POET Patrick Jones – so shamefully treated by Waterstones in Cardiff this week when they caved in to a low-grade terrorist threat issued by low-life Christian zealot Stephen “Birdshit” Green – has gained more publicity for his new book that he and his publishers, Cinnamon Press, ever could have hoped for … and he has even been invited to read his “blasphemous” poems in the Welsh Assembly!
Green is beside himself with fury that Peter Black, the LibDem’s culture spokesman, has invited Jones – “a militant atheist” – to read his poems, “which call for an end to Christian worship”, in Committee Room 24 of the Assembly at 12 noon on Thursday December 17.
If you want creepy, just look in a mirror Mr Green
Howls Green, on his Christian Voice website:
This is a creepy event at which Jesus-hating Assembly Members can swoon over poems packed with hatred for Christianity and which speak of Mary Magdalene and the poet having sex with the Lord Jesus Christ.
What, like in the film Passio, in which Jesus has it off with all his hunky male chums?
They will also hear Jones’ unfettered hatred of Christianity, which he has somehow managed to convince himself is indistinguishable from Islam.
The bigot continues:
What they will not hear is Jones insult the prophet Mohammed. He dare not do that at all, let alone in the sexual way he insults Jesus Christ, whom he sees as a soft target.
Your beloved messiah was hardly soft here, was he Mr Green?
Green adds:
Christians in Wales must not take this lying down. We need to stand up for our Lord against this attack on His honour and on the Church itself by Peter Black. He has gone out of his way to show contempt for Christians in Wales . As he is the LibDem Culture spokesman, that means insulting Jesus Christ is now official LibDem policy. The LibDems have thus become a political party Christians can no longer in conscience vote for or take any part in.
Meanwhile, we learn from the PTT blog that Waterstone’s are now claiming that they cancelled Jones’s planned book-signing because of the poet’s “provocative” action prior to the event. The company said:
The poetry reading was organised and planned in good faith between our store and the publisher. However, it would appear that shortly before the event took place, the author deliberately took provocative action to create a furore around the publication of his book. These actions were taken without prior discussion with the store or their consent and altered the nature of the pre-agreed event. For this reason and because of the risk of disruption to the store, our staff and customers we felt it appropriate to cancel the event.
Cinnamon Press hotly denies this:
I [we don't know who "I" is, but presumably one of Cinnamon's team] was … told on the phone that Waterstone’s considered Patrick Jones had taken actions that instigated the cancellation of the event. Having followed this up with the author it is clear that this is not the case. In fact the leader of Christian Voice [Stephen Green] had published remarks several months ago that Patrick had responded to in verse.
This was a separate and historical incident and not related to the launch in any way. The leader of Christian Voice is well known for his attempts to sabotage anything that does not meet with his approval and there is no doubt that he would have orchestrated this bigotry even if he’d never previously heard of Patrick. The cancellation was not due to Patrick’s actions, but only due to Waterstone’s decision to accede to a very small threat in a way not consistent with your previous policy.
To cave in to threats of disruption or any implied threats of violence is an appalling betrayal of civil values. If threats were made (or implied, as seems likely from the language of “going to the battleground” and being prepared to “fight”) it is a matter for the police, not for capitulation.
Cinnamon has taken the controversy to a new level by posting the following video on YouTube.
[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YDp0lNDZukM[/youtube]
UPDATE – Nov 16: There is more on this escalating row over on Peter Black’s blog, where an excellent editorial in the Western Mail is reproduced.
All credit to the members of the Welsh Assembly supporting free speech. If I ever publish a book I sincerely hope Christian Voice condemns it. In fact, I may write one for that express purpose. Hey, let’s all do it! If we can raise tons of money for a bus slogan, maybe we can raise money to fund the publication of blasphemous works?
If you need cheering up, Stephen Green never lets you down. Is there anyone else with the same record of things backfiring on them?
I think it’s disgraceful the way you continually satirize Stephen Green by calling him ‘Birdshit’. No one should make fun of someone so obviously mentally defective.
@ Tony E: It is actually quite funny how whatever he tries to do has the exact opposite effect to what he intended. How many people would have watched a ‘certain’ televised Opera if he had kept his mouth shut?
Mike: Stephen Green the first case of human de-evolution.
Craven cowards masquerading as freethinkers. Whilst Christianity has quite a few batty ideas, none of them are nearly as scary as Islam. Attack Islam and the entire mob, led by the police and CPS will knock your doors down. So join the headbangers in mocking Christianity.
@ ciccio i f you bother to examine this site, you will find very little evidence of craven cowardice regarding Islam, which gets a pretty rough, and well-deserved ride. Make sure of your facts before shooting you mouth off.
Stephen Green must now qualify as the UKs no 1 religious tosspot
Even though birdshit is in the wrong here you may not be aware of an email that Patrick Jones sent out shortly before the event, that coincided with the confrontational email Jones sent direct to Green (see the patrick-jones site):
“hi- i am waging a word war with an evil organsiation called- christian voice led by the ever so saintly and ever so bigotted stephen green
they truly are a frightening group of people- hating all who do not share their belief in the invisible man in the sky-
anyway in my new book i have quite a few anti religious works that aim to cause dialogi=ue and debate from certain religious quarters andi want to flush these christian voice people out of their pews- so have a read of the article below and check out their site
www. christianvoice. org. uk
and i was wodnering if we coudl play a little trick- would anyone be willing to email them warning of my impending book and poetry reading in cardiff and how it contains anti religious poems and i criticise stephen green and that they shoudl do soemthing about it-
if we al lwrite and attack them theyll close down and hide but if we are a little subtle we can get them out and expose them for what they are-
email is
info@christianvoice.org.uk
thanks fellow free thinkers
patrick..
x”
Someone is being economical with the truth, it is irritating that for once it doesn’t seem to be “Birdshit”.
Source for the above is:
http://www.foreverdelayed.org.uk/forum/showpost.php?p=1547974&postcount=38
Ciccio – I agree fully with Marcus – This site give a well deserved ‘f@@ck you’ to all religions. You should be more supportive.
Well done to Patrick Jones for brilliantly playing Green like a puppet at his own game.