It's not pastoring, it's mugging

A report in a Wandsworth newspaper (see http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/local/wandsworthnews/3799067.Debate_over_Street_Pastors/ flagged up on the NSS site gives a taste of what could be coming here, if we don't stop it.
The Wandsworth council are paying evangelicals from the Ascension Trust £10K a year, topped up with another £5K from the police, to act as 'street pastors'. Locals are not impressed and want the money spent on proper community facilities instead.
It's not even as if they have relevant local experience - the cult started in Ghana and most of their trustees are from there. They're also so slow at filing their accounts and annual returns as a registered charity that in 2005 they were almost struck off the register. These days they're almost on time - though with an £800K income and a large chunk not spent there are still questions to be asked.
There have been some sly attempts at street pastoring over here too. Some Douglas ones were stopped dead in their tracks a few months back by a letter in the Examiner suggesting the police arrest them for aggressive begging. After all, if chasing folk with small kids and pensioners down the Prom threatening them with hellfire and eternal damnation isn't demanding money with menaces, what is?
But our Southern Baptists now even have their own bus, as well as a 'youth pastor' who pesters teenage kids in a secondary school to the point of apparently being supplied with their mobile numbers by a staff member (see previous postings for more). It beggars belief that, while our legitimate youth services have to badger small businesses for cash and materials because the education Department won't fund them, superstitious halfwits with the combined intellect of plankton can get something close to a six figure sum for the same pastor to drive around harassing kids, and even police back-up when they tell him to clear off.
Douglas Baptists and their ridiculous 'Machine' project also had a go a few years back - at least until strong local pressure closed down a 'community resource' apparently getting public funds on the basis of calling any kid who sat at a popular meeting point outside a member. Oh, and however hard they tried to dissuade the families of witnesses, that pastor getting nailed for underage sex on the premises didn't help.
Neither did using a speaker with a background in Loyalist paramilitarism, I suspect. 'Street smart' that wasn't, but also a shame the Manx police somehow forgot to check his background; they might have picked up on an appeal from Coleraine police about a mysterious fire in a family planning clinic and asked him more pertinent questions than the ones his local mates fed him at his 'drug seminar'.
There seems to be a ridiculously simple answer. If you really want to stop street crime in the Isle of Man, make sure our biblebashers stay home at nights.

Wanted - flat earth spookchasing do-gooder (No Muslims need apply)

As if to support yesterday's posting on the state of Manx prison rehabilitation services - an advert in today's Isle of Man Examiner for a 'Principal Project Worker' at David Gray House, the island's bail hostel run by the Salvation Army.
The vague job description ends with this statement: 'The Salvation Army is a Christian Church and registered charity 215174. Promoting Equality in the Workplace.'
Actually, even that is misleading, as the SA is not a Manx registered charity, but David Gray House and Friends of David Gray House are - so why not tell us that?
Short of saying something on the lines of 'no dogs, no blacks, no Irish' it's hard to see how the SA could be clearer about who they DON'T want to employ.
As there's no Manx equivalent to the UK 'goods and services' legislation (which makes