Christian Voice, the extremist Christian group run by Stephen Green has lost in its attempt to have the BBC prosecuted for blasphemy:
A group of Christian evangelists were today refused permission by the High Court to bring a blasphemy prosecution against BBC director-general Mark Thompson for his decision to air Jerry Springer — the Opera.
Two judges ruled it was reasonable to conclude that the play, when considered “in context”, could not be considered blasphemous.
While this is a good decision on the part of the judges, the issue is not whether the play was blasphemous; it is why the fuck do we have blasphemy laws on the statute book in the first place? Such an anachronism belongs firmly in the middle ages when the Church could stifle freedom of expression at will. Stephen Green would return us to those horrors.
Stephen Green doesn’t like Jerry Springer – The Opera; well, fine, no one is making him watch it. That it offends his sensibilities and makes fun of his beliefs is neither here nor there. His beliefs are his, and no one should be forced by law to respect them.
Just for the record, I don’t respect them; any more than I respect other daft belief systems that rely on sky daddies, supernatural events and superhuman powers.
It’s a relief to see some evidence that the country hasn’t gone completely FITH…
Courageously said sir! Personally I don’t respect Professor Dawkins’ belief in a sky flowchart, but I would vigorously uphold his right to be mocked.
Indeed. I don’t much like Dawkins either – his abrasive (almost fundamentalist) approach is off-putting and intensely irritating. That said, I would defend the right of anyone to believe or not believe in whatever they want. Just don’t expect me to respect it, and, which is more, do not try to use the law to force me. Respect is earned, not forced.
My feeling is that to a really devout Muslim, mockery of the Deity is something like a rude little boy shaking his fist at the illimitable firmament; to a devout Christian, it’s the mob on Golgotha. On the one hand, divinity is sublimely unaffected; on the other, infinitely forgiving. In neither case is it harmed in the slightest degree. Fundamentalists who take offence are therefore saying less about their faith than they are about the damage to their self-esteem – which if they are really devout ought to be minimal, anyhow.