Bartholomew's Notes

This one slipped past me from before Christmas:

The latest salvo in creationism’s increasingly ferocious battle with evolution is about to be fired in Lancashire. Not in a fiery sermon preached from the pulpit, but in the form of a giant Christian theme park that will champion the book of Genesis and make a multi-media case that God created the world in seven days.

The AH Trust, a charity set up last year by a group of businessmen alarmed by the direction in which they see society heading, has identified a number of potential sites in the north west of England to build the £3.5m Christian theme park.

The AH Trust (formerly the “Assembly Hall Trust”) has big plans:

The trust claims it already has a number of rich backers who are keen to invest in the project, which will boast two interactive cinemas, a cafeteria, six shops and a television recording studio, allowing it to produce its own Christian-themed films and documentaries.

According to the Observer, one of the supposed backers is rumoured to be Peter Vardy, the millionaire creationist businessman who was given several state schools to run by the UK government a few years ago. I blogged on Vardy here, but I’m doubtful he’s connected with this project.

Various bloggers have been looking into the AH Trust’s background. The Pagan Prattle notes that

The AH Trust’s most recent annual report notes that they have a grand total of £310 in the bank.

The AH Trust is run a certain Peter Jones; the trustees are Margaret Rosemary Jones, Denis Rodenko, Philip Fishwick, Bryan Davis and Alan Wright. The Prattle also notes that its website contains a number of “testimonials” from companies. Here are a few:

Wish you every success in your endeavours. – BAE Systems

Wish you every success in securing further funding. – Centrica plc

Wish you every success in your fundraising event. – James Dyson

Wish you all success with your endeavours. – BAA plc

Wish you every success for the future. – Thomas Cook

These look more like polite responses to letters rather than actual endorsements. A few extra statements are also thrown in for good measure:

The Political Correctness law is an excuse for not printing or promoting Family and Christian values. – David Frost

Details in the “investment” section are also rather perplexing:

The AH Trust is a non-profit organisation…It will cost £3.5M to build a large portal frame studio building complete with adequate car park facilities and we envisage to raise the building costs by various government grants, European funding, American funding and Corporate giving. We have demonstrated to the Television Broadcasting Companies that we can deliver on our objectives and we estimate from the world wide sales of DVDs and Broadcasting fees, the Studio earnings (£4.8M per annum) will be on average ten times the overhead costs.

…The Trustees have introduced an investment package to encourage a suitable investor, or investors, to invest in the purchase of a large portal frame building complete with adequate car park facilities. In simple terms, the investor will own the Television Studio and in turn will enjoy a high percentage of the Studio earnings.

Firstly, how can a “non-profit” organisation and registered charity promise to pass on profits to an investor? Also, how can they positively guarantee earnings of “on average ten times” the overhead costs? Don’t companies seeking investors need to be very careful about promises made in what are called “forward-looking” statements?

There also appears to be a university on the side:

The Television Studio offers fully regionally accredited degree courses in a wide range of subjects set in a dynamic Christian environment.

But accredited by whom? Again, no answer.

Another feature of the website of the AH Trust is that whenever you click on anything a pop-up appears for the Zebra Agency, which describes itself as the “The World’s Most Visited Film and Literary Agency Website”:

We represent a strong list of award winning and successful names and yet remain genuinely committed to the discovery of new talent.

The site is, however, discreet about who these “names” actually are. The Zebra Agency is run from the same address as the AH Trust, and it also runs Omega Productions, a documentary-making company (again, no actual titles given) which also put together the AH Trust website. Peter Jones is the Managing Director of Omega, while Zebra is listed as an “advisor”, which is doubtless very convenient. The Executive Director of Omega, Cara Wooi, helpfully provided one of the “testimonials” for the AH Trust, and she is named as the person to contact on the AH Trust website if you are interested in investing. Omega’s solictitors are given as Platt & Fishwick; doubtless this is connected with the AH Trustee Philip Fishwick. The Omega website also has a few photos of some vaguely famous British TV actors, although no reason is given for their presence on the site.

