Paris Jackson Is Facing Backlash for Playing Jesus in a New Movie With Bella Thorne

More than 260,000 people have signed a petition to block Paris Jackson from playing Jesus in the movie Habit. The film, which was announced in April and also stars Bella Thorne and Gavin Rossdale, is described as a story about “a street smart, party girl with a Jesus fetish [who] gets mixed up in a violent drug deal and finds a possible way out; by masquerading as a nun.” In a still from the movie, which hasn’t announced a release date, Jackson’s character is seen looking at the distance with a nose ring on and her hair in a messy brown bob.

Here’s the part that will make you mad: Since the announcement, a Change.org petition asking film distributors to boycott the film has been signed more than half a million times. The petition calls the film “blasphemous” for “depicting Jesus as a lesbian woman.” (Give us a break.) The petition also claims that the movie is “Christianophobic garbage” and asks that movie goers and Hollywood boycott the release.

On her Instagram Stories, Thorne responded to the backlash. “Because Jesus is a woman… wowowowowowo,” she wrote. Sia also supported Jackson amid the criticism, tweeting: “Dear @ParisJackson I love you, keep going. I believe you are a good person. ”

https://twitter.com/Sia/status/1278212607288074240?s=20

Image: Jackson Shirtcliff.

In her Facebook Watch docuseries, Unfiltered: Paris Jackson and Gabriel Glenn, the model opened up about her sexuality and how she’s been attracted to both men and women but doesn’t consider herself bisexual. “I say I’m gay because I guess I am, but I wouldn’t consider myself bisexual because I’ve dated more than just men and women, I’ve dated a man that had a vagina,” she said in the Tuesday, June 30, episode. “It has nothing to do what’s in your pants, it’s literally like, what are you like as a person?”

The docuseries follows Jackson’s relationship with singer Gabriel Glenn, whom she’s in the band The Soundflowers with. “I thought I’d end up marrying a chick…I’ve dated more women than men, been with more chicks,” she said. “The public only knows about three long-term relationships I’ve been with and they’ve been with men. The public doesn’t know about, like, most of the relationships I’ve been in.”