A musical described as ‘filth and blasphemy’ which died on its disastrous theatre tour in 2006 is to be exhumed.

A group of students at St Andrew’s University plan to stage Jerry Springer the Opera as part of a arts festival called ‘On the Rocks’ running from 19th to 26th April.

The blasphemous show, written by militant atheist Stewart Lee, features Jesus Christ as a nappy-wearing sexual deviant, describes Mary as a victim of rape, says the birth of Jesus was because ‘the condom split’, ridicules the sacrament of holy communion, scorns the crucifixion wounds of Jesus, casts Almighty God as an ineffective old fool who needs Jerry Springer’s shoulder to cry on, and finally presents Springer as an alternative saviour. It is awash with sexual depravity and disgusting language.

When the show went on its 23-week tour in 2006, Christian campaigners leafleted the audience at virtually every show at every venue, and some venues saw leaflet campaigns weeks in advance, informing theatre-goers just how dreadful it was. As a result of the bad publicity, only one theatre ( Newcastle ) was even one-third full, every theatre lost thousands of pounds, and the producers, Avalon, lost £500,000. Stewart Lee said the show was ‘ruined’ for him. Perhaps audiences did not want to be evangelised on a night out, or perhaps they did not wish to sit through an evening of filth. Either way, the Christians gave God the glory for the wreckage.

St Andrew’s is the birthplace of the Scottish Reformation, where Patrick Hamilton, George Wishart and Henry Forrest were martyred for their faith. It was desecrated in December 2004, when students staged the blasphemous play ‘Corpus Christi’ in the Crawford Arts Theatre (now ‘the Barron’). The play casts the Lord Jesus and His disciples as a gang of homosexuals, with all the promiscuity and depravity of that lifestyle being portrayed in gutter language.

Christian Voice mounted a witness for every performance of the play. The treasurer of the Crawford resigned, a matinée was cancelled and despite the heavy security there were protests, including a proclamation of the Gospel, inside the theatre.

Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, said today:

‘St Andrew’s University is fast building a reputation as a place where civilised behaviour has been forgotten. Ridiculing Jesus Christ will bring shame and God’s judgment on what should, with all its history, be a devout seat of learning, not a cess-pit.

‘If this show cast Mohammed as a sexual deviant, it would never see the light of day. But those staging Jerry Springer the Opera are too cowardly to have a go at Islam. They know that Christians do not resort to violence and they think they will get away with it.

‘However, God is big enough to look after Himself, which should fill all concerned with fear. There are no atheists on a sinking ship; it is all, “God save us!” But if God can work miracles of deliverance, He can also bring judgment against the wicked.

‘Quite apart from the insult to the Lord Jesus Christ which staging this show is all about, it also hurts Christian people when their Lord and Saviour is ridiculed. It is just as if a member of our own family were insulted. Civilised people do not set out to insult and hurt others. But Britain is changing, and the Ross/Brand affair was just one example of the sad fact that people in our society are becoming daily more crass, more coarse and less interested in the feelings of others.

‘How long will it be before the message that it is now acceptable in Scotland to insult people’s religious beliefs reaches the terraces of Ibrox and Celtic Park?’

‘We must pray that this show is cancelled, but if it is not, may the Lord bring Christian people out on the streets of St Andrew’s to witness and evangelise at all the events during the ‘On the Rocks’ arts week. If many sinners repent and turn to Jesus Christ, some good will yet come from this evil.’

Around 300 Christians gathered this morning outside the National Assembly of Wales’s T Hywel building to witness against the poetry reading by Patrick Jones.

The gathering was something like ten times the number of those who turned up to hear Jones, at an half-full event hosted by LibDem Peter Black AM and Labour’s Lorraine Barrett, a National Secular Society campaigner.

Those present sang carols and hymns in the cold Cardiff air, there were also Bible readings and prayers at the solemn but good-natured event which lasted from 11.30am to 1pm.

