Bartholomew's Notes

The BNP’s new election poster has provoked both revulsion and mockery, with its suggestion that those who wish to emulate Jesus should vote for the party. Ekklesia reports:

Three British Churches have reminded people of the ‘true Christian message of love’ for all people following the inclusion of Jesus in a BNP election campaign.

Their statement comes after the Church of England declined to comment on the posters which feature a bible verse quoting Jesus’ words about persecution, in the run up to the European Elections in June.

The Anglican silence is odd, considering that it was recently decided that its clergy cannot be members of the party, and that the BNP’s Robert West has just denounced the Bishop of Manchester:

Manchester’s Bishop “Haw Haw” McCullough [sic – spelling is wrong] is a Traitor to His Country and People, Says BNP Church Spokesman

The Bishop of Manchester, Nigel McCulloch, is a traitor to his country and his people, and should be more concerned with why his churches are empty and being converted into mosques rather than attacking the British National Party, said that party’s official spokesman on church matters, the Reverend Robert West (picture).

“The gospels record that Judas betrayed his master with a kiss, a great but false profession of love,” said Reverend West…

West, who rails against the “mixing of races”, was was responding to McCulloch’s attack on the BNP.

Meanwhile, another Christian group that has nothing to say about the BNP is the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, which is partnered with a group of churches called Affinity. A couple of Sundays ago West was invited into the pulpit of an FIEC-affiliated chapel; this was a Baptist chapel of which BNP Councillor Ian Derek Meller is a member – I blogged this here. Meller shares the same surname as the chapel wardens.

I blogged on BNP Christianity more generally here.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Ted Baehr casts an inevitably prudish eye over the history of American cinema, in a interview at WorldNetDaily:

Baehr said American movies were morally bankrupt prior to 1933, and the Protestant Film Commission, along with the Roman Catholic Legion of Decency, cleaned up the industry. However, the Protestant Film Commission shut down in 1966.

“The Baptists pulled their funding, and within three years, we went from ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’ to the first sex and Satanism film and from ‘The Sound of Music’ to the first ‘X’-rated movie,” he said.

Baehr also provides a bit of interesting background: apparently, his “Christian Film & Television Commission” holds all the files of the old Protestant Film Office, donated by George Heimrich, and he received funding from none other than Sir John Templeton.

And as it’s Baehr, it’s not long before a massive humbug is unwrapped:

“In the old days, they would say that you could have violence, but you couldn’t have it in such a way that a susceptible youth would want to copy the violence,” he said. “The question is, how do you do it? Today we seem to be so simplistic that we can’t figure that out. The violence in ‘The Passion of the Christ’ is such that nobody will be attracted to being a Roman centurion whipping Christ.”

On the other hand, violence in movies such as Warner Brothers’ “Watchmen” is meant to be exciting and entertaining.

Unlike, of course, the films of Chuck Norris, whom Baehr continually commends and to whom he has given an award:

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »