TV happy to offend, group claims

[emad]

TV happy to offend, group claims
By Tom Bishop
BBC News entertainment staff in Edinburgh



Jerry Springer - The Opera featured Jesus and God as chat show guests
Broadcasters in the UK are happy to offend their viewers, a Christian group has told the Edinburgh TV festival.

"If they do not understand why we may be offended by a programme, they could stop it," said Christian Voice national director Stephen Green. "But they just keep going."

Mr Green said the BBC ignored 47,000 viewer complaints before it screened Jerry Springer: The Opera in January.

The opera's writer, Stewart Lee, said he was determined the show's national tour would go ahead, despite protests from Christian groups.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/4190734.stm

[dogday]

1. Have they not heard of the latest idea in offensive

tv programming? It is called turn the freaking channels you dumb asses. That's what I do when shrub comes on, it is like watching the most offensive thing in the world, I turn it to another channel. Maybe they should just try that instead of bitching.....

[Kicked in the Taco]

2. Amazing invention allows religious right to protect selves from offence...

[Nihil]

11. So true.

This is the optional censorship device that is shipped with every
television and radio in order that the user can filter programmes
to their own taste.

Shame that so many members of the population are too mentally deficient
as to understand how to use the device.

[LeftishBrit]

3. "Christian Voice" are loonies...

Our very own answer to the American Christian right groups - and probably inspired by them; they even quote Dr. Laura.

They are pretty offensive to ME (and probably even more so to most British Christians).

Here are a few choice gems:

NATION IN PAIN
Who can doubt that there is something deeply wrong in the United Kingdom today? Everyone seems to be looking out for themselves, nobody seems to care, nobody appears to have any honour or respect - from the top to the bottom. There is a political culture of spin and lies, in which no-one can be trusted. Marriage vows don’t matter, half a generation of children are growing up without a father, the government is encouraging children into promiscuity, homosexuality and infertility, crime has soared, people seek escape in drugs, our hospitals are filthy, our politicians spend our money like water while we all live on debt, injustice is done in the courts and the poor are robbed by the national lottery. The Christian Faith itself is under attack from politically-correct local government and the media and indecency is the rule in the arts. Last but not least, we kill our own children in what should be the safest place on earth. How did it come to this?

A GOVERNMENT IN REBELLION
The problem is, our leaders try to run things without God. Even though our Queen was anointed to reign under the authority of God in the Name of Jesus Christ and given the Holy Bible as "the rule for the whole life and government of Christian princes," her ministers pass laws in opposition to the expressed will of God. They think they know better. They bear a huge responsibility for the way Britain has fallen into sin and misery as a result. A whole generation has forgotten how this nation, in desperate need, prayed to God in the name of Jesus during the last world war, and how God heard, and saved us by His grace. Since then, we have pushed our Saviour away. We must pray for our Government as never before, that they might “seek first the kingdom of God , and His righteousness.”…..

BRITAIN IN SIN
The United Kingdom today is in deep decline. Social and economic trends and the UK crime statistics reveal a nation beset by rising crime, family breakdown, infertility, drug-taking, debt, indecency, profligacy and perversion.
Why has this happened? What responsibility is to be borne by Parliament, church and Monarch? Her Majesty the Queen promised in her Coronation oath on 2nd June 1953 to "Maintain the Laws of God and the True Profession Reformed Religion established by Law." We have now passed the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth. Have her governments honoured her solemn undertaking?
Britain in Sin examines some 57 pieces of post-war legislation in the light of the eternal precepts of God. We uncover the serious and growing departure of our law from Godly standards. Over 400 points of references in Holy Scripture demonstrate that Parliament has legislated against every single one of the Ten Commandments, overturning the very laws of God which Her Majesty promised to maintain in her realm.
Deuteronomy 28 describes what happens to a nation which rebels against the laws of God. With 40 charts of social and economic indicators, Britain in Sin shows that the passing of unrighteous laws in the United Kingdom has had exactly the effect prophesied in the Word of God. The adverse trends, speaking invariably of human misery, have followed our nation rebellion from God. Britain today is deep in sin, and the judgment of God is falling.

