Skip to main content

Bigotted But Not Racist

The tour of Jerry Springer, the Opera is about to open and Christian Voice and their local friends (Action Group Springer) are about to start demonstrating against the show in Plymouth. It seems however that there is an unexpected and unwanted guest to the party: the BNP.

Stephen Green (director of Christian Voice) and his friends are not happy that Graham Green (local BNP man) and his friends should want to join in the fun and help handing out leaflets:
Action Group Springer's leader, the Reverend John Hollins, said he was "horrified" by the BNP's claims.

"I would be appalled to think any of our leaflet distributors were members of the BNP," he said. "They are purveyors of hate and we are purveyors of love. We're Christians.

"I don't go around asking our leaflet people what their political persuasion is.

"They claim they've been supporting us and maybe they hold the same view on this issue but we would repudiate their involvement with us absolutely."
[emphasis added for comic effect]

Of course this is not the first time that “good Christians” have to lie in the bed they have made and are failing to find the bride to their taste. In October last year, members of the Texan anti-same-sex marriage group Texas Restoration Project found that the Klu Klux Klan shared their views and wanted to come and lend support to the demonstration they were organising. Again, a swift ballet of dissociation took place.

I have to say however, that while we might be slightly sceptical in the Texan episode, I tend to believe Christian Voice et al when they say they have nothing to do with the BNP. The proof I will bring to support this, it the picture below. It was taken in January 2005 outside BBC Television Centre at the time when Christian Voice were spearheading the protest against the broadcast of Jerry Springer on BBC2. If the kind reader will take the pain to examine the picture closely, he will no doubt notice that, apart from Stephen Green, the protesters featured in the picture all seem to be members of the black and minority ethnic social group.



I had found this point of interest when I first came across the picture but it now makes obvious the Christian Voice would not want to be seen to be associated with a group notoriously rigid in its views on immigration and ethnic minority (some would say that it is racist). While we don’t know how many members Christian Voice have (they refuse to say), it is, I think, fair to deduce from this picture that a large number of them are of BME origins. They simply cannot afford to alienate them.




Tags: , , , , , , .

Comments

  1. A funny point made very well. just because I don't like the BNP doesn't mean that I don't like 'Christian Voice' type groups too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good post!

    Here's an understatement: the BNP, "some would say that it is racist".

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Please leave your comment here. Note that comments are moderated and only those in French or in English will be published. Thank you for taking the time to read this blog and to leave a thought.

Popular posts from this blog

A Short History of the Elephant and Castle and Its Name

Last night I attended a lecture by local historian Stephen Humphrey who discussed the general history of the Elephant & Castle, focussing more particularly on what he called its heyday (between 1850 and 1940). This is part of a week-long art project ( The Elephant Project ) hosted in an empty unit on the first floor of the infamous shopping centre, aiming to chart some of the changes currently happening to the area. When an historian starts talking about the Elephant and Castle, there is one subject he can not possibly avoid, even if he wanted to. Indeed my unsuspecting announcement on Facebook that I was attending such talk prompted a few people to ask the dreaded question: Where does the name of the area come from, for realz? Panoramic view of the Elephant and Castle around 1960/61. Those of us less badly informed than the rest have long discarded the theory that the name comes from the linguistic deformation of "Infanta de Castille", a name which would have become at

pink sauce | life, with a pink seasoning

As of tonight, my blog Aimless Ramblings of Zefrog , that "place where I can vent my frustration, express ideas and generally open my big gob without bothering too many people" which will be 6 in a couple of months, becomes Pink Sauce . While the URLs zefrog.blogspot.com and www.zefrog.eu are still valid to access this page, the main URL now becomes www.pinksauce.co.uk. There is a vague plan to create a proper website for www.zefrog.eu to which the blog would be linked. Why Pink Sauce , you may ask. It is both simple and complicated. For several years, I have grown out of love for the name of the blog. It felt a bit cumbersome and clumsy. That said, I never really looked into changing it, seriously. Tonight, for dinner, I had pasta with a special pink sauce of my concoction ; single cream and ketchup. I know most people while feel nauseous at the very though of the mixture but trust me, it's gorgeous. Don't knock it till you've tried it. After having had my platte

Review: Park Avenue Cat @ Arts Theatre

As we are steadily reminded throughout the hour and half hour of Park Avenue Cat , the new play by Frank Strausser, which had its "world premiere" this week-end at the Arts Theatre, time is money. Most of the play takes place in the office of a posh LA therapist who charges $200 per hour. So, having sat through the play, I am wondering why the author spent time writing it, why a production team spent time putting it up and why I and any audience member are asked to spent time (and money) watching it. The play, said to be "a triangle with four corners" (!), brings together a therapist (Tessa Peake-Jones), who is probably not enjoying her job all that much), Lily (Josefina Gabrielle - the eponymous Parc Avenue cat) as well as Philip (Gray O'Brien - aka Tony Gordon in Coronation Street) and Dorian (Daniel Weyman), Lily's lovers. In an interview on the play's dedicated website, Strausser (who was in the audience) explains that he thinks comedy comes out of a