STEPHEN “Birdshit” Green, 60, tireless campaigner for a more moral, less gay UK, has been exposed as a cruel, delusional wife and childbeater by his former spouse, Caroline Green.
Green, a cruel, delusional hypocrite
According to this report, the Christian extremist – creator in 1994 of Christian Voice, as well as a newly launched blog, Christian VoiceUK – often punished his ex-wife for failing to be a dutiful and compliant wife.
Caroline revealed that Green wrote a list of her Âfailings then described the weapon he would make to beat her with.
He told me he’d make a piece of wood into a sort of witch’s broom and hit me with it, which he did.He hit me until I bled. I was terrified. I can still remember the pain.
She added:
Stephen listed my misdemeanours: I was disrespectful and disobedient; I wasn’t loving or submissive enough and I was undermining him. He also said I wasn’t giving him his Âconjugal rights.
He even framed our marriage vows — he always put particular emphasis on my promise to obey him — and hung them over our bed. He believed there was no such thing as marital rape and for years I’d been reluctant to have sex with him, but he said it was my duty and was angry if I refused him. But the beating was the last straw. It Âconvinced me I had to divorce him.
And during the time he was terrorising his wife and their four children, he was also revelling in his self-appointed public role as guardian of the nation’s morality.
He routinely inveighs against the abolition of the death penalty, no-fault divorce, Islam, abortion and, his particular bête noir, homosexuality. Violent crime and rape, he laments on his website, have risen dramatically in the past 50 years, while he points out that “virtue is derided”.
When Caroline, 59, contemplates the disparity between his public pronouncements and his private persona, she is sickened.
Whenever I watch him on TV spouting verses from the Bible, or see him quoted in a newsÂpaper, it turns my stomach. I’ve decided to tell the truth about him now because the people who support him financially and morally should know what he is really like.
Ironically, this button appears on Green's Christian Voice site, but if you click on it, it does not link to the Mail expose
The fact that Caroline remained married for 26 years is surprising. But, she explains, she was intimidated and terrified to leave him. She was also aware — because she had no money of her own — that she depended on the £800 a month that he gave her to bring up their children.
It was almost like living in a cult,. We were all subjugated to his will and cowed by him. Over the years he belittled us and made us feel worthless.
In 1992 he wrote a virulently anti-gay book, The ÂSexual Dead End, which Caroline says marked ‘the beginning of the end’. Two years later, he abandoned the Conservative Family Campaign, which he regarded as too moderate, and set up Christian Voice in order to pursue a more radical course.
And the more his religious crusade consumed him, the more extreme Green’s behaviour became. Said Caroline:
He had very high expectations of the children; nothing they did was ever good enough.He bullied them mentally and manipulated them. And they always had to be Âchaperoned. He wouldn’t countenance them having boyfriends or girlfriends.
There were occasions when his explosions of wrath became physical. He assaulted not only Caroline, but their sons.
He beat our middle son with a belt, in front of his best friend, for answering him back. I tried to intervene but he pushed me away. My eldest son was hit with a broomstick and kicked on the back of his legs. He still has scars on his shins. On one occasion Stephen beat him so hard with a piece of wood that we thought he might have broken his arm. When we took him to hospital, my son pretended he’d fallen because he didn’t want to incur his father’s anger.
It took the smallest of misdemeanours to trigger Green’s wrath. Caroline says:
They were trivial things. He’d say the children had been disobedient or insubordinate. He would retaliate really spitefully. When our youngest son left a small heater on in the bedroom of the mobile home, Stephen Âconfiscated it as a punishment for wasting electricity. The boys slept in freezing conditions for two years. A window was broken and he replaced it with plywood, which in turn got damp and froze. These were the sort of privations we all had to endure.
Caroline described his state of mind “hyper-manic”. She said:
For years he’d been Âcontrolling, spiteful and self-righteous. But later he became delusional and completely uncontrollable. I’d obeyed him as a dutiful wife, but my love for him had corroded away. People must wonder why I stayed as long as I did. I was Âembarrassed and humiliated by his behaviour. But actually we were all brainwashed. My self-esteem ebbed away to such an extent that I felt worthless and stupid.
