When the filmed version of The Last Temptation of Christ was released in the United States, it met with significant protests from conservative Christians who felt it was blasphemous. Using the controversy surrounding the film and its reception in Austin, Texas, this is a case study in censorship as a social process and in the cultural conflict it signifies. Certain societal factors must converge to create an art controversy. Through an examination of the film, the groups involved in the protest, and the social and political climate at the time, some of these factors are described. Imbedded in this controversy are the underlying tensions that permeate many modern cultural debates: shifting ideas of the sacred and the profane and definitions of moral authority.