That's fucking stupid

Posts Tagged ‘stephen green’

Stephen Green, leader of militant fuckwit religious extremists ‘Christian Voice’*:

“The Bible calls for the ultimate penalty for sodomy (Lev 20:13) and for rape (Deut 22:25), and our Lord upheld the death penalty when He called for the accusers of the woman caught in adultery to cast the first stone (John 8:7) – if, that is, they were not implicated in adultery themselves.

“The contrast between our politicians and those of Uganda could not be more stark. A Parliamentarian in Uganda is trying to protect his nation’s children. The House of Commons of the United Kingdom is trying to corrupt ours. Which country is the more civilised, I wonder, in the eyes of Almighty God?”

Well then, my dear boy, to bring out an old cliché: if you like it so much why don’t you go live there?

*not to be confused with militant fuckwit religious extremists the ‘Christian Institute’

After seeing this I thought I would run it by the ASA in case it was a statement that should be substantiated. Carlsberg can’t say that their beer is definitely the best beer in the world because they can’t prove it so why should the bible thumpers be able to state as fact something that nobody can prove?

Turns out that the Christian Party, as a political party, is exempt from rule which prevent lying. The letter I got from the ASA said that their code prevents them from interfering with the political process.

12.1 Any advertisement or direct marketing communication, whenever published or distributed, whose principal function is to influence voters in local, regional, national or international elections or referendums is exempt from the Code.

I would, of course, argue that the advertisement in question was aimed at recruiting members to the party rather than influence voters in an election. Either way the toothless ASA won’t get involved.

Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, is an odious little man. I can forgive him his welshness because he knows no better and I can forgive him his faith because faith in itself is a harmless thing. I could even forgive him his stupidity because religion is a tool designed to lure the stupid into subservience but I will not forgive him his hypocrisy.

Vanity, one of the seven deadly sins, is plastered all over Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, and his quaint little bitchfest website. The whole exercise appears to be a vanity page designed to make Christian Voice look like a large organisation with Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, at the helm when in fact the only individual named within the pages of the site is that of Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice. Everything he does is self promoting and attention grabbing. Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, issues press releases like postits and each one is filled with quotes from none other than Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice. It was Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, who spearheaded the complaint to the ASA about the Atheist Bus campaign which failed so spectacularly and it is Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, who got his face in front of as many cameras as possible.

So,  Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, who’s your buddies? Comments section is below if you can list names and job titles of anyone other than  Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice,  who actually works (either paid or voluntary) for Christian Voice.

In the mean time here’s a little nugget on the subject of Christian Voice, the ASA and the Athiest Bus Campaign. Not only did Christian Voice lose their arguement that the bus campaign needed substantiation (despite the fact that they had no substantiation for a counter claim), they have also recently had a complaint against them upheld on almost exactly the same grounds.

I was considering a 2 for 2 graph, maybe a bar chart with compaints made by Christian Voice versus complaints against them; but I settled for this…

Christian Voice’s Stephen Green on the Atheist Bus Campaign’s slogan “There’s probably no god”, in a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority:

It is given as a statement of fact and that means it must be capable of substantiation if it is not to break the rules.

Well indeed, Mr Green. Because Christian adverts always contain substantiated, unexaggerated facts, such as this:

See what I mean?

Oh, I’m sorry, is something offending you? Did I forget to pander to your poor sensibilities? Are you upset that your religion doesn’t have the powers to control our lives through violence and death and political control any more? Tell you what, you take a seat, I’ll go put the kettle on, so you can have a nice warm mug of shut the fuck up.

One lump or two?

So, the hand-wringing whining Christian fundies are at it yet again. Stephen Green and his Wailers and Gnashers Of Teeth at Christian Voice are complaining about something they have no knowledge of and furthermore is of no concern to them.

A couple of examples of calls to action are here:
http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/2008/11/25/dont-let-the-welsh-assembly-insult-jesus-christ
and here: http://www.christianvoice.org.uk/Press/press115.html

This is the same group who picketed performances of Jerry Springer the Opera, complaining about content which wasn’t even in the show. If only they’d taken the time to watch and realise it’s only art, and quite funny too.

And what about the Islamic* fundies? The ones who decided that The Satanic Verses was a vile attack on their oh-so peaceful religion while burning effigies and threatening death. Well here’s news for you:

1. it’s not a peaceful religion, it’s a submissive religion (I’ll leave that for another article);
2. the two “controversial” short passages in the book aren’t even slightly offensive; and
3. The Satanic Verses is shit. But that’s not the point.

But enough of this. To my point. Revenons à nos moutons.

Strange that in neither of the examples above did the fundies stoop so low as to actually say what the actual offensive thing is. They continually prevent the public from making their own informed opinions about the artwork therein.

They are telling you what to think.

They are chipping away at the intelligence of the nation, hoping to “win the hearts and minds” of people by telling them what’s the next thing to be utterly indignant about. And people fall for it.

But not you, dear reader, for you have at least taken a moment to stop and read something, whether you agree with it or not. The vulnerable people are who we as thinking, anti-knee-jerk, rational human beings should be winning back. Whenever we see someone reading The Sun, or Not-In-My-Back-Yarding, or Pouring Out The Grief, we should fight back with rationality and clear thinking. It is these illiterati that we should be winning over! It’s why this particular ranty corner of the intertubes exists, after all.

Footnote 1: Leader of the Welsh Conservatives, Nick Bourne said, (roughly translated from the original klingon welsh) “Our group opposed … something which is anti-Christian and we would say that if it was any recognised religion.” No. You. Bloody. Wouldn’t. I didn’t see you protesting about those Danish cartoons alongside your Islamic brethren, so just go away and be quiet will you. There’s lovely.

Footnote 2: Before you shout at me, I have the dubious honour of being from 3 different religious backgrounds, so I’ve every right to become the militant shouty atheist that I am today. Now fuck off and get back to work.

*or Judaism 2.0 Beta as I like to call it.