Omega Productions is described as “an independent production company located between Liverpool and Manchester”. And as it happens, the Zebra Agency used to have section on a company called Standish Films, which was also described as an “independent film production company located between Liverpool and Manchester”. That’s gone, although there remains a non-functional button on the Zebra website tagged with “About Standish Films”. The managing director of Standish was –  yet again – Peter Jones, and he drummed up some publicity in Wigan Today in 2004:

Standish Films is embarking on its latest project in February with a chiller entitled Intruder, but are short of one thing – locations.

Financed from both the private sector and lottery funding, the company needs to find settings for the film which are close together so the cast and crew can get to them easily.

Peter Jones, managing director of Standish Films, said: “We need a doctor’s surgery, a village pub, an office building, a theatre, village hall, a country house and hospital grounds.”

…The hour long thriller tells the story of Kathleen, who is trying to make a life for herself in the squalid surroundings of a bedsit.

An advert in UK Theatre Network added:

Standish Films plan to make a low budget feature film in September. The film I N T R U D E R is a crime thriller filmed in the North West and we are looking for International Actors who reside in the North West.

There are three elderly parts suited for June Whifield, Glenda Jackson and Hannah Gordon, plus lead roles for say Georgia Taylor and Jennifer James.

We are still searching for a strong Director to gel the cast.

Any Actor living in the North West who is interested in the project, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are literary agency acting on behalf of Standish Films and this is a unique opportunity to make this film in the North West.

Cara

admin@zebraagency.co.uk

The film was apparently made, although details are scarce: there is no mention on the IMDB, and the only reference I could find comes from this site, which tells us that the director was a certain Denzil Lobo, and a TV actor named Tim Paley played a police officer. The famous actresses mentioned in the advert do not appear to have taken up the invitation. The website of Standish Films, meanwhile, has disappeared, although Wayback helps us out here. The film was inevitably described as a “unique investment opportunity”:

Poor, shy, Kathleen.  She runs away from home and tries her hardest to make a life for herself in a gloomy one room bed-sit…Her desperate search for a new lover, one that typifies the  sensitive, a caring man, the ones only read about, is fulfilled………..to her horror.

Agnes studied at Oxford University and became a Doctor. She took early retirement and bought the house for her sister Hilda and her to retire in. She believes in the supernatural and holds séances to communicate to the Spirit World.

Unfortunately a spirit with an attitde [sic] problem contacts her. Unwittingly, Agnes has brought an Intruder into this world.

The Intruder begins to slaughter people in the quiet town of Babington and D.I. Burton has the task of catching the serial killer. The question is does she catch the serial killer, or does the killer catch her?

The website also claimed that none other than Jamie Lee Curtis had been cast to play D.I. Burton (perhaps putting on a Manchester accent?). How exactly an occult-themed slasher flick accorded with the plans of the AH Trust to provide an alternative to the “sex and violence” of television is not explained. There is no mention of Intruder on the Omega Productions website, although there is once again the promise of “A Unique Investment Opportunity”.

But what about the actual religious perspective of the AH Trust? Its website has four books for sale; one is a title by the New Zealand-based conspiracy theorist Barry Smith, while another is The Omega Files, which is

A series of articles covering a time period from 9,000 BC to future events. These are scientific based, written by a Christian pen on topics from Astronauts to Freemasons.

There is also a link which seems to have disappeared, but which can be reassembled from a cached version. This mentions the

…Web site of the International Christian Assembly Hall, covering biblical topics including prophecy, world news in prophecy, the Good News and holding International Christian Assemblies…

The phrasing of this is very similar to that used by the United Church of God (I found the phrase “including prophecy…world news in prophecy, the Good News” on related sites), which is one of the groups that traces itself back to Herbert Armstrong. The UCG is considered heterodox by most other Christian groups, although of course similarity of phrasing could just be coincidental. According to a report from the Lancashire Evening Post, Jones says the trust is “non-denominational and covered all religions, including Christian, Catholic, Muslim, and Hindu.” I’m sure the Roman Catholics of Lancashire will be pleased with that listing.

