Sadness and dismay at actions of religious campaigners over Springer donation
-23/02/04
Great sadness and dismay has been expressed by Christians, at the actions of a religious campaigning group, who exerted pressure on a Scottish charity to refuse a donation that would help cancer sufferers.
The Scottish charity, Maggieís Centres, turned down a donation of several thousand pounds raised by a special performance of the controversial stage show ‘Jerry Springer: The Opera’ after pressure from ‘Christian Voice’.
‘Christian Voice’ have been campaigning against ‘Jerry Spinger: The Opera’ on the grounds that it is blasphemous.
Maggieís Centres, a charity with bases in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee, was reportedly to have used the donation from the Opera towards setting up a centre for cancer sufferers and their families in London.
But a telephone call from Christian Voice led the organisation to fear a religious boycott of its fundraising activities if it accepted the money.
However Jonathan Bartley from the Christian thinktank Ekklesia expressed dismay at the actions of Christian Voice.
“It is a terrible irony that campaigners against blasphemy have distorted the Christian message through their actions in this way” he commented.
“Whatever your views about ‘Jerry Springer: The Opera’, this is not the way to go about making your case.”
“Christian Voice claim to be defending the Jesus portrayed in the gospels. But that Jesus emphasised compassion over religiosity.”
Sadness and dismay at actions of religious campaigners over Springer donation
-23/02/04
Great sadness and dismay has been expressed by Christians, at the actions of a religious campaigning group, who exerted pressure on a Scottish charity to refuse a donation that would help cancer sufferers.
The Scottish charity, Maggieís Centres, turned down a donation of several thousand pounds raised by a special performance of the controversial stage show ‘Jerry Springer: The Opera’ after pressure from ‘Christian Voice’.
‘Christian Voice’ have been campaigning against ‘Jerry Spinger: The Opera’ on the grounds that it is blasphemous.
Maggieís Centres, a charity with bases in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee, was reportedly to have used the donation from the Opera towards setting up a centre for cancer sufferers and their families in London.
But a telephone call from Christian Voice led the organisation to fear a religious boycott of its fundraising activities if it accepted the money.
However Jonathan Bartley from the Christian thinktank Ekklesia expressed dismay at the actions of Christian Voice.
“It is a terrible irony that campaigners against blasphemy have distorted the Christian message through their actions in this way” he commented.
“Whatever your views about ‘Jerry Springer: The Opera’, this is not the way to go about making your case.”
“Christian Voice claim to be defending the Jesus portrayed in the gospels. But that Jesus emphasised compassion over religiosity.”