that Morse and his play were victims of the Protestant church's struggle to maintain power during the late 1800s, a time when America was changing into a more urban nation. This saga of a society's attempt to control "immoral"art by government intervention is also a disconcerting look at how easily artistic freedom can be sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.

What happens when freedom of artistic expression offends freedom of religion? A nationwide controversy arose when America's first professional Passion play, staged in San Francisco in 1879, was pronounced a sacrilege by Protestant ministers. (Author Salmi Morse's play, The Passion, was in reality a pious description of the Gospel story). This work shows that Morse and his play were actually the victims of the Protestant church's struggle to maintain power during the late 1800's a time when America was changing into a more urban nation. This saga of a society's attempt to control immoral art by government intervention is also a disconcerting look at how easily artistic freedom can be sacrificed on the alter of political expediency.