BBC governors have rejected 63,000 viewer complaints about Jerry Springer - The Operaand ruled the BBC was right to show it.
The controversial musical sparked outrage and accusations of blasphemy when it was screened earlier this year, but the governors' five-strong Programme Complaints Committee ruled that the "outstanding artistic significance" of the work outweighed the offence it caused.
However, one Governor, a prominent Christian, broke ranks and said she "profoundly disagreed" with the decision.
Angela Sarkis, former vice-president of the African Caribbean Evangelical Alliance and one-time chief executive of the Church Urban Fund, said the religious references "would have been considered literal portrayal of holy figures by many people".
The musical featured a nappy-wearing Jesus declaring he was "a little bit gay", and described Mary as being "raped by an angel, raped by God".
The BBC received 55,000 complaints prior to transmission and 8,000 after it was shown, but the Committee opted not to consider the 55,000 pre-transmission complaints when making their report because the complainants had not seen the programme.
In its report, the Committee noted that "a proportion of them appeared to be part of an organised email campaign".
The Committee concluded that: "Reasonable and comprehensive attempts were made to minimise offence through appropriate scheduling, clear warnings, and the use of other programmes prior to the broadcast to set the piece in context. In all the circumstances, the outstanding artistic significance of the programme outweighed the offence which it caused to some viewers and so the broadcasting of the programme was justified."
The Church of England said it was disappointed by the outcome and said the programme had caused "significant offence".
"Naturally we are disappointed at the Governors' decision. Clearly, they took a long and serious look at this issue and were unable to reach a unanimous viewpoint. This was a programme that gave rise to unprecedented levels of public concern and, as the Governors concede, caused significant offence to large numbers of people. We await the adjudication by Ofcom on this case," a spokesman said.
PA