Patrick Jones said he was ‘deeply shocked’ at the turnout. His poems allege sexual relationships between Mary Magdalene, the poet, and Jesus Christ, and call for an end to religious worship.

Assembly Members from the Conservative Party, Plaid Cymru, the Labour Party as well as Independent Trish Law opposed the reading.

Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, said afterwards: ‘It was heartening that so many believers came out to stand up for Jesus Christ, exactly two weeks before Christmas.

‘They recognised that it is a serious matter for Jesus Christ to be insulted in the seat of government of the nation of Wales . With Wales suffering more from the recession than any other part of the UK , this is a time when we should be pleading with God for mercy and deliverance, not insulting Him.

‘Assembly Members have had massive postbags over this issue, and it was good to see so many of them coming out and identifying with those opposing the event. Something good may yet come of this, especially if the Assembly as a whole repudiates it.’

Green revealed tonight that he has now emailed new LibDem leader Kirsty Williams asking her to distance herself and her party from the event.

He said: ‘As Peter Black is the LibDem’s culture spokesman, the LibDems remain the party which insults Jesus Christ until Kirsty Williams comes out against the event. It would be good to know that she recognises that disrespect of Jesus Christ and of Christians is not civilised behaviour, and that culture for her party should not mean adoration of the crass, the coarse and the filthy.’

Patrick Jones carried out another poetry reading at Borders, a Cardiff bookshop, tonight. The store hired half-a-dozen security men in an expensive operation and the same number of police attended. Those desparate to hear the potty-mouthed poet were kept waiting for 15-20 minutes outside, which gave ample opportunity for Gospel witness to them.

There was a prayer at the T Hywel event for Patrick Jones to repent, as many atheists have before, and turn to Jesus Christ. The Christian’s prayer would be that just one of those who attended his reading at Borders find faith in Jesus Christ as well.

The invitation by Welsh Assembly Members Peter Black and Lorraine Barrett to Patrick Jones to insult Jesus Christ and promote his latest book in the Assembly’s T Hywel building breaks the Assembly’s own rules, Christian Voice has discovered.

An act of Christian witness is planned to coincide with the event.

Black and Barrett invited Jones to read his ugly, indecent and blasphemous poetry after Waterstone’s cancelled a promotion evening at their Cardiff store.

But the Assembly document, ‘Guidance on use of rooms in T Hywel‘ says that:

1.     Assembly rooms may not be used for the display of material that may or is likely to cause offence.
2.     Meetings must be connected with the duties of the Assembly Member or NAW business.
3.     Meetings must not be used for the promotion of any product.
4.     Rooms cannot be used for events unrelated to the work of the NAW, for example, for conferences which would otherwise be held in a hotel or conference centre.

It is plain that the Jones event would contravene all four of those points:

1. The reading will cause offence, indeed the prospect of it already has, even within the Assembly itself. There is an online petition which I intend to email to you which has attracted over 1500 signatures. You may have had correspondence from constituents and others.
2. The event is not related to the Assembly duties of either Member. They have taken it upon themselves to hold the event in order to insult Christ in the name of ‘Freedom of Speech’.
3. The event is for the promotion of a product, namely the book ‘Darkness is where the Stars are’ which is published and on sale by Cinnamon Press. The book was launched last month in a series of poetry readings, even though the main event, in Waterstone’s, was cancelled.
4. The event would and could otherwise easily be held at another venue.

Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, said today:

“This is now coming down to whether the Assembly can enforce its own rules, and to what sanctions are available, against whom, in the event it can not.

“I note that it is the job of the Commission as the successor to the House Committee to enforce the guidance. However, Peter Black and Lorraine Barrett themselves make up half of the Commission, leading to a conflict of interest in the matter.

“The Chief Executive and Clerk to the Assembly, Claire Clancy, has so far failed to stand by the stark clarity of the Guidance.

“I call on Dafydd Lord Elis-Thomas to stop the event in order to avoid the embarrassment of the Assembly as a whole causing offence and breaking its own rules.”