[LeftishBrit]

4. And more from the nutters...

(Why are such groups always so obsessed with homosexuality in particular?)



CHRISTIAN WITNESS AGAINST LONDON 'GAY PRIDE'
IMMEDIATE 4.00pm 2nd July 2005
The first-ever organised Christian witness against London's 'Gay Pride' was held earlier today in London's Pall Mall. Apart from four arrests of violent 'gay pride' activists, the protest, organised by Christian Voice, the evangelical group whose religious convictions on homosexuality recently led to discrimination against them by the Co-op Bank, went off without serious incident, thanks mainly to a large police presence.
Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, said afterwards:
"I want to pay tribute to the police who protected our safety and our right to peaceful protest. They moved swiftly to arrest the violent trouble-makers, without being at all heavy-handed. I have nothing but praise for them on this occasion.
"The purpose of our witness was two-fold. Firstly, we had to make clear that even in politically-correct Britain, Christians are still prepared to stand up for their Lord and deplore the sin of Sodom being paraded, in all its obscenity, and with the support of police parading in it in full uniform, through the streets of London. The Bible says: 'Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.'
"Secondly, I was deeply saddened by the sight of so many men and women celebrating their involvement in a sinful lifestyle characterised by deceit, degradation and death. We just had to reach out in the love of Christ with the message that Jesus died to save sinners like us and like them.
"Sadly, all we got back from 'the gays' was hatred, expressed in screaming and obscene gestures, and threats of violence - actual violence on those four occasions during our hour of witness. I did not see any tolerance from the supposedly tolerant, nor any respect for the right of free speech. It is as if Satan cannot bear one word of dissent.
"Yesterday, as we protested at the Chinese Embassy against their appalling abuses of human rights, such as imprisonment without trial, torture and enforced abortion, I wondered how human beings can behave in such a depraved manner and with such lack of humanity to those who just disagree with them. Today, seeing the evil on display in London 'Gay Pride', and the hatred towards Christians, I am beginning to understand. How this world needs to know the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ."


