The Pink News reports that Stephen Green has been discussing Uganda, as he enthuses over the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill:
Stephen Green, leader of the Christian extremist group ‘Christian Voice’, remarked:
“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…”
This is the first time I’ve seen John 8:7 used as an argument in favour of capital punishment – usually the text is taken to mean exactly the opposite, as Jesus suggests that only someone “without sin” in a general sense (i.e. not just “not implicated in adultery themselves”) should throw the first stone; in other words, that no mere human is worthy to do so. However, Green’s strange interpretation might be useful in America, where plans are underway to create a Conservative Bible, in which the entire story would be excised as a liberal interpolation.
On the other hand, perhaps Green had this joke in mind:
Jesus came upon a small crowd who had surrounded a young woman they believed to be an adulteress. They were preparing to stone her to death.
To calm the situation, Jesus said: “Whoever is without sin among you, let them cast the first stone.”
Suddenly, an old lady at the back of the crowd picked up a huge rock and lobbed it at the young woman, scoring a direct hit on her head. The unfortunate young lady collapsed dead on the spot.
Jesus looked over towards the old lady and said: “Do you know, Mother, sometimes you really piss me off.”
I’ve blogged on Stephen Green before, although MediaWatchWatch has the most extensive chronicle of the Acta Crudi. Green is something of an ineffectual character, and he featured in the 2008 Dispatches documentary on the UK Christian Right. As I noted then:
Throughout the programme, comic relief was provided by Stephen Green, who first gained media attention protesting against performances of Jerry Springer: The Opera. Green and his small group of followers hand out leaflets at gay pride events, and sing hymns and pray at a site in east London which has been earmarked as the location for the controversial “mega-mosque” Green believes that Allah is Satan, and that Islam will lead to civil war in the UK. He comes across as rather unbalanced: one minute he is chatting and joking with the documentary-maker, the next moment he becomes aggressive, forcing away the camera and complaining about “persecution” In one particularly bathetic moment in Brighton, just as he offers up a prayer a seagull leaves a prominent dropping on the front of his shirt; Green is not amused, and he demands that the documentary-maker not make fun of him – perhaps the fact that certain internet scoffers insist on nicknaming him “Stephen ‘Dog Shit’ Green” after he compared Jerry Springer to treading in dog excrement meant that this touched a raw nerve.
Soon afterwards he was threatened with bankruptcy after attempting to sue BBC executives for daring to broadcast Jerry Springer. Green ran up legal costs of tens of thousands of pounds, but shamelessly declared that it would be “vindictive” of the men to seek to recover money they had spent defending themselves.
(Hat tip: Bulldada Newsblog)
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