A public act of Christian witness to be held in front of T Hywel from 11.30am on the morning of the 11th. Should the event be cancelled, we shall have something to praise the Lord Jesus Christ for! On the other hand, should the Assembly choose to insult Him, we shall praise His holy name and pray to Him for mercy. And in any event, exactly two weeks before Christmas, whatever the attitude of the National Assembly of Wales to the King of kings and Lord of lords, this is an opportunity to celebrate our Saviour’s birth!

NOTES: The poems aren’t actually much good, they hardly rhyme, they rarely scan or have rhythm, but they possibly have enough profanity and references to female genitalia to get the literati excited. One of them, to which Christians are taking the greatest exception, includes the blasphemous assertion of sex between the poet and someone Jones calls ‘mary magdelene’ (sic), and Jesus.

Other lines include: ‘All I preach is deicide’, ‘today I have become a born-again atheist’ and ‘god does not die because he was never alive.’

One poem describes God as ‘the first absent dad’ who ‘lorded it upstairs’ while Jesus was on earth.

Another strikes at the fundamental right to hold a religious view and have freedom of worship, as Jones expresses his desire for ‘prayers to be abandoned … synagogues closed, churches morphed into pound shops’ and concludes ‘then they shall all be f***ing saved.’

So Patrick wants prayers to end and for churches to be closed. He, Peter Black and Lorraine Barrett are happy to abuse freedom of speech to attack freedom of religious assembly. That cannot be right either in the National Assembly.

The decision by Peter Black AM to invite the poet Patrick Jones to insult Jesus Christ in the National Assembly has been condemned by a Christian prayer and lobby group.

Christian Voice described the event, due to be held on 11th December, as a disgrace to the Assembly itself. The Waterstone’s bookshop in Cardiff cancelled a reading of Jones’ poetry on Wednesday night. after a 24-hour campaign by Christian Voice.

But Peter Black, who is the LibDem’s culture spokesman, has now invited Jones, a militant atheist, to read his poems, which call for an end to Christian worship, in Committee Room 24 of the Assembly at 12 noon on Thursday 11th December.

On BBC Wales yesterday afternoon, after being repeatedly challenged by Stephen Green, Black eventually agreed to extend an invitation to Christians to attend.

Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, said today:

‘This is a creepy event at which Jesus-hating AM’s can swoon over poems packed with hatred for Christianity and which speak of Mary Magdalene and the poet having sex with the Lord Jesus Christ. They will also hear Jones’ unfettered hatred of Christianity, which he has somehow managed to convince himself is indistinguishable from Islam.

‘What they will not hear is Jones insult the prophet Mohammed. He dare not do that at all, let alone in the sexual way he insults Jesus Christ, whom he sees as a soft target.

‘Christians in Wales must not take this lying down. We need to stand up for our Lord against this attack on His honour and on the Church itself by Peter Black. He has gone out of his way to show contempt for Christians in Wales . As he is the LibDem Culture Spokesman, that means insulting Jesus Christ is now official LibDem policy. The LibDems have thus become a political party Christians can no longer in conscience vote for or take any part in.’

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s decision to write the song and front a Eurovision talent show for the BBC and his announcement that he will not be back until 2010 to find a Dorothy for the Wizard of Oz means he has abandoned his attempt to resurrect the resurrection-less Jesus Christ Superstar as a result of pressure from Christians, a Christian pressure group said today.

Following the ‘Oliver’ series, the composer, made Baron Lloyd-Webber in 1997, said he wanted to work on finding talent for a new show of which he is composer or producer. ‘Superstar’ was his first choice to fit the bill. But following Eurovision, he will now be concentrating on a sequel to Phantom of the Opera instead.

That will demand his full attention until 2010, he says, when he will see if the BBC and its talent show formula search for a Dorothy to dance down the yellow-brick road will drop gold into the Lloyd Webber coffers.