WHAT'S THIS ALL ABOUT?
The Co-operative Bank has objected to Christian Voice banking with them. The ‘ethical’ bank who claim not to discriminate, have discriminated against Christian Voice because our Christian beliefs lead us to oppose homosexual rights and homosexual practice. Both of those, we now discover, the Co-op support avidly, sponsoring homosexual events and ‘gay pride’ parades. http://www.cardiffmardigras.co.uk/ (Click on about us - sponsors)
Despite their ‘fair trade’ policies, they are clearly not the bank for Christians, nor for that matter the bank for anyone who does not support ‘gay rights.’
Christians disillusioned with the High Street banks and now the Co-op have the option of the Reliance Bank for ordinary banking. They are owned by the Salvation Army and 75% of their profits go to the Army’s work among the poor and dispossessed.
http://www.reliancebankltd.com/reliancebank.nsf/pghome?openpage
For savings, there is also the Kingdom Bank, owned by the Assemblies of God, Britain’s largest Pentecostal denomination.
http://www.kingdombank.co.uk/
What happened?
We had banked with the Co-op for three years. Then we applied through them to the HSBC for the facility to take credit cards. It seems that at this point someone from either the Co-op or HSBC read our website and found things they didn’t like. The Co-op did not allow Christian Voice an opportunity to put our case to them. Contrary to natural justice, they simply wrote with their unilateral decision on 6th June 2005, giving us an unrealistic deadline of 6th July to move our account.
After setting alternative banking arrangements in train, we sent out a press release on 23rd June 2005.
The Co-op issued a press statement on Friday 24th June, when the story broke, claiming they had been inundated with messages of support.
However, four days later, on 28th June, they sent out a further statement ‘to clarify the Co-operative Bank’s position,” misrepresenting that of Christian Voice and attacking us in the process.
Even that did not stop the flood of protests, so they issued yet a third statement, on 1st July 2005 – the day we were protesting against abuses of human rights in China outside the Chinese Embassy in London.
In a final act of spite, the Co-op did not wait for the normal process of transfer from our new bank, whereby funds, cheques for payment, standing orders and so on are moved across in an orderly fashion, they simply closed our account on 6th July and bounced all cheques written before that date, including those for our staff.
Our beliefs on homosexuality:
Central to our Christian faith is the belief that God has showed His love to mankind in many ways, among which are:
• Creating the heavens and the earth ‘and all that dwell therein’ (Psalm 19:1-6; Psalm 24:1, Psalm 100:3)
• Revealing Himself and His character in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures (Psalm 68:11; 2 Tim 3: 15-17; 1 Peter 1:25)
• Revealing His righteous laws for the benefit of individuals and nations (Psalm 19:7-14, Psalm 33:11-12)
• Becoming one of us in the form of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (John 1:14)
• Dying on the cross so that sinners can by forgiven and reconciled back to God (Isaiah 53:1-12; John 12:32; Romans 6:11)
• Rising from the dead that we might live (John 3:16)
We believe that homosexual activity is sinful and an abomination in the eyes of God (Lev 18:22, 20:13; Romans 1:26-32) and same-sex attraction is an objective disorder which can be healed by the power of Christ (Matt 4:24). Furthermore, we believe that God created men and women for each other, and that the complementary nature of male and female sexual organs speak of God’s design of an emotional and spiritual complementarily from creation (Mark 10:6-8).
There is more on the Biblical texts and the love of God here:
http://www.true-vision.org/bible.html
In support of God’s institution of marriage and family, we naturally oppose homosexual rights, including ‘gay pride’ parades, civil unions for homosexuals, adoption of children by homosexuals, and forcing employers and business people to employ or cater for those whose lifestyle they object to on grounds of conscience, thought or religion.
The presence of police in full uniform in the London ‘Gay Pride’ parade in 2003 was the catalyst for our publication ‘Homosexuality and the Police’, from which the Co-op have taken and distorted quotations. We say that actively recruiting (the police advertise in homosexual publications and at ‘gay pride’ rallies) those involved in perverted sexual practices into the police is not in accord with their serving a Christian monarch.
http://www.christianvoice.org.uk/police.html
Clearly, the presence of police in ‘gay pride’ parades is a mark of how deeply support for homosexual rights is now embedded in the British establishment. We shall continue to oppose homosexual rights. As our National Director said in our first press statement, standing up for righteousness is what we do. Calling sinners to repentance and to faith in Christ Jesus is what we do, as well.
http://www.christianvoice.org.uk/mini.html


(I love the Co-Op; there's a great one round the corner, and I shop there most days.)

[LeftishBrit]

6. Wow, and they actually have an Ashcroft speech on the site!

I won't copy it, as I've probably already done bad things to your digestion; but here's the link if anyone wants it!

http://www.christianvoice.org.uk/king.html

Just shows that they're copying the American fundie groups hook, line and sinker.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

5. In case you missed it, the DVD

comes out in November:

http://play.com/play247.asp?pa=srmr&page=title&r=R2&title=718800

[Greeby]

7. I don't know about TV happy to offend

But if we're talking Fristian wackos who post John Ashcroft speeches, then I'm certainly to offend :evilgrin:

[non sociopath skin]

8. A neat trick calling yourselves a "religious group" ....

.... but we can see through you, you bar stewards.

Good old fashioned right-wing racists, homophobes and xenophobes hiding behind Big Book Mumbo Jumbo.

The Skin

[mrfrapp]

9. Organised Lobbying

Most of the 47,000 viewer complaints were almost certainly from an organised lobby and was reported at the time.

A BBC spokeswoman said: "It is a serious work. People who can’t get to London to see it at the theatre can now see it in their own home. It will transmit well after the 9 o’clock watershed and carry appropriate warnings.

"We have had 15,000 e-mails, calls and letters to date. There is evidence that most of these are from an organised lobby encouraged to contact us.

"Of course we take comments and complaints seriously but many would appear to be misinformed on the content of the show."

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=13962005&20050830161421

I would bet my bottom dollar that this Christian Voice organisation were behind most of the complaints.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4303965.stm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/10/nspring10.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/01/10/ixnewstop.html

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1527202,00.html

[mr blur]

10. Morons. I suggest the answer should be:

"If YOU do not understand why you are likely be offended by a programme, have someone explain freedom of speech to you. Better still, grow up."

But they just keep going.