Maybe it was equipment failure, or perhaps a communication breakdown.
Either way, the Christ Church Cranbrook canceled a showing of the film, The Third Jihad, that was set to run Thursday. Spokeswoman Rachel Huber chalked it up to a possible misunderstanding.
“We were given the wrong information and we went with it,” she said Wednesday.
In a notice sent out to local newspapers, Huber said the Bloomfield Hills church was initially asked by a nonpartisan group to screen a different film on that date. Instead, the church discovered the Bloomfield Republican Women’s Club planned to show The Third Jihad, a controversial film that explores “the radical presence of Islam in America.”
At that point, Huber said the group was asked to move their showing of the film to another site.
“We profoundly respect the Islamic community and regret any appearance that would suggest otherwise,” she wrote in the notice. “We look forward to continued interfaith collaboration and ministry in the future.”
Esther Littmann, president of the Bloomfield Republican Women’s Club, offers a different spin on what occurred. She said the group only decided to move after learning the church sound system was not working properly.
“Churches sometimes have equipment that doesn’t work that well,” Littmann said Wednesday. “We found out the sound system was not working properly, so we had to move. There are no hard feelings.”
The film was scheduled to be shown at a location in West Bloomfield, with the proceeds going to a club packing party that will distribute household supplies for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.