As recently as April this year, Lloyd Webber said he wanted to cast Jesus as a follow-up to ‘How do you solve a problem like Maria’ for The Sound of Music and the ‘I’d do anything’ casting of Nancy and Oliver for the musical Oliver.

The prospect of the BBC auditioning pop hopefuls in front of Andrew Lloyd Webber for the role of Jesus led Christian Voice to promise Jerry Springer the Opera-style protests and evangelism if the project went ahead. A BBC insider admitted: “Some Christian groups are bound to have a problem with Andrew telling people, ‘You could be Jesus.’ ”

Jesus Christ Superstar caused protests from Christians during its 1970s West End run by portraying Jesus Christ as a mere man, a tormented character buffeted by events. It ended with Him being laid in the tomb and there was no resurrection.

Auditions would have been held across the country and the judges, including Lloyd Webber, who would have been at each venue, faced the prospect of the queues of pop wannabe’s being leafleted outside and young evangelists getting access to the audition room itself.

Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, said today: “I give credit to Almighty God for this success. The BBC and Andrew Lloyd Webber have clearly buried the idea of Superstar as a result of our witness putting the fear of God into them. This shows how important it is for Christians to stand up for their Saviour, so that blasphemous shows, which bring the righteous judgment of God on us all, are not put on in our land.

“Credit is due to BBC bosses and Lord Lloyd-Webber, who appear to have taken this matter seriously, and to have found another outlet for their talents. Whether they can save the UK from nul-point oblivion in Eurovision is another matter; maybe they should get on their knees and seek divine guidance. Certainly, as we survey the social wreckage of our once-great nation, its only hope lies in the incarnate Son of God, the crucified, risen, ascended, glorified Lord of lords, Jesus Christ.

The South Wales Echo has apologised for an article insulting the Bible and suggesting that Jesus Christ could have been homosexual.

The apology was printed in the Echo last week, just two weeks after the original and on the same page. A website version of the article, by the out-of-touch Dan O’Neill, has also been taken down and internet search engines no longer refer to it.

The apology came after Christians mounted a quick-fire protest against the article last week. Members and supporters of Christian Voice gave out leaflets to those going in to work at Cardiff ‘s leading firm of solicitors, Hugh James, who associated themselves with the web article. Following that, they occupied the Media Wales administration offices reception area just around the corner, singing hymns, before meeting with Simon Farrington, a senior managing editor at the Echo.

Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, said today:

‘Media Wales’s gracious apology and the elimination of the offending article from the website is a victory for decency and shows newspapers can uphold civilised standards of behaviour.

‘The fact that Media Wales is part of the mighty Trinity Mirror group means the apology is also a testimony to the power of prayer and the effectiveness of Christian witness, for both of which we give all the glory to Almighty God.

‘Of course the article should never have been published, but I am sure that lessons have been learned and a similar outrage will not happen again. I trust that other papers and media will also take notice and exercise better editorial control over the looser cannons in their journalistic ranks. Even after the abolition of the blasphemy laws, Christians will not tolerate insults against their Lord and Saviour.’

But not everyone is pleased at the apology and the disappearance of the article from the web. Atheist bloggers are apoplectic and one of them started a petition, which attracted the attention of fewer than 150 armchair Jesus-hating zealots in five days.

Stephen Green continued: ‘In petition terms 150 signatures is next to nothing. It is so much easier to sign a petition than put yourself out to stand in the street witnessing. So easy, in fact, that some of the do-badders have signed twice, just to be sure!

‘Interestingly, the sad character who started the petition asks Media Wales to do something which he himself could not find the guts to do: blaspheme and insult Jesus Christ in public. He attended a party held by secularist zealots earlier this year to celebrate the passing of the blasphemy laws: http://www.secularism.org.uk/bbbparty.html

‘The funny thing was, it was held at a secret location, for fear of Christian protests! The Jesus-haters gathered in private in some hotel in London and blasphemed to each other, something they could safely have done at any time during the last thirty years.