(Hat tip: Pharyngula)

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A public service advert about firework safety, from Holland (hat tip to MediaWatchWatch, which has a couple more in the series):

An advert for high-definition televisions, from Israel (hat tip to Failed Messiah; it was pulled after a week or so).

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…but conspiracy theories remain an obstacle in Pakistan

From the Yemen Observer, a few days ago:

The Yemeni government began on Saturday a nation-wide campaign to vaccinate more than 4 million children against polio.

…The anti-polio campaign came after the spread of the virus in Nigeria, India, Chad, Somalia and Sudan, said Yemen’s deputy minister of public health and population, Majed al-Junaid.

…[A] UNICEF official commended the enthusiastic support extended by religious leaders, Imams and community leaders for their previous support of the door-to-door campaign, and urged them to add their voice and influence for making this new round successful.

The virus spread because in Nigeria certain religious and political leaders chose to promote the rumour that the vaccine was a plot to sterilise Muslims, or to cause AIDS and cancer. It was one of the first stories I covered on this blog, and I followed carefully the malign and bizarre efforts of Kano governor Ibrahim Shekarau to block the vaccine, in cahoots with a fear-mongering Islamist academic named Hussain Abdulkareem. Eventually an alternative batch was imported from Indonesia, which doubtless profited certain persons unknown, but this was too little too late, and the virus was soon aftewards seen in sixteen countries, most likely carried by pilgrims via Saudi Arabia. Thankfully religious leaders in Yemen appear to be acting with more responsibility. Darra Adam Khel called for the killing of NGO workers on the grounds that they were “agents of the Jews and the West”. Soon afterwards, a Pakistani health worker named Abdul Ghani Khan, who had particular responsibility for polio vaccines, was murdered. That was in February of this year; I haven’t been able to find out if any arrests have been made. The continuing problem is addressed in today’s Pakistan-based International News:

The Nigeria hysteria spread to Pakistan, where an Islamist cleric named

Pakistan is one of four nations where polio is yet to be stamped out — the others are India, Afghanistan and Nigeria. Recent reports however suggest that after years of strenuous and determined effort, often in the face of violent opposition, Pakistan is close to being polio-free for the first time.

…Despite the potential for Pakistan to be polio-free in the near future, obstacles remain; perhaps the largest of these being the belief propagated by some religious leaders that the polio vaccine is a part of some dastardly western plot to limit the fertility of Muslim populations. They do their followers, and their followers’ children born and unborn, a grave disservice by so poisoning their minds — as well as doing nothing for Pakistan’s international image.

There have also been problems in India.

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Bill O’Reilly and WorldNetDaily have nothing on the UK tabloids. From Private Eye magazine (1199, p.6), helpfully transcribed by blog Botherer:

In early December, Healey Primary School in Rochdale sent a note home to parents of 4 to 7-year-old pupils: “Please could parents send just one Christmas card to the whole class rather than asking school for a whole class name list. This is to avoid tears and tantrums which often occur when Christmas cards are distributed.”

The school was worried about the cost to poorer parents and the feelings of children who are left out. However, despite the fact that the school will be holding several Christmas-themed events, including a carol service, the guidance about cards was reported in the media as “school bans Christmas cards” in the name of “political correctness gone mad” (the descriptor “gone mad” is often added to the phrase “political correctness” by British polemicists):

“Furious parents and campaigners last night slammed the politically correct brigade for spoiling the true meaning of Christmas,” roared the Express. “Festive cards are being banned in schools… the season of goodwill is being ruined by Scrooge-like officials fearful of offending other faiths or worried about health and safety rules.” Its sister paper the Daily Star, meanwhile, kept up its own tradition of ignoring all the facts with the front-page headline: “Ban on Christmas cards in case they upset Muslims!”

A 2004 BBC News profile of Star and Express owner Richard “Dirty” Desmond can be seen here.

