Glasgow taxpayers fund ‘transsexual Jesus’ play

source: http://www.christian.org.uk/news/20090806/glasgow-taxpayers-fund-transsexual-jesus-play/

A play portraying Jesus as a transsexual is set to run in a Glasgow Theatre – funded by the same public body behind an exhibition inviting the public to deface the Bible.

Critics say the play, entitled ‘Jesus, Queen of Heaven’, is further proof of an agenda to use taxpayers’ money to fund assaults on Christian values.

The production is due to run in November at Glasgow’s Tron Theatre as part of Glasgay, an annual publicly-funded gay arts festival.

Supported by Culture and Sport Glasgow (CSG), a quango set up by the City Council, the festival has already provoked worldwide outrage at an exhibition which encouraged the public to graffiti a Bible.

Many obscene and offensive messages were scrawled before public outcry resulted in the Bible’s enclosure in a secure transparent case.

Publicity material for the Jesus, Queen of Heaven play shows the writer and lead performer – transsexual actor Jo (formerly John) Clifford – posing as Christ with crucifixion wounds and a halo.

The theatre advert reads: “Jesus is a transsexual woman. And it is now she walks the earth.

“This is a play with music that presents her sayings, her miracles, and her testimony.”

CSG has confirmed it is part-funding the production but the sums involved have not been revealed.

The Christian Institute’s Simon Calvert said: “If Glasgow’s council taxpayers were consulted, I doubt they would consider this was a good use of their money.

“What with this and the Bible defacing exhibit, you have to wonder what is the next outrage Glasgow City Council has planned.”

Gordon Macdonald of Christian group CARE for Scotland said: “Organisers of these events are trying to placate the gay rights lobby while riding roughshod over everyone else – at public expense.”

A spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church said: “Coming in the wake of the outrageous Bible exhibition, which encouraged the defacing of the Bible in the name of gay rights, the funding of another production with the provocative title Jesus, Queen of Heaven will leave most citizens of Glasgow aghast.

“Serious questions must now be raised about the agenda being pursued by CSG.”

10 Reasons God Wants YOU Well…

10.  The Bible says that His Name is Healer (Exodus 15.26) – it is important to God that He is always faithful to His name.

9. Jesus wants us to enjoy life in abundance, and if you are sick you cannot be living life to the full. (John 10.10)

8. God created Adam sickness free and declared that it was good that man was healthy (Genesis 1.26ff)

7. In heaven there is no sickness (Revelation 21.4), and we are told to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 7)

6. In Deuteronomy 28, sickness is a curse and health is a blessing and Galatians 3.13-14 says we are totally set free from the curse and we have the blessing.  Sickness has not suddenly moved to the blessing side!

5. Jesus said healing is the children’s bread (Matt. 15.22-28), and we are the children of God (John 1.12)

4. Jesus went around healing the sick and doing good (Acts 10.38) and Jesus has not changed (Hebrews 13.8)

3. Jesus Christ carried our sicknesses and our diseases on the cross (Matt. 8.16-17) and we should not carry something that He carried for us.

2. Six one syllable words that it would take someone to help you misunderstand and misinterpret their plain and simple meaning: By His Stripes, We Were Healed (1 Peter 2.24)

1. The number one reason I know God wants you well is that you are beloved of the Father, and if you ask your Father for bread He will not give you a stone (Luke 11.11).  It is that simple: God loves you as a Father and every Father would want their child to be well.  That is just a fraction of how much God wants you to be well.

All you have to do is believe and receive (Mark 11.23-24) and you can enjoy divine health for the rest of your life.

Glory and freedom,

Benjamin

The Death of Conscience

The Death of Conscience By Rebecca Hagelin

(from: http://www.worldviewtimes.com/article.php/articleid-5224/Brannon-Howse/Rebecca-Hagelin)

Our teenagers are more sexually active than any generation of youth before them. They also are consuming more pornography and compromising basic moral standards more often. It seems that many of them have lost not only their innocence, but their conscience, too.

The plethora of negative and immoral behaviors glorified by a media world that’s gone stark raving mad — combined with graphic, non-judgmental sex education and a highly sexualized culture in general — causes many of them to lose understanding of what is wrong and what is right.

When a young child’s sensibilities are constantly violated, and he begins to ignore the natural pangs of guilt after yielding to cultural pressures, he can end up being miserable, and begins to develop a hard heart and weak spirit.

If we as parents blindly turn our own hearts away from them because we’re scared of confrontation, or because we’re too lazy to do “the hard stuff” like fight for their integrity, we have a hand in dooming their young spirits to inner torment. And, ultimately, if the pattern continues, to the loss of basic decency and sensitivity to evil.

In chapter 32, the Psalmist reflects on the misery that comes with ignoring a guilty conscience:
“When I kept things to myself, I felt weak deep inside me. I moaned all day long. Day and night you punished me, my strength was gone as in the summer heat.”

Do you really want your child to live that way?

It’s critical as a parent to take control and do everything in your power to make certain that the culture does not molest your child’s young mind. Setting standards for media consumption can help avoid a lot of regrets, especially when it comes to the evil of pornography. But since we are all sinners, we also need to learn to recognize when our children might be feeling uncomfortable and guilty — and offer them hope and a way out of their despair.

Talk often about God’s miracles of forgiveness, redemption and restoration. These concepts are foreign to our modern world, yet they are as tranformational today as they were for the Pslamist and when God offered his forgiveness to a sinful world as he sent his son to atone for the sins of all who would accept him.

I John 1:9 promises: “When we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Our children experience the beautiful gifts of wisdom and grace when we help them develop their conscience and teach them how to respond to feelings of guilt. We need to be bold about sharing with them the life-giving power and joy that comes with confession. Tears of repentance over wrongs done makes our hearts strong, yet maleable in the hands of a a loving God. Ignoring our sins turns us into desperate, weak souls with hearts of stone.