‘Christian Voice pointed this out a month before it happened and the cowards still did not fess up the location: https://www.christianvoice.org.uk/Press/press081.html

‘So this is a bad day for atheism and a bad day for blasphemy, but a good day for righteousness. Yet again, the Lord has triumphed over His enemies.’

The BBC2 Programme ‘Filth’ tonight portrayed Sir Hugh Carleton Greene as a foul-mouthed libertine while trying to send up the late Mary Whitehouse.

Even the music was designed to ridiculed Mrs Whitehouse, but it was Sir Hugh who came off worst, with his character swearing, blaspheming, and belittling his employees and his family while descending into something approaching madness before resigning in the face of the curbs introduce by Lord Hill.

Stephen Green said today:

‘Mary Whitehouse was a pioneer of Christian activism, paving the way first for the Festival of Light and then for today’s pro-life and pro-family movement. Although she failed to stem the tide of filth on television in the long term, Mrs Whitehouse stood up for what she believed, and achieved significant victories along the way.

‘There were behind the scenes triumphs as well. With Charles Oxley, Mary Whitehouse helped expose the Paedophile Information Exchange. That did not feature in the programme.

‘Neither did Mary Whitehouse’s successful prosecution of Gay News, although there was a reference to it as the final credits rolled.

‘Congratulations to Alun Armstrong, who played the part of Ernest Whitehouse with strength and sensitivity.

‘Television bears a responsibility for the way it normalised corruption and helped desensitise society to a secularist agenda in the 1960’s. There is a sense in which the victims of crime of twenty-first century Britain should hold Sir High at least partly responsible for the coarsening of society which has led to a culture of death forty years later. As we sow, so shall we reap. Or, what goes around, comes around.’

ENDS

A top Jewish lawyer has supported a call from Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, for Terence Koh’s pornographic statue of Jesus Christ, which Christians have described as blasphemous, to be destroyed by its owners, a prominent Jewish couple.

Leading criminal law barrister Jonathan Goldberg QC made his plea in a letter to the Jewish Chronicle, which was published today.

The statue, part of a collection owned by Anita Zabludowicz, was on display at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead .  The exhibition closed on Saturday 20th January and Mrs Zabludowicz now has her statue back.

Her husband, Finnish billionaire Poju Zabludowicz, sits on the Jewish Leadership Council with the Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, the President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Mr Henry Grunwald, QC, and a host of the Jewish great and good.

‘It is unpardonable to show such disrespect and cause such gratuitous offence to our Christian friends and supporters of Israel , above all in these troubled times,’ wrote Mr Goldberg.

‘Mr and Mrs Poju Zabludowicz should now demonstrate the qualities of Jewish communal leadership to which they aspire, no doubt worthily, by consigning this artefact to the depths,’ he concluded.
Stephen Green said:

‘Those of us who honour the Jewish roots of our Christian faith and the place of Israel in God’s purpose will be dismayed to see such disrespect of our faith from such prominent members of the Jewish community, whom we regard as the cultivated Olive Tree, from Romans 11:13-24.

‘Back in 2005, the Chief Rabbi lectured on “How to build a culture of respect”. He spoke of the Christian and Jewish communities feeling “on the defensive” and “bruised” in the face of onslaughts from secularists and Islamists.  In February 2006, he asked on the BBC: “Can we learn to respect what others hold holy?”

‘If these are to be more than just words, such a disrespectful piece of plaster, insulting the One whom Christians hold most holy of all, can find no place amongst the possessions of a prominent Jewish couple who know the Chief Rabbi personally.

‘The thought of Mr & Mrs Zabludowicz owning or profiting from a statue humiliating and blaspheming the Lord Jesus Christ, Yeshua Meshiach, brings up thoughts that I really do not want to entertain.  That is why I am very grateful to Jonathan Goldberg QC for his gracious support.  Whatever that disgraceful statue is worth, good relations between Christian and Jews are worth far, far more.’

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