mediawatchwatch.org.uk

Christian Voice’s latest “E-Alert” boasts that 24 protestors turned up at the final performance of Jerry Springer: The Opera on Saturday to “hand out leaflets, speak to passers by and witness the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ”.

Now that the show has closed in London, Stephen Green announced that he would be turning his attention to regional theatres:

Londoners and those within easy reach of the West End have played their part.  It is now up to Christians in the rest of the UK .  We celebrated the end of Jerry Springer the Opera at the Cambridge Theatre, but we now need to pray it doesn’t open anywhere else.   Certainly, with an action against the BBC and the musical’s producers for blasphemy due to start any day now, it will be a brave, or foolhardy, theatre management which will put it on.  It is my hope that Jerry Springer the Opera will achieve pariah status in the regions, and that no local theatre will even think of staging it.   Our members will be watching their local theatres closely.

Since he knows full well that the Millennium Centre in Cardiff is already thinking of staging it, one wonders what Stevie can mean.

An interesting insight into the man’s mental state can be gained from a look at the meta tags on his website. These are his “keywords”:

Christian, Voice, Stephen, Green, prophetic, ministry, politics, Jesus Christ, Britain in Sin, Jerry Springer, repentance, homosexuality, gay, homos, deviant, sex, perversion, sin, Lord, Judgement

Interesting that Stephen Green is four places higher up the pecking order than Jesus Christ himself, and the the Lord is tacked on almost as an afterthought – clearly taking up less of Green’s thinking time than “homos”.

Hmmm.

Stephen Green’s growing reputation as a harmless idiot took a blow today when it was revealed in The Independent on Sunday that he had put pressure on a cancer charity not to accept £10,000 of “tainted” money.

The Scotland-based Maggie’s Centres were offered the sum by the producers of Jerry Springer: The Opera. However, a phone call from Green led the charity to fear a Christian boycott of its fundraising activities if it accepted the donation.

Stephen Green said:

We did have a chat with the people at Maggie’s but the decision to pull out was theirs alone. All I did was explain that if they carried on they would cause offence to Christians, who are known for being generous, and they would probably do far better to forgo the few thousand pounds they would get out of the performance.

It is offensive and you do have very, very many people with terminal cancer who draw comfort from their Christian faith – to know that the money was coming from a production like this just wouldn’t be right. I applaud the charity for the way they have recognised this with sensitivity and feeling. By refusing to accept this tainted money, Maggie’s Centres have set an example of ethical behaviour which is rare in Britain today.

So, no so much a harmless idiot. More of an evil, self-regarding, hypocritical twat.

Ironically, protest donations to Maggie’s Centres from outraged secularists and Christians alike may well exceed the £10,000 offered, further encouraging Green to believe that he is truly doing the Lord’s Work. Good grief.

UPDATE: According to the Scotsman a Maggie’s Centres spokewoman has accused Chistian Voice of exploiting the issue to gain publicity.

Naaah. Surely not.

UPDATE: The sum turned out to be £3000 – the proceeds from the charity performance.

An anonymous tipster informs us that Channel 4 is to run another “Banned” season in a couple of weeks. It will feature a 90-minute documentary on “TV morality” featuring the cuddly John Beyer and other anti-smutters in which none of them come out looking particularly good.

Should be interesting.

A recent study from Birmingham University, published in the Lancet, suggests that there is a “small but significant” short-term risk of violent imagery in computer games and on TV increasing the risk of young boys becoming aggressive or emotionally disturbed.

The effect is less pronounced with older children, and over the long term. The authors urge that other environmental factors be taken into account, and conclude that “There is an urgent need for parents and policy makers to take an educational rather than a censorial approach” (The Independent)

John Beyer, however, knows better:

It is common sense really.

If children are watching violence on TV and playing violent computer games, it is not surprising they become aggressive.

I think the link is especially strong with video games. Children become isolated from the world when they play these games, some of which give you extra points for inflicting more pain, and don’t know right from wrong.

The games literally rot their brains.

