Since making the Conscecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary last Lent and since being in this remote part of the world, I have found it a great grace to have been protected from this sort of stuff for so long. There are those called to fight the battles, and this part of the world is not without them, but there is great wisdom - if I may venture to suggest - in keeping a wall around one's mind, one's heart, one's will, one's passions, and have Our Lady keep you as an enclosed garden. I think I have reached the stage in life where I do not need to see the evil to be able to know it exists.
Parents need all the support they can get to keep their children protected also.
(Since publishing and after a comment from Damask Rose, I took a look at the three videos. I had to stop the reading of the poem: not only blasphemous but pornographic. And the others just made me think: what has London come to? There is nothing benign in this at all: it is in-your-face exhibitionism.)
Parents: exercise your discretion.
Dear FriendsI am writing again to Tesco about its links with London and World Pride. Complaint has thus far been futile.By Tesco leading this year’s London Pride, with Tesco staff carrying the rainbow flag and promising money and resources for next year --- providing a “safe, relaxed and chilled out place with family-friendly entertainment and activities aimed at younger children” --- it may attract the Pink pound, but badly damages its public image.The public will soon need to accept not just homosexuality but an increasingly extreme range of sexual orientations. The main resistance to this pressure to conform comes from Christians who, apart from losing their jobs, having their businesses shut down, being dragged through the courts and threatened with physical violence, are being held up for public ridicule.It seems that Tesco is already experimenting with this tactic. The Head of Research and Development at Tesco.com, Nick Lansely, did a dramatic reading of James Kirkup’s “The Love That Dares to Speak its Name”, videoed and posted it on Youtube.It is a description of a necrophilial (an ‘orientation’) soldier having sex with/on the crucified body of Christ. [WARNING EXTREMELY OFFENSIVE; but remember before you avert your eyes, judging by what our children are already exposed to in schools, this, in time, is what they will be led to accept.]
“The Love That Dares to Speak its Name”Nick Lansely, Head of R&DNick Lansley, reading the Blasphemous poem on YoutubeNick Lansley is on the team of Out at Tesco that organised Tesco’s leading this year’s London Pride 2011Nick Lansley is clearly visible at the 2-minute mark on this YoutubeNick was also on hand to record an event held in June 2008, when the National Secular Society (NSS) gathered in a London restaurant to celebrate the repeal of the Blasphemy Laws. Here Sir Ian McKellen OBE gave a spirited rendition of the above poem and boasted of ripping pages from the Bible – something he proudly confesses to doing whenever he finds one in a hotel room. At the bottom of the NSS web site we read: “Nick Lansley recorded the event.” http://www.secularism.org.uk/bbbpartyreport.html Had McKellen distributed cartoons of the dead body of Mohammed being sodomised, whilst tearing pages out of the Q’ran all hell would have been let loose - globally.Why is it that Christian employees and customers don’t have the same human right to feel that they are victims of incitement to religious hatred as are Muslims? Why are Muslims protected from such hatred by Tesco and Sir Trevor Phillips, Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and yet the sensibilities of Christians can be openly mocked and trampled on?Why can Nick be publicly identified with promoting Lesbian Gay Bi-sexual and Transsexual (LGBT) rights whilst simultaneously encouraging what many people of faith (and others) would consider profoundly blasphemous --- even an incitement to religious hatred?Other Tesco employees, especially Christians cannot make a critical remark of the LGBT for fear of being sacked. I received this recently from a concerned Tesco employee:“Let me open by apologizing for my going through the absurd necessity of using a fake email address – my employer (Tesco) has been known to take action against members of staff who are identified as making any remarks online which could be considered derogatory. (This is advice handed out by our union, USDAW – never, ever mention Tesco on Facebook, Twitter, etc). I simply cannot run the risk that my real name would be associated with the comments I am about to make. (which is not meant to question your personal integrity, it is simply a risk I cannot take).”
Tesco should be in the business of providing essential goods and services. Homosexuality is not a state of being like being black; it is an emotional and psychological disorder. When a black woman goes to sleep she is no less black than when she is awake. There is nothing that a black woman can do to make herself either less or more black. On the other hand a homosexual is only homosexual when his imagination leads his emotions, desirers, actions, habits and character to become homosexual. This orientation can either become stronger or weaker. Movement into and out of homosexuality can and does travel in both directions. But it seems that this travel is only allowed in one direction: from heterosexuality to homosexuality – never the reverse.In 2 Peter2 it describes how God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly. It says that “He rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless, for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard.” Are we prepared to be distressed or do we wish to bury our heads in the sand?Please write to Tesco letting them know your views and intentions:richard.broadbent@tesco.com: Chairman of Tescophilip.clarke@tesco.com: International and IT Directorrichard.brasher@tesco.com: Commercial and Marketing DirectorAndrew.higginson@tesco.com: Chief Executive of Retailing Services and Group Strategy
I amYours in Jesus ChristDavid Skinner
Father Boyle
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting this. It's unbelievable!