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Fauji Foundation director made “Ambassador for Peace” by Unification Church front organisation

From New Europe:

Bringing representatives from different faiths together on one platform, an “International Conference on Interfaith Dialogue towards Global Peace” unanimously passed a resolution last week “Brussels Peace Declaration on Religious Coexistence” at Peace Embassy Brussels, Belgium.

The conference brought together a number of organisations and individuals, including Muhammad Tahir of the Fauji Foundation, Willy Fautre of Human Rights Without Frontiers, and Bashy Quraishy of the European Network Against Racism. Two organisations in particular agreed to work together, and appear to have been the organisers of the event: the Institute of Peace and Development, which is a think tank concerned with Kashmir, and the Universal Peace Federation:

Philippe Jacques Chairman UPF said in his welcoming remarks, “We are one family under God, we have to promote understanding and tolerance between all faith and religions.” UPF will continue these efforts in future with INSPAD, he added. Amin ul Haq President INSPAD appreciated the valuable efforts and role of United Nations, UNESCO and UPF for the promotion of Inter-faith, Inter-cultural Dialogue and religious coexistence.

A press release from INSPAD in the Kashmiri Observer gives some further details, although the English is poor:

Two renowned NGO’s Universal Peace federation and Institute of Peace & Development (INSPAD) Belgium visited a Muslim mosque in Molenbeek and told that Inter-faith dialogue is the need of the time.

…The NGO’s officials Mr. Philippe Jacques, Mr.Hugo Veraxc of UPF and Mr. Amin ul Haq, Tahir Tabassum and Sardar Javaid Sarwer of INSPAD said that we must adopt peaceful & acceptable policies instead of raising religious controversial issues.

They expressed the NGO’s responsibilities are increased that they should play the role of Ambassador for Peace and promote Inter-faith and inter-cultural dialogues indeed. Both NGO’s have decided unanimously that they will visit all religious worship places for the promotion of Peace, understanding and tolerance.

The event also saw Fauji Foundation Director Muhammad Tahir receive the title of “Ambassador for Peace” from the UFP. The Fauji Foundation is a significant charity in Pakistan, and as I’ve observed previously (here and here), a remarkable number of statesmen and other prominent individuals from around the world have chosen to accept the honour of becoming a UPF Ambassador. The Universal Peace Federation is a front organisation the Unification Church, and while the public rallying-call is for “one family under God”, less emphasis is put on the fact that the “one family” also has one True Father on earth: Rev Sun Myung Moon. Prominent participants in UFP activities are a massive boost to Rev Moon’s credibility, and their involvement serves the long-term strategic interests of the Unification Church.

The website of the World Council of Churches explains that a “Brussels declaration” on inter-religious cooperation appeared back in December 2001:

An international conference “Peaceful coexistence between the great monotheistic religions” was held in Brussels, 19-20 December 2001, at the invitation of His All Holiness Bartholomew, the ecumenical patriarch, and His Excellency Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission. In a declaration, “The peace of God in the world: towards peaceful coexistence and collaboration among the three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam”, participants affirmed “the will of God is for the peace of heaven to reign on earth” and that such peace is not merely the absence of war but also the gift of abundant life. Thus “there is indeed an immediate and inseparable connection between peace and justice.” The statement emphasizes the need for education, communication, dialogue, and respect to enhance understanding of religious communities and their beliefs.

The full (and somewhat platitudinous) text can be seen here. Details are scarce, but one assumes that the “Brussels Peace Declaration” now being promoted by the UPF is the same document.

The UPF/INSPAD conference took place around the same time as a UPF “Global Peace Festival” in the Philippines. That event saw Martin Luther King III share a stage with Rev Moon’s son Hyun Jin Moon. Again, the slogan was “one family under God”. A particular concern with Kashmir would complement Moon’s interest in bringing peace to the Middle East.

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London Observer notes role of film director/evangelist

Bad news from Nigeria, via This Day:

Two women have allegedly been killed by angry youths in Warri, after they were reportedly accused of causing the death of a two- year old girl through witchcraft…A large and wild mob of angry youths stormed homes of the two women, dragged them out and later beat them to death. One of the women, who eked out a living from fishing, reportedly bled to death, after being stabbed in the breast, while the second was burnt alive.