She finally cut free from him in 2006. A loan from her brother — in whom she confided about Green’s behaviour — allowed her to buy a caravan in which she established herself and her children while she awaited her divorce.
When invited to respond to his ex-wife’s allegations, Stephen Green made no comment.
Hat tip: Terry, Barriejohn, Keith, David G and a host of others …
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
January 29th, 2011 at 12:27 pm
Sounds about right. I wonder what brought on his mental health problems? Or is his condition idiopathic and he was born with a personality disorder? The violence would suggest a super-controlling, probably self-congratulatory, defect that is incurable at his age. He should keep taking the tablets.
January 29th, 2011 at 12:50 pm
Is anyone really surprised? More ‘shitbag’ than ‘birdshit’.
January 29th, 2011 at 12:51 pm
Roger
“I wonder what brought on his mental health problems?”
All those of faith have mental health problems and in one way or another disassociate themselves from reality.
Oh how good for all of us it would be if a simple tablet would cure the affliction.
January 29th, 2011 at 12:52 pm
“The fact that Caroline remained married for 26 years is surprising”
Unfortunately this is not surprising. Domestic violence is far more prevalent than most people realise. The victim is often too dependent, or too afraid, to do anything about it.
http://www.victimsupport.org.u.....20violence
January 29th, 2011 at 1:03 pm
Unfortunately such people don’t think for a moment that they are sick; taking the tablets isn’t even in question no matter how much they would benefit. Also Green’s behaviour is perfectly consistent with his fundamentalist religious outlook. He is not different from those fundamentalist muslim parents we read about.
I must say the younger Stephen Green looks an awful lot like President Ahmedinejad…..maybe they were separated at birth? They obviously have the same disease – maybe it’s genetic….
January 29th, 2011 at 1:16 pm
He was only following the rules in his ‘good’ book;
He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. Proverbs 13:24
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Ephesians 5:22-24
January 29th, 2011 at 1:25 pm
I’m disappointed that the wife in this case didn’t pour gasoline on the bastard, one night, and burn the bastard to death! The “LOAD” would have approved!
January 29th, 2011 at 1:34 pm
@dogon- you are wrong- religion does not equal mental illness- the fact that men like him are drawn to the controlling aspects of religion as a tool and that men like him are bsaically misogynists does not make a correlation between religion and mental illness- saying that just allows them an excuse and is to the detriment of people with real mental health problems.
These men just use religion to support their preferred way of thinking and behaving- if he hadn’t used religion it would have been something else. Violent and controlling men will always find a way and it is also why pedophiles are attracted to religion- it gives them a method / tool for controlling people and gives them a head start in their grooming.
Religion is and always has been just that- a tool for (mostly) men to use to control (mostly) women – a very successful tool- but in no way is it a mental illness – it is a lack of reasoning and a lack of intelligence and logic but not mental illness.
January 29th, 2011 at 1:35 pm
And he has remarried? what about the bloody wedding vows????
January 29th, 2011 at 1:48 pm
More to the point, what about the poor woman he’s married to now? I hope she has someone who cares about her enough to make sure these things are not happening to her too.
January 29th, 2011 at 1:59 pm
So a vile nasty man has been exposed as a vile nasty man.
Did anyone not see this coming?
With the religious there is a direct relationship between how much they espouse virtues and the actual dark recesses of their lives. Its got to the stage that whenever a ‘man of the cloth’ speaks on any moral subject I have to automatically assume the polar opposite is meant.
With the BBC and Daily Mail allowing this buffoon an incredible amount of airtime/space over the years I wonder if they will be as quick to expose him?
January 29th, 2011 at 2:02 pm
“Oh, but he was an anomaly,” Christians will protest. “We’re not all like that!”
Well, maybe not; but (as Dave Gilbert has already pointed out) his behavior is easily defensible by the Bible. It takes no genius at all to interpret it that way.
January 29th, 2011 at 2:05 pm
I can’t even begin to imagine the schadenfreude that Barry must have felt when he posted this story…
January 29th, 2011 at 2:11 pm
More champagne corks at CLC as they now become top-dog for Christian fundamentalism and spokeperson for the Daily Mail. Religion is a cradle for metal illness and the many reference to people being possessed in the Bible is a reflection of this. Of course Green will blame the devil and passing any responsibility to his ex wife – who should be taking out criminal proceeding – ching ching CLC.
January 29th, 2011 at 2:22 pm
Jesus…
January 29th, 2011 at 2:31 pm
The only thing that worries me about this story is that it’s from the daily mail, that bastion of truth.
January 29th, 2011 at 2:37 pm
I love these types of stories there is nothing better than a Ted Haggard, Jimmie Swaggart, George Rekers, Eddie Long and now Birdshot Green being exposed as total and utter hypocrites.
If I was a fundamentalist preacher pontificating about morality I would make sure there was nothing in my past.
However this will not perturb Green’s followers’ they will simply see it as lies thought up by the non-believing Satanists out to get their fuehrer. There is no amount of hypocrisy that the religious mind won’t forgive.
January 29th, 2011 at 2:38 pm
Well, I can’t say I’m surprised.
January 29th, 2011 at 2:58 pm
oh my goodness that poor woman, it took real courage to break away from that. I just hope that on his deathbed he knows he’s done wrong and is going “to hell”.
January 29th, 2011 at 3:09 pm
Praise Dog; I hope his kids, and their mum, take him to court.
January 29th, 2011 at 3:23 pm
The Daily Mail And Stephen Green: A Torrid Romance
http://botherer.org/2011/01/29.....d-romance/
January 29th, 2011 at 3:37 pm
Stephen “shitebag” green used to just be an amusing and laughable freakshow but now it’s clear what an evil and sick and twisted motherfucker he is, I don’t have anything else to say except what a complete and utter fucking scumbag.
Maybe His ex and his kids could make a TV experience to counter all the times we’ve had to deal with that wankbag running his mouth off at every oppurtunity.
January 29th, 2011 at 3:55 pm
Well, there you have it: proof if ever you needed it that religion really does equal control. How on earth Green squares his personal misconduct with the nonsense he preaches only he, I guess, can fathom. I just hope he finds the shame and humiliation unbearable.
January 29th, 2011 at 4:01 pm
I also hope there is a conviction waiting. It’s usually the evil ones who argue strongest that fun leads to evildoing.
January 29th, 2011 at 4:14 pm
Only two days ago the headline /link ‘Domestic violence is costing London £918 million a year’ was added to the Christian Voice Website’s ‘Brutal Britain’ archive. Need one say more?
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Green is presently banging out his latest press release denying the claims, claiming that his wife is a hateful and sick heathen and planning legal action with pound signs in his eyes.
January 29th, 2011 at 4:36 pm
No sympathy for the lady at all.
She was raised as a xtian by xtain parents which meant she was raised to be a potential punching bag. Her dipshit religion slams her over the head constantly that all SHEs are useless-worthless-ignorant-sources of all that is wrong. The bat schite idiot she married was also raised the same way.
And we are shocked by this —WHY??!??
The only real difference between the xtian and the islameic is ??
well nothing really.
If these people would grow up and accept adulthood, reality and responsibility then these stories would change drastically.
January 29th, 2011 at 5:00 pm
I have to agree with Graham Martin-Royle, I’m waiting for a paper I trust a little more than the Mail to pick up the story before I make too strident a comment.
However, I will say that his bigotry is just what causes attacks on gay teens every year, as well as breeding depression and self-loathing in the same group – if this story is accurate it only adds to the list of atrocities Green represents.
January 29th, 2011 at 5:17 pm
Had to happen. No-one can be as good as Green makes himself out to be. Except for the pope, of course.
January 29th, 2011 at 5:57 pm
No doubt Mr Green will somehow try and blame us atheists and gays for his actions.
January 29th, 2011 at 6:25 pm
Daily Mail Watch:
http://twitter.com/mailwatch/s.....5730814977
January 29th, 2011 at 6:41 pm
I have actually been trying to get on the MailWatch site all day.
The Mail, while often touting views similar to Green’s, are also shameless in their pursuit of noise and profit, so I can see them quite willingly stabbing the guy in the back to get some mileage out of such a story. They also have some sort of multiple personality disorder, at times printing something totally callous and then decrying ‘the media’ for their callous coverage of the subject. It is difficult to trust them, but I would be greatly surprised if they would include direct quotes of such strong accusations if they were just making it up.
@L.Long – I think it is unfair to blame someone for having been trapped in a destructive environment from birth and coming out a bit damaged. This is no excuse for Birdshit’s alleged actions, but when you legitimately believe that you are worthless and that if you stand up for yourself or walk away from your marriage you will go to hell, that is a prospect that makes it extraordinarily difficult to countenance escaping. You can’t blame the brainwashed for taking a bit of time to deprogram.
January 29th, 2011 at 6:43 pm
Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase The Bible Belt, doesn’t it?
January 29th, 2011 at 7:39 pm
Yes, but wait a moment, I don’t think Stephen Green is a true Christian. If he were he wouldn’t do these things. I wonder if he is a covert atheist. Yes, that must be the explanation: christians who do bad things are really atheists: and atheists who do good things are really christians but they have yet to realise this.
January 29th, 2011 at 7:43 pm
Normally ‘Birdshit’ and his merry band are ‘witnessing’ everything that offends them, and as we know this can be anything from gay events to Jerry Springer the opera.
It would make my xmas (albiet 330 days early)if just one of them had the guts to troll this site and apologise for their ‘satanic’ master’s behavior.
Rest assured I will not be holding my breath.
January 29th, 2011 at 7:55 pm
Broga: You took the words out of my mouth. “No true Christian would behave like this” – hahahahaha!!!
Many of my Plymouth Brethren friends visited similar violence upon their children, and most of the males were domineering and autocratic within the home (after the scriptural pattern, of course). One in particular used to cane his rather spirited daughter well into her teens – something which I found deeply disturbing even at that time. The cane was called “Charlie”, and lived in the corner of the living room, and whenever the poor girl spoke up for herself the words “I’ll have to get Charlie out” were heard, as if she were simple-minded, and I’ve even known him to chase her around the house before administering “correction”. Quite strange!
January 29th, 2011 at 8:02 pm
But, Broga, if that were true, there wouldn’t be any True Christians!
Oh, wait….
January 29th, 2011 at 8:26 pm
@Broga… True Christians… WHAT? Are you on drugs? No such thing I’m afraid my mad friend, it’s all a pile of made up bollocks, and everyone knows it.
Even the terminally stupid…
I’m glad Birdshit has been exposed for the sick man he is. It’s only a pity his former missus didn’t turn him in when she could have sent his disturbed arse to the cells for a long time.
January 29th, 2011 at 8:39 pm
We need some more birds.
January 29th, 2011 at 9:44 pm
DannyJ, I think you missed the piont.
January 29th, 2011 at 9:58 pm
@culpepper
More exact to say that religion, with all its fantasies and petty obsessiveness, mimics mental illnesses
January 29th, 2011 at 10:57 pm
I’m not at all surprised.
January 29th, 2011 at 11:18 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....re=related
Stephen appears.
January 29th, 2011 at 11:46 pm
Quit your bleating…you should be reporting this, (really shows your true agenda)…So sad…http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl.....to-funeral
Les
January 30th, 2011 at 1:14 am
It goes without saying, by the way, that in an enlightened society Stephen Green would have recognised his sadistic tendencies from an early age, married a masochistic woman and agreed early on which implements she enjoyed being whipped with and which she did not.
They would both have had a highly pleasurable and fulfilling marriage and their sex life would have been kept away from their children. Sadly this society is not there yet.
January 30th, 2011 at 5:23 am
Sickening, and more widespread than some might think. I grew up in a christian cult the JW’s, and this is very much how things were in my home growing up.
The religion excuses and even encourages such behaviour, while putting pressure on the women and children to accept this kind of treatment and be ‘obedient’.
January 30th, 2011 at 6:21 am
Re: culpepper”@dogon- you are wrong- religion does not equal mental illness”. It does, really. To believe in a sky fairy, so devotedly, without a skeric of evidence, based on a really old book of very dodgy moral value requires more than gross stupidity. It requires at least mental confusion and at most a mental illness.
January 30th, 2011 at 10:58 am
@Robster- as a mental health pofessional I still state you are wrong – religion is not a mental illness in and of itself- it may attract those with predisposing conditions, it may cause a disconnect in some who are susceptible to it but it is not a mental illness- definitions matter – see Sam Harris and his ideas about it being a ‘scoial disorcder’ of ideas that only perpetuates because people are afraid to challenge it – it is pure laziness to say it is a mental illness as it puts a stop to real research and allows for excuses for behaviour that should never be given
January 30th, 2011 at 11:32 am
I was an evangelical Christian for years, and would definitely not consider belief, in itself, to be symptomatic of “mental illness”. It did, however, lead to mental problems in my case, complicated by the fact that I was also suppressing my homosexuality, largely because of the views of the people with whom I associated. I would also agree that I had a predisposition to those problems, and exhibited anxiety and obsessive/compulsive traits from a young age. I also think that my existing problems made me more susceptible to the assurance and psychological support which religion and membership of its close-knit community provided. I did become extremely detached from reality at one stage, and began to behave in ways which the average person would term quite bizarre, but which to me were perfectly logical! The issue is an extremely complicated one, and deserving of more than knee-jerk reactions.
January 30th, 2011 at 11:37 am
@DannyJ. Great post and I am sorry to have driven you into such a paroxysm of fury – which is entirely to your credit. When you know me a little better you will not feel quite so badly about me – I hope.
January 30th, 2011 at 12:19 pm
SmalL point: I believe that Mr Bean – sorry, Green – is an “evangelical”, not an evangelist as such. Billy Graham is an evangelical evangelist!
January 30th, 2011 at 4:26 pm
So the control-freak who wants us all to live by his definition of morality, and his alone, turns out to be a control-freak at home too. Go figure…
January 30th, 2011 at 5:09 pm
But he seemed to be such a nice man. That engaging toothy smile (it was a smile, wasn’t it?), that beard.
Seriously, I agree that it was absurd for the media (and QT, what were you thinking?) to have ever given this low-brow loser any attention at all.
January 30th, 2011 at 5:41 pm
I am also a mental health professional and I understand why culpepper differentiates the two – mental illness and religion. That said religion is very frequently found to play a central part in many delusional constructs and I have time for the argument that religion is a mass delusion. I think it’s oversimplifying things but… the defintion of a delusion used in mental health services is ‘a fixed false belief’. That comes rather close to many people’s stance on religion in my view.
It’s a continuum but who is to say what a false belief is? Generally when it clearly gets in the way of healthy everyday living it might be looked at further – and I think that is a charge that can be made against a sizeable minority of religious people, although not really at all for most religious people.
Of course if you think it’s normal everyday life to be standing on a street corner in all weather forcing nonsensical leaflets on people who are trying to refuse them whilst claiming to know they have sinned, despite never having clapped eyes on them… What about delivering ‘The Watchtower’ through stranger’s letterboxes? Providing people with unsolicited material advocating corporal punishment of their children – who is to say that this is normal or maladapative?
Do you have to be wearing a tin foil hat and talking to demons and angels before your religion falls under the mental illness rubric? Isn’t praying to an imagined magical parent a retreat from the inherent difficulties involved in life? A way of managing existential angst? We all need ways of managing and getting through but none of us have the right to impose our worldview on our kids or on total strangers – religious prosletyisers assume this right (God given, natch) and you could argue this shows a pathological failure to empathise or inability to mentalize – recognising the other has their own mind and is another person and not just a resource to be mined.
January 31st, 2011 at 1:17 am
Caroline is me. My love was eroded in 2004. When I moved on, all closest relationships were destroyed in retaliation.
I wrote about my experiences in a book, A butterfly landed an eagle, available from amazon. After 27 years of hell with a doctor with severe bipolar disorder, I was blamed for his illness, marriage break-up, divorce and called an adulterous when I remarried.
My father disowned and disinherited me, my children have nothing to do with a fruit-loop, hair-brain, nonsense, egg-donor (not a mother). I paid a high price for staying too long.
This is why I decided to speak out by writing my book, in the hope of helping others with my hindsight as foresight, to make less mistakes than I did and more informed decisions, to protect from and prevent emotional damage.
Caroline get counselling for yourself and your children, if you can, while you can. I pray for my children to heal and find the truth, from afar. I have not seen my grandsons born in 2009 and last year. God bless you as you find your way without your abuser.
January 31st, 2011 at 6:54 am
I’m not at all surprised. It must be impossible to devote one’s entire public life to Bible-thumping homophobia, without being very sick in the head. As for the question of whether such sickness and religious belief are connected, it’s amazing that such things are still regarded as “debatable” in the 21st Century.
Religious truth claims consist of entirely of delusions, which seek to reward the delusional with important privileges – God’s favour, a place in heaven etc – in return for choosing their particular distortion of reality. Which particular creed Mr Batshit favours is pretty much an accident of his birth, but his mental state and his religious “calling” are undoubtedly two sides of the same coin.
January 31st, 2011 at 9:57 am
@ Elizabeth Laine.
this from amazon product description.
Liz Laine is the person she is today because of the 27 years of hell she endured as the wife of a doctor with bipolar disorder. Her Christian faith, Bible study, self-development courses, wide reading, and prayer brought her through as a whole person. At age 47, Liz found another whole person in her second husband, who is also a Christian. She writes in the hope that her hindsight will help to give others foresight in making difficult choices, like how to deal with mental illness,
The irony meter will shatter on this one.
January 31st, 2011 at 1:23 pm
@ chrsbol Kerrrr-boom! There it goes!
January 31st, 2011 at 1:39 pm
I don’t agree with you, Bubblecar. How about the great many people like myself who were at one stage of our lives extremely religious and are now not religious at all? The point is that the religious USUALLY decide that they will accept a core of belief, whatever their misgivings and however little they actually know about it in advance, and then go along with what it says, suspending disbelief. Most of them don’t actually claim to hear real voices inside their head, or even experience anything “miraculous” at all: it’s all much more “spiritual” than that!
January 31st, 2011 at 2:32 pm
I liked him better when he was gay!
January 31st, 2011 at 2:35 pm
Barriejohn, I didn’t mean that all or even most of those who subscribe to religions are/were delusional. Just that delusional people are often particularly attracted to religious belief, for obvious reasons.
January 31st, 2011 at 7:33 pm
We have had our share of trolls and spammers but I suspect this is the first time we have had a religiot promoting a crappy book – other than the buyBull that is.
February 1st, 2011 at 12:41 am
The threadheadline: “UK’s craziest evangelist, Stephen Green, exposed as a dictatorial, violent monster”
That’s a little sensational isn’t it, BDuke? Adolf Hitler and his cronies were monsters. On a smaller scale, Vlad the Impaler, the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot, they were monsters. Smaller yet, Jim Jones, Marshall Applewhite, Charles Manson, they were monsters, too. Birdshit may be an idiot who cannot squeeze out an irrational thought without his scriptures and a round of prayerful guidance from his imaginary friend, but he’s not a monster. He’s just an idiot playing pied piper to bigger idiots. I won’t be casting the first stone.
NeoWolfe
February 1st, 2011 at 7:08 am
These are, indeed, only allegations, but I think that if you lived with a violent, or maybe even overbearing, person he would assume the proportions of “a monster”.
February 1st, 2011 at 7:21 am
NeoWolfe: Birdshit may be an idiot
The allegations are that he beat his wife with a broomstick until she bled, and left his kids to freeze in unheated bedrooms with broken windows, amongst lots of other gross nastiness. I don’t think the word “idiot” really covers much of this spectrum of behaviour.
February 1st, 2011 at 10:01 am
He may not be a monster – a nasty piece of work, but not a monster – but at least he now provides people with the perfect response next time he organises a public demo. “Oh shut up, wife-beater.”
February 1st, 2011 at 5:39 pm
Neo-Wolf,
We already knew he was an idiot. It’s fair to say that monster is an extreme term, but not just because of the numbers involved.
Making the people closest to you live their lives in fear for years by means of violence and intimidation with the aim of breaking their spirits and forcing them to be subservient (allegedly) could reasonably be described as monstrous behaviour, couldn’t it?
I’m quite happy to cast the first (rhetorical) stone as I am, in fact, without sin.
February 2nd, 2011 at 12:25 am
As a child I was beaten with various “tools” and my parents thought they were saving my soul. I am sure that it was tramatic, and those old memories color my vision of the world. But, to some degree, we are all bad parents, and bad spouses. Often, it happens as a result of adopting a set of beliefs concocted by fakers and witchdoctors. Big mistake, but, so common that one is tempted to overlook many of these acts as innate human stupidity, and just move on.
At least he didn’t take his wife and children before the city elders, testify against them, and then have them stoned to death outside the city walls. But, in all fairness, given a shift in time, one can only wonder what he would have done three thousand years ago.
If you want to read about a “monster”, the real thing (according to believers). Read the book of Joshua.
NeoWolfe
February 2nd, 2011 at 8:45 pm
I don’t think that you can define who is or is not a monster by counting up the number of people that are affected by their crimes. What they are is defined by their nature, how many people they affect is more likely to be a matter of chance.
In the case of Green, I think that he must be a very unhappy man. As Don Said, “Making the people closest to you live their lives in fear for years by means of violence and intimidation…” is not a recipe for your own happiness.
February 3rd, 2011 at 11:10 pm
“But, to some degree, we are all bad parents, and bad spouses.”
No. There is no giving a pass to spousal/child abusers. The “it’s not a big deal” attitude helps perpetuate abuse.
…
Martin Robbins over at the Guardian has taken on The Daily Mail’s relationship with Stephen Green as well.
The Daily Mail is hypocritical over Christian Voice leader Stephen Green
http://www.guardian.co.uk/scie.....daily-mail
February 4th, 2011 at 1:52 am
Anonymous said:
“No. There is no giving a pass to spousal/child abusers.”
Naively simplistic. First you must define abuse/abusers. When I was in grade school, even the teachers and the principle beat my ass with leather tools. When your child does something unbelievably immature, do you yell, or send him or her a tweet? When you ground them, and they sneek out, how do you take it to the next level without becoming abusive? Until you have an extreme problem child, or a unstable bitch for a wife, it’s too early to be passing judgement on the rest of humanity.
NeoWolfe
February 4th, 2011 at 5:52 pm
“an unstable bitch for a wife”
Chauvinism:
Prejudiced belief in the superiority of one’s own gender, group, or kind.
I rest my case.
February 5th, 2011 at 2:01 am
I quote Bjohn:
“I rest my case.”
A little early for that, because you haven’t made your case yet.
I may be mistaken, but the discussion above was about whether the word of a divorced wife should be entered as sworn testimony about a man’s treatment of his family. And, even if true, to the last letter, given the human condition, if any of us really have the right to cast the first stone.
It may be your position that no female is a neurotic nagging bitch that hid her personality until she snagged a victim. Or whether or not there are children, no matter how much you love them, they cannot be reached until they become responsible for their own lives, and begin paying adult prices for their mistakes. You can reason, and try to help them not make the mistakes you made, but in the end, they are the artists painting their own lives.
It’s not chauvinism. It’s called freethought.
NeoWolfe
February 5th, 2011 at 5:37 am
NeoWolfe,
Get help.
February 21st, 2011 at 9:24 pm
He is a thoroughly decent person and lives modestly.
The newspapers obviously are declining with these character attacks. His character is good.