There you have it. Rather than base his opinion on an overview of the available research, Mr Beyer prefers to rely on his own “common sense”. This approach leads him to conclude that playing video games causes the decomposition of brain tissue. If true, this would lead us here at mediawatchwatch to suspect that John spends every waking minute playing Grand Theft Auto. When he’s not providing quotes for lazy journalists, that is.

According to the Western Mail, Jerry Springer: the Opera seems likely to be staged at the Wales Millennium Centre, much to the annoyance of kooky Christian Voice campaigner Stephen Green.

We have to explain to the Millennium Centre that there will be opposition to it. Holding a vigil outside as we have been doing at the Cambridge Theatre, in London, is one option.

For the taxpayer to be subsidising something which is blasphemous and which causes deep offence to almighty God and Christians seems to be highly inappropriate.

Well, it keeps him busy, bless him.

Another objector is Welsh AM David Davies, who remained true to type of every persecuted religionist when he said,

The wouldn’t dare put on a play that depicted other religious leaders in the way Jesus is depicted in Jerry Springer.

To quote Sunny Hundal in the Asian Times (linked above and below) “Every time someone gets offended, it has become standard policy to complain that followers of other faiths are treated with more respect.”

Brand Republic has the story of a boxing reality show contestant who committed suicide weeks before the show, called “The Contender”, was due to be aired. It is not known whether the 22-year-old Najai Turpin’s suicide was directly related to his appearance on the show, but John Beyer seized the opportunity to give a quote nevertheless:

We are aware of reality TV’s drive to find controversial people to appear in its shows. Clearly, if this man was disturbed it raises serious questions about the people who apply who are selected by programme makers.

The man certainly has a talent for expressing the Bleeding Obvious in a clumsy way. It raises serious questions about the people who write news reports who keep asking him for quotes.

Good article by Sunny Hundal in Asians in Media, which I should have linked to last week.

In case it isn’t already obvious, competition has broken out between the religious elements of our society for the label of ‘Most Sensitive’. Every time someone gets offended, it has become standard policy to complain that followers of other faiths are treated with more respect

Further comment on the article can be found at Harry’s Place with reference to the upcoming “religious hatred” law.

Ideally a progressive left would be working not only to defend secular values and free speech but to try to weaken the power of patriachal religious leaders over their communities and forge alliances with women, youth and non-conformists.

This is important stuff.

Channel 4 are due to show a live exorcism at the end of this month. In spite of the fact that it falls within Ofcom’s guidelines (see section 1.10(i)), in that it is to be shown after the watershed and purports to be a scientific investigation into the phenomenon, Beyer is up in arms about it.

This sounds very dangerous and will cause considerable unease.

People in broadcasting never learn anything – they don’t consider how it will affect the audience. This is not only ill-advised, it could be harmful.

(Quote from Yabedo.)

Stephen Green of Christian Voice took time out from his Springer vigils to comment on a new novel being promoted in British schools which features a gay relationship. Boy Meets Boy, written by David Levithan, is an award winning story about a budding romance between two teenage boys. Green says it’s “disgusting”.

It is incredibly divisive of HarperCollins to promote this book to school children – on the one hand it could increase bullying against boys who might be slightly effeminate, and on the other it promotes homosexuality.

The book will be published here in time for Valentine’s Day, and is being promoted on postcards distributed to schools.

Looks like Green’s 15 minutes of notoriety earlier this year has earned him the privilege of being consulted on matters like this. Oh dear.

According to The Daily Mail, Channel 4 are soon to screen The Guantanamo Guidebook – a reality TV show in which volunteers are subjected to sexual humiliation and physical cruelty in the same way as detainees at the infamous Camp X-Ray.

The program is presented by Jon Snow, and is apparently intended to “raise questions about whether torture is justified and if it works and what does it say about our values as a western society”.

But John Beyer does not want it:

Torture on TV is not okay. Torture anywhere is not okay.

This is a bad idea, even if these people have volunteered for their 15 minutes of fame.

Yes, John. It’s better to sweep this kind of unpleasantness under the carpet, isn’t it?