This comes six months after three women were burned to death in Uganda for the same reason, and a couple of weeks after the UK Observer ran a story – and an accompanying video piece – on the rising number of Nigerian children being abused by relatives who have come to believe that their children are witches:

In a maddened state of terror, parents and whole villages turn on the child. They are burnt, poisoned, slashed, chained to trees, buried alive or simply beaten and chased off into the bush…This is becoming commonplace.

The author of the story, Tracey McVeigh, places the blame for this on “besuited Christian pastors and their hours-long, late-night services”. She also points out that foreign influences have been at work:

…Although old tribal beliefs in witch doctors are not so deeply buried in people’s memories, and although there had been indigenous Christians in Nigeria since the 19th century, it is American and Scottish Pentecostal and evangelical missionaries of the past 50 years who have shaped these fanatical beliefs. Evil spirits, satanic possessions and miracles can be found aplenty in the Bible, references to killing witches turn up in Exodus, Deuteronomy and Galatians, and literal interpretation of scriptures is a popular crowd-pleaser.

This is something I’ve blogged on previously. The abuse of children accused of witchcraft is also an alarming development in Congo, where teachings hysteria about witchcraft has been particularly promoted by a mega-church called Combat Spirtuel. I noted that the leaders of this church enjoy links with an American neo-Pentecostal leader who in turn has a position on an “Apostolic Council” of prominent neo-Pentecostal figures.

McVeigh tells us that many people blame the witch-hysteria in Nigeria on the Liberty Gospel Church, which has 60 branches across the Niger Delta and beyond (including, apparently, Rome):

It was started by a local woman, mother-of-two Helen Ukpabio, whose luxurious house and expensive white Humvee are much admired in the city of Calabar where she now lives. Many people in this area credit the popular evangelical DVDs she produces and stars in with helping to spread the child witch belief.

Ukpabio has a website which lists numerous videos and books. These include The Coven 1 (“Is a revelation of a typical witchcraft planning, manipulation, monitoring and eventual execution of their evil devices against the unsuspecting victim”); Married to a Witch; and Unveiling the Mysteries of Witchcraft:

There is hardly any family without witchcraft possession or attack with many held in deep fear of witchcraft operations. This book is extremely unique as nothing in it is extracted from any other source but all information is based on God’s dealing with his servant, Evang. (Mrs.) Helen Ukpabio.

One of her films to have received some exposure in the West is End of the Wicked; one review can be seen here:

One of the most popular Nigerian directors is Teco Benson, a former civil servant who took to film making in 1996 and has been hugely prolific since, specialising in the sort of melodramatic religious films typified by End of the Wicked: A Witchcraft Movie [1999]. He frequently works with Helen Ukpabio, owner of Liberty Films, itself associated with the Liberty Evangelical Ministry, a woman who has had a hand in a significant number of Nigerian genre films – when she’s not leading crusades against Nigeria’s apparently large population of “witches”.

…End of the Wicked is crude, unpolished, utterly baffling and yet strangely compelling…No two adjacent scenes actually seem to have anything to do with each other…The film’s strangeness just keeps on getting stranger as it progresses – gore fans will be rewarded with a tacky scene in which a child demon forces a victim’s eyes to fall out and just about everyone will do a double take when one of Beelzebub’s female followers suddenly reveals that she has a monstrous penis, given to her by Beelzebub so she can make love with her own daughter-in-law!

The film was featured in the “Compass of Horror” film festival held in Bristol (UK) in November last year, and the evangelist was game enough to take part:

Nothing I have ever seen can compare to End of the Wicked. This subgenre of Nigerian evangelist horror (“Nollywood” if you will) is shot on video and the nearest comparison I can think of would be Borat’s home movies…As the panel discussion would later reveal, the notion of family oriented witchcraft is still very much at the heart of Nigeria’s social problems.