In Psalm 32, the author actually begins the passage with what we can look forward to when we confess our sins to the loving and merciful God:
“Happy is the person whose sins are forgiven, whose wrongs have been pardoned. Happy is the person whom the Lord does not consider guilty, and in whom there is nothing false.”

The forgiveness and joy that comes with sincere repentance is the  best news mankind has ever heard! Have your own children heard it?‬

Rod of Power (Benson Idahosa)

http://www.youtube.com/results?feature=moby&search_query=benson+idahosa+rod+of+power&search_type=&aq=f

For the rest of the Rod of Power sermon by Benson Idahosa.

Rod of power (Benson Idahosa) Part 1

This is a wonderful sermon by a phenomenal preacher who is now with the Lord. Some people consider he saw over 7 million salvations in his life. This sermon will bless and inspire you!

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Crawl Through Romans

http://faith-forums.com/showthread.php/romans_1-4.html

Faith-forums.com is a great place to go if you want to talk to faith-filled Christians who love the Word and love each other.  Easily the friendliest forum I know on the web and there is some great Bible teaching and a real welcoming atmosphere.

Recently, they had a server crash and lost all their posts and information.  Since then I have been posting every day a commentary on the book of Romans verse by verse.  I know a number of you love Bible study and love the book of Romans, so I thought I should invite you to have a read.  Please have a read through the forums and make a contribution, you will be warmly welcomed.

Blessings,

Benjamin

Faith Camp ’09

This week has been the annual camp of Colin Urquhart’s Kingdom Faith Church.  We have been for several years, but haven’t been for the last couple of years due to moving to London and having other conferences a lot closer.

However, this year we took the chance to watch the meetings through live streaming (at a cost of £20 for the week).  Every morning we have spent 3 hours listening to the morning meeting and every evening a couple of horus watching the evening meeting.  Colin Urquhart has preached some very clear and powerful messages about what we should let define us as Christians, his son Clive preached a very challenging message on being prepared to move with the cloud and Bengt Wedemalm preached such a powerful and personal message of faith and victory.

Amanda and Lydia are going up there today until Saturday so please pray for them to be blessed in all that they do there.  Also pray for me and the boys – we are still going to watch the streamed meeting, do some evangelism, have some father-son time and get the house all nice for mum!

If you want to listen to the meetings, http://www.kingdomfaith.com.  You can watch the last couple of days for just £3 a meeting – some of the most inspirational and impacting teachings I think you will find in the UK, if not the world.

Blessings,

Benjamin

Christian teacher tells of race slurs by pupils aged 8

A teacher claims he has been sacked for reprimanding pupils who made racist remarks about his being a Christian.

Nicholas Kafouris said he lost his £30,000-a-year post because he would not tolerate the ‘openly racist’ behaviour of pupils as young as eight.

He said the predominantly Muslim youngsters openly praised Islamic extremists in class, and hailed the September 11 terrorists as ‘heroes and martyrs’.

Greek-born Mr Kafouris, 40, taught for more than ten years at Bigland Green Primary in Tower Hamlets, East , where according to the most recent Ofsted report ‘almost all’ the 465 pupils are from ethnic minorities and a vast proportion do not speak English as a first language.

He is taking the school, its headmistress and assistant head to an employment tribunal where he will claim he was forced out after highlighting the rise in racism among pupils.

In 2006, said Mr Kafouris, he brushed against a boy while giving him a book.

‘He said rather brusquely to me, “Don’t touch me, you’re a Christian”. I found this very offensive.’

Later that year, he said children aged eight and nine in his class praised the suicide bombers in the 9/11 attacks.

‘In late November and December 2006, many various unacceptable and openly racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Christian remarks were being made by many and various children in Year 4,’ he said.

‘These included, “We want to be Islamic bombers when we grow up”, “the Twin Towers bombers are heroes and martyrs”, “we hate the Jews” and “we hate the Christians”.’

And in January 2007, he claims some pupils ‘expressed delight’ that a child had died when a wall collapsed on him in London.

When asked why, he said one of the children replied: ‘Because he’s English.’ The following month, during a religious education lesson about Jonah and the whale, he claims one of the pupils asked if Jonah was a Jew, before shouting: ‘I hate the Jews, they’re our enemies.’

Mr Kafouris says he completed ‘Racist Incident Reporting Sheets’ and notified headmistress Jill Hankey in writing about each incident.

But he claims his concerns were ignored because she wanted to maintain the school’s ‘good’ Ofsted rating.

Mr Kafouris, who is unmarried and has no children, was also reprimanded for handling a discussion about religion with a child ‘inappropriately’, which he denies.

He says assistant head Margaret Coleman accused him of shouting at pupils and telling them Muslims had produced suicide bombers – claims he rejects.

‘I believe after I complained to the head about the racist and religious discrimination incidents, I suffered victimisation,’ he says.

‘I also suffered less favourable treatment and incurred harassment by the head and assistant head.

‘The two people above created an intimidating, hostile, degrading, threatening, humiliating and offensive environment for me at my work.’

Mr Kafouris says the way he was treated brought on stress and depression, and that he was forced to take time off work. He was finally dismissed because of his absence, on April 30 this year.

A spokesman for , on behalf of the school, said: ‘The governing body stands by its decision and we believe all the correct procedures were followed.’

Be Thankful!

I have just loaded a sermon where I am preaching on the need to be thankful to our church website.

You can access the sermon here.

If you enjoyed the sermon, or even if you didn’t, feel free to put your comments here.

Glory and freedom,

Benjamin