On his YouTube reading of the poem Lansley says "Freedom of speech should have prevented the poem being found guilty of blasphemy, but editorial quality control should have prevented it from ever being published, as you will surely agree!"
Unbelievable! Why doesn't YouTube take the video down because it would cleary offend Catholics/Christians? What is Tesco management thinking...? I mean, Lansley is doing this in the face of so many Christian customers. It's baffling. Those poor Christian/Catholic employees. What do they do? Not everyone can just leave their job. And what about this 'family area' for children at the Pride march? What - so they don't see the strap-ons, nude bodies, S&M, leather, debauched behaviour? This is corruption of the young. And Lansley is so confident reading the poem. It's like the gays have become all-powerful as a group. God, please help my son grow up.
The James Kirkup poem has acquired a cultural significance which goes beyond its literary merit precisely because so many Christians demanded it should be banned when it was published back in the 1970s. Mary Whitehouse and others waged a campaign against it, and were successful in getting the publisher prosecuted for blasphemy. As a result, the reading aloud of this poem has become a rite of affirmation of free speech. The people who created this situation, though, were over-reacting conservative Christians. If they'd ignored it, this poem would have been forgotten about decades ago.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure the "ignore it" argument is valid. The late Cardinal Heenan was, apparently, encouraged to keep quiet when abortion was being debated. He regretted it, I think. What would have happened had he and the Church spoken out more in defence of the unborn?
ReplyDeleteFreedom cannot be unfettered. The law may allow us to offend others, but we do not, I believe, have a human right to deliberately and provocatively offend others (which is not the same as claiming a right not to be offended). The poem is grotesque and disgusting, and the fact that people feel the need to recite it as a rite of affirmation shows that they have abandoned reason.
Still Not Ashamed yet, David Skinner?
ReplyDeleteIf not try this video from a kid who is suffering bullying thanks to attitudes like yours (you are supposed to be 'adults', remember?).
Watch, then .. well the rest is up to you. One option is to decide that gay people need all the Pride they can get:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdkNn3Ei-Lg
Ben: Who on this blog has condoned bullying? Bullying is never right. To suggest that David Skinner's attitude is one that condones bullying is a huge leap.
ReplyDeleteI would also add that I know kids who have gone through similar experiences to Johah because they are Catholic, or tall & thin (i.e. lanky), or have big ears, freckles, spots, or because they were glasses, or are bookish, or are bottom of the class, or because they don't have all the latest fashions, or their parents don't let them watch TV, or because they do not join in dirty jokes... I experienced bullying myself as a kid.
It is the bullying that is wrong, not the alleged "reason" for which one is bullied.
So let's all be really "adult" about this matter.
Hi Father,
ReplyDeleteI think this is the heart of the matter. I'm not sure if David realises he is bullying but when he tells someone that an element of their very identity is wrong, then that is bullying. I can tell you that, unless you are bisexual, your sexuality is immutable, So when David says "On the other hand a homosexual is only homosexual when his imagination leads his emotions, desirers, actions, habits and character to become homosexual. This orientation can either become stronger or weaker. ", and closeted gay kids know this is a wrong message (because in this world with its attitude who would 'choose' to be gay?), then that is bullying.
True Catholics, those with glasses etc are also bullied because of their perceived difference. That is utterly wrong. Why should Catholics or spectacle wearers be forced to change their religion or wear contacts? Why should gays, then?
Now see what David is doing?
Cheers
Ben
P.S. We could debate whether David is also trying to bully Nick Lansley out of his job, since I note that the video he mentioned is no longer available. Are you able to check if Nick is OK? (Do you care if Nick is OK?).
Ben
ReplyDeleteGood reply. But there is a difference between acknowledging the disorder in a particular tendency and bullying. Same sex attraction is objectively disordered and those who experience it are bound to struggle against the temptation to engage in sexual relations with those of the same sex. This does not necessarily mean that they will suddenly become attracted to the opposite sex but they will be helped BY GOD'S GRACE to overcome a tendency which leads - if followed blindly - to sinful and unnatural behaviour.
Whether homosexuality is something genetic, something that can be changed, is something for specialists to look into. What worries me is that young boys who experience emotional issues are being encouraged to follow a "gay" culture and lifestyle when with proper love and attention they could be led into a healthy marriage state or chaste single life.
The "out at Tesco" is an aggressive campaign - and some of the antics in the "out at Tesco" videos which David links to are quite disgusting.
As for Nick, what can I do? Of course I care. Do you? Do you know? Frankly I think he needs to be booted out of his job, or else keep his sexuality to himself. And that is the main issue. Public display of sexuality is not good. Men and women used never to manifest their love to one another in a demonstrative way in public, and neither would two men or two women together draw any attention. Now people do things in public that were once - and very properly - kept to the private sphere.
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-ghosts-can-join-me-for/id166161570
ReplyDeleteNick Lansley still has the poem in audio form on his i-tunes channel.