…The panel discussion with director Helen Ukpabio and Professor Onookome Okome reveals that over a thousand of these video films are made a month in Nigeria and are spread on videotape as the country has no cinema distribution to speak of. This Nigerian cultural phenomenon outsells Hollywood product several times over in the local market. Mrs Ukpabio also helps put the film in a political context by discussing the very unpredictable nature of government censorship in regards to supposedly state-funded industry. Eye opening is an understatement.

Another Ukpabio movie, The Rapture, was banned by the Nigeria board of film censors for alleged anti-Catholicism.

Ukpabio trained as a nurse before becoming an evangelist, although according to her own account she also managed to fit in an early career as a occultist:

I was initiated into Olumba cult [i.e. The Brotherhood of the Cross and Star] at 14 years of age, I was also betrothed to Lucifer as would be wife. This automatically qualifies me to attend a spiritual school for the Royals. I was trained in concepts of mysticism, occultism, spiritism, Satanism, demonism and general cultism. The idea of developing strategies that will aid in keeping activities of the cult alive and seeing more human registering with the occult kingdom is the number one goal of the occult kingdom.

The practice of witchcraft, necromancy, familiar spirits, and other spiritistic activities in order to multiply them thereby causing confusion multiplying wrong altars are Satan’s strategy to help water down the true churches are some of their activities…

Perhaps Ukpabio may like to reflect on whether a hysteria which is claiming lives and ruining the lives of children might also be “Satan’s strategy to help water down the true churches”. I doubt that Ukpabio approves of what is happening to “child-witches”, and I’m sure she would be appalled by the murders of the two women in Warri – but after instilling so much fear over occultic conspiracies, might she not think it would be a good idea to moderate her message? And might not some of the big-name Western evangelists who regularly visit Africa and purport to demonstrate the reality of spiritual forces – in particular Reinhard Bonnke and Benny Hinn – also consider having either a quiet word or making a public statement on a problem that now requires urgent attention?

(Hat tip: Bulldada Newsblog)

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The latest development in the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem saga, from the Jerusalem Post:

In a new legal twist, the High Court of Justice on Wednesday froze Israeli recognition of Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III, reopening a bitter international dispute that has roiled the church.

The Israeli government chose to recognise Theophilos patriarch a couple of days ago, two years after the ousting of his predecessor, the decidedly inaptly-named Irineos. Despite losing the confidence of both his flock and his fellow Orthodox Church leaders, Irineos believes that with Israel’s backing he can reclaim his position, and he has now launched a new legal challenge.

Irineos’s troubles, as I have blogged at length, stem from the sale of church-owned land in east Jerusalem to a front-group for Israeli settlers. Naturally this rather annoyed and embarrassed Palestinian Orthodox Christians, who are generally fed up with Greek leadership anyway. Irineos claimed that the deal had been made without his knowledge by his treasurer, Nicholas Papadimas, who is now reportedly in hiding in South America. Theophilos agreed to cancel the sale (although prevarication led to temporary de-recognition by Jordan in May), which is one reason Israel prefers Irineos – there is also concern over future leaseholds on church-owned land in west Jerusalem, including on the site of the Knesset. However, Theophilos’s position was strengthened in October when Condoleezza Rice chose to meet him in Bethlehem.

One person particularly opposed to Theophilos is – as ever – Aaron Klein, WorldNetDaily’s Jerusalem correspondent. Klein invariably describes Theophilos as the “‘no-land-to-Jews’ cleric”, and he claims that Theophilos is motivated by prejudice against Jews, rather than fear of creeping Israeli hegemony over east Jerusalem (it should be noted that Klein’s righteous anger over “no-land-to-Jews” does not prevent him complaining about “Arabs…illegally occupy[ing] strategic land purchased for Jews” in locations controlled by the Jewish National Fund). The temporary recognition given to Theophilos by Israel a couple of days ago was grist for his campaign against the Olmert government, which he regularly trashes on behalf of the extremely right-wing Israeli fringe groups he continually puffs. However, he does give us one interesting quote, from Bishop Atallah Hanna:

“The deal must be canceled and Theofilos knows this. We as a church will fight any smuggling of real estate to Jewish organizations,” Atallah Hanna, the church’s archbishop of Sebastia, told WND.

