h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I considered e-mailing Christian Voice and trying to explain my objections to their objections, but as my last e-mail went unanswered, I don't think I shall bother.

I am an evangelical Christian and I can cope with, and even enjoy, a production which supposedly

"portrays Jesus as an coprophiliac with an infantile complex who admits to being homosexual and who is told "F*** you" by Satan and "Jesus, grow up for Chr***'s sake and put some f***ing clothes on" by Jerry Springer. Almighty God is put across as an old fool who needs therapy, Mary the mother of Jesus is told she was 'raped by an angel' while the character of Jerry Springer himself emerges as the true saviour of mankind." (from the CV press release)

because it's all in a dream sequence! In context (which is a concept they probably haven't heard of, which is worrying, since it's so important when studying the Bible...), all of these problematic things are quite explicitly and obviously taking place in Jerry Springer's fevered imagination. Therefore sentences like 'Jerry imagines himself as the true saviour of mankind' would be more appropriate. In terms of theatre, CV has probably never been to anything more challenging than an all-star pantomime starring the bloke from Gladiators and her off Coronation Street... Or at least that's the impression you get from his/their lack of comprehension of theatre.

David

Well, quite David. Most of the so-called 'objectionable' stuff was all in the dream sequence. And I agree with you that it should be seen as *that* and not necessarily anything against Christianity per se.

It's so refreshing to meet a Christian with a sense of humour on h2g2 - I know plenty in RL but sometimes here they tend to be very defensive and quite humourless.

As a piece of theatre I actually found that the JS Opera dragged a lot in places, and I didn't enjoy a lot of the music, but it was fun and innovative and a bit challenging. And a few times I laughed out loud - the KKK dance, for example.

The very idea that this piece of theatre should be banned is just beyond the beyond, you know?


az

Well it is on in Plymouth so I am pretty tempted to go. Just in the hope that the more of a success it is the more it will annoy Green and his ilk....

I definately want a ticket. (I wonder if we'll get picketed on the way in? )

If it comes to Canterbury, I'd be quite tempted to picket the picketers. Maybe with a 'Christians have a sense of humour!' banner or some such.

And on the back of it: 'But maybe not looking at you lot.'

I do hope people go dressed in fancy dress. Go as Jesus in his Kaftan and sand-shoes and as you walk past the pickets whip it off to reveal a fetching neat nappy arrangement beneath. With a T-Shirt saying 'Talk to The Stigmata'...or is that going too far?

STEPHEN GREEN IS ON BBC1 QUESTIONTIME RIGHT NOW!!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question_time/

And why would we want to know this?

oh only becasue the entire panel and audience are rounding on him and every question that's tossed his way he answers with a quote from the bible.

Oh bother. If I'd have known, I'd have watched it in order to work out if I have any similarities with him *at all*. I suspect that the similarities are:

1 - I am male. He is male.
2 - We both call ourselves Christians.
3 - ... That's probably it.

ah but the BBC will stream the show for you on the link I provided above for the forthcoming week until the next programme airs, because they are nice like that.

Ooh, I didn't realise that TV was streaming as well now. The listen again thingy for the radio is excellent, so this is welcome news. Even though they've probably been doing it for years...

@rse! I did not realise he was on.

ANyone willing to give a review of what happened?

The usual place for Christian Voice stuff (if only it would contract throat cancer):

http://www.christianvoice.org.uk/Press/press011.html

Basically, Mr Green is going to report all Muslim book shops who sell the Koran because now that " Now Muslim leaders have woken up to the fact that the Qu'ran contains enough incitement to kill Jews, Christians and unbelievers to land them in court and they have asked to Government to exempt it. The Government have so far refused to accommodate them." Why should 'they' have special treatment over good God-fearing Christians like gay-hating Green.

Damn.

I wish I saw him making a fool out of himself on question time.

Ooh, I wonder if he'll report libraries as well. The Library of Doom (where I work) has several copies of the Qu'ran/Koran, some in English translation and some of the proper original. These are kept, as Islamic practice dictates, on the highest shelf - we even ignore Dewey Decimal to allow for this. Each time I pass, I check to see that they're in the right place.

Does that mean that all the lbrarians are (according to Mr Green and his imaginary friends at Christian Voice) inciting religious hatred? I'm sure my church pastor would be most surprised to learn this!

David

A-ha. I see the hidden agenda now. Islam has *got* to be anti-technology, because if there is ever an Islamic space programme they'll have zero-G environments, and the term "Top shelf" will become meaningless, thus subverting the whole world-view and causing disaster to rain down. (Except in those circumstances that would be meaningless as there's no "down"...)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4507636.stm

So Sainsburys is not stocking the DVD due to complaints.

I for one am going to be writing to my local Sainsburys stating that if they give into fundamentalists then I will permanantly transfer my business to Tescos.

We should start an anti- the anti-JSTO campaign