ABC/Alex Scott(LOS ANGELES) — A pastor in Simi Valley, California is sounding off about the upcoming faith-based movie The Shack, saying that God, who is played by Octavia Spencer in the movie, is not a “heavy-set, cushy, non-judgmental, African American woman.”

In an interview with the Christian News Network, Joe Schimmel, the pastor of Blessed Hope Chapel, said that the film adaptation of William P. Young’s bestselling book, The Shack, is dangerous depiction of the word of God.

“Young’s pretentious caricature of God as a heavy set, cushy, non-judgmental, African American woman called ‘Papa’ — who resembles the New Agey Oprah Winfrey far more than the one true God revealed through the Lord Jesus Christ in Hebrews 1:1-3 — and his depiction of the Holy Spirit as a frail Asian woman with the Hindu name, Sarayu, lends itself to a dangerous and false image of God and idolatry,” he explained.

Also blasting the upcoming film is Christian author James DeYoung who says that film’s casting could “far outweigh” the damage that the book has already done. “If the film is a faithful portrayal of the events and the theology of the book, then every Christian should be gravely alarmed at the further advance of beliefs that smear the evangelical understanding of the truth of the Bible,” he said.

As previously reported, The Shack stars Sam Worthington as Mack Phillips, a man dealing with a devastating loss who is summoned to an abandoned shack in the Oregon wilderness. There Mack meets a woman named Papa, played bySpencer, which is also his wife’s name for God. Papa teaches Mack how to move on with his life and in the process, he also learns about himself.

The Shack is set for release on March 3.

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