Hanna is a particularly slippery figure: he insists that reports in sympathetic Arab newspapers quoting him as supporting suicide bombers were fabricated, and he is opposed to Irineos for reasons of his own. In May 2005 he claimed not to be against a land-deal per se:

“The Israelis may not have understood us. The problem is not the sale of lands to Jews, but rather the lack of proper management and transparency, and fraud.”

Another group backing Theophilos over Irineos is the Roman Catholic Church. Asia News reminds us bitterly that Irineos

…is infamous for having urged his followers to engage in open combat against the friars of the Holy Sepulchre and for having continually sought to create difficulties regarding the upkeep of sacred sights jointly owned with Catholics.

Irineos doesn’t care much for Jews, either, and he is on record as feeling “disgust and disrespect…for the descendants of the crucifiers”. For some reason, such a view didn’t prevent him enjoying Israel’s backing until earlier this week, nor does it inhibit him from asking for Israel’s help now.

Name variations: Theofilos, Ireneos

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Attempt to expound Prosperity Gospel causes controversy

The Sacramento State Hornet carries a story under the headline “Anchor talks religion, baffles group, students”:

Adrienne Bankert, television anchor for KCRA 3, visited Sacramento State today to speak about her religious views at a discussion hosted by members of the International Students Christian Fellowship…

As part of her presentation, Bankert asked: “Have you ever met a poor Jewish person?”

“I have never met a poor Jewish person ever in my life! Every Jewish person I went to school with had money, and if they didn’t have money literally…they knew how to get some. The Jewish people founded Hollywood, Jewish people were in banking, lawyers.”

Bankert said she, herself, is a Jew in Jesus’ name.

“I’m a Jewish person, because I’m saved by the blood of Jesus. He is Jewish, and I want what he’s got for me.”

The comment about the supposed scarcity of poor Jewish people has got Bankert into some predicable trouble:

Michal Kohane…executive director of the Jewish Federation of the Sacramento Region, says her organization considered issuing a press release denouncing Bankert and asking for sanctions.

“But the feeling was, it was a little disproportionate to what happened,” Kohane says. “What we’re going to try to do is have a personal meeting.”

…However, at least one Sacramento-area rabbi, David Wechsler-Azen at Beth Shalom, says he was personally offended.

“As somebody who has been a poor Jew, as someone regularly approached by poor Jews for help, it’s just so factually inaccurate,” Wechsler says. “It’s just really offensive for someone to portray Jews that way.

The rest of the Hornet article puts Bankert’s comments in a bit more context:

“I know God wants us to be rich and successful and prosperous, and to know our call and our purpose,” Bankert said. “He doesn’t want it to be a strain. He doesn’t want you to have to fight for it.”

This Prosperity Gospel theology sees God as offering material blessings to believers; mix that in with the philo-semitism of much modern conservative evangelicalism and you can see how the idea could form that Jews are naturally prosperous, not because of any negative personality traits, but because they enjoy the blessings of God. Of course, it’s still a lazy stereotype and fails to grasp that ascribing “essential” characteristics to any group of people is a bad idea.

But what of Bankert’s “I’m a Jewish person” claim? The intention is again doubtless laudable: here’s a Christian rejecting past Christian anti-semitism and acknowledging the Jewish origins of Christianity. However, there is also a wider context here of cultural appropriation. A few months ago I blogged on the trend by American conservative evangelicals to purchase prayer shawls, mezuzahs, and other Jewish artefacts from specialist evangelical companies. It seems to me that this is could be problematic; as I wrote then, it wasn’t just Christianity that split from Judaism – Judaism also decided that Christianity was not Jewish.

For Christians of non-Jewish heritage to declare themselves to be Jewish is surely akin to New Agers taking the bits of Native American religion that they like, such as Dream Catchers, for their own purposes; this has caused some annoyance among Native Americans.

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The UK village of Stotfold, near Luton and Bedford, has become an unlikely setting for controversy over a Northen-Ireland style march to commemorate the siege of Londonderry. The Comet reports:

A CONTROVERSIAL march will go ahead despite fears of a public backlash and vigorous objections from a town council.

Luton and Bedford Browning Club and Apprentice Boys of Derry will march through the streets of Stotfold on Saturday, December 15, for the second year running.

The march marks the 319th anniversary of the shutting of the gates of Londonderry in 1688 which ignited the greatest siege in British history, the siege of Derry.

Last year marchers burned an effigy of Colonel Robert Lundy, governor of the city who attempted to persuade Londonderry’s residents to surrender to the surrounding forces of King James II and was considered a traitor by the Protestants defending the city…

In Northern Ireland marches such as this have long been associated with the assertion of Protestant supremacy over the Province’s Catholic residents, and according to some reports, the previous year’s march through Stotfold had allegedly included the playing of “anti-Catholic tunes”. This CNN report has some useful general background to the negative connotations of such parades:

The parades have caused conflict throughout their history, but the key political flashpoints in recent years have been Drumcree in Portadown, Ormeau Road in Belfast, and the Bogside in Derry.

It was an Apprentice Boys parade in Derry in 1969 that led to the mobilisation of British troops in Northern Ireland, after what became known as “The Battle of the Bogside”.

…In 1995, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), Northern Ireland’s police force, prevented the Portadown District Orange Lodge from marching along the Garvaghy Road on its return journey from a service in Drumcree Parish Church.

…Orangemen refused to be dispersed or re-routed, and a two-day standoff began before police finally conceded and allowed marchers, led by the Rev. Ian Paisley and David Trimble, to walk through, but without any bands.

Nationalist protestors stood aside but were infuriated when Paisley and Trimble, at the end of the march, held their arms in the air in what appeared to be a gesture of triumph.

…The disturbances were repeated in the following year, when a four-day standoff occurred, with a crowd of up to 10,000 gathered outside police barricades.

These days things have quietened down to a great extent, and Ian Paisley is more likely to be seen arm-in-arm with his new “Chuckle brother” Martin McGuinness than with Trimble. Orange and Apprentice Boys enthusiasts present their parades as a harmless bit of cultural heritage and historical commemoration, and claim to avoid provocations against Catholics. Yearly marches in London pass without incident, but a large parade in Glasgow in July 2006 ended with 60 arrests, and a spokesperson admitted there was a problem with “hangers on” out to cause trouble. A parade in Dublin also ended badly, although there the trouble came from protestors while the mayor of the city had no problem with the parade itself.

Back in Stotfold, the local MP and Anglican Bishop released a joint statement:

…This year’s march has been strongly opposed by the Town Council and representatives of the local community, and requests not to hold the march have been refused.

Our belief is that a significant number of the people of Stotfold are profoundly concerned at this march, similar to ones which have been so associated with religious division in Northern Ireland over recent years. Stotfold people have no connection with the events in Londonderry, and have never felt the need to commemorate them.

…There is no significant history of religious intolerance in our community, and the idea of introducing this fills us with alarm. A march which at its centre celebrates events which have contributed to historic divisions between Catholic and Protestant in Ireland seems sadly out of place here, and we fail to see what positives are being achieved.

Of course, one wonders how there can be “no connection with the events in Londonderry” given the siege’s historical significance, but the rise of Orangeism in Bedfordshire is a rather unexpected development. The march itself passed peacefully, and a short video is available here. A small (and unimaginative) counter-demonstration of one, though, was not allowed:

One young man wearing a hooded top and with the bottom half of his face covered with a scarf was spoken to by police after revealing he was wearing a Sinn Fein T-shirt.

“We told him not to show his shirt again and we made sure he left the area where the march was taking place,” said Pc Ian Wilson, one of the officers covering the event.

A spokesperson explained why Stotfold was chosen:

…John McAdam, provincial grand secretary of the Loyal Orange Institution of England Midlands Lodge, who also attended the meeting, said: “We hold the march in Stotfold because our president John Roberts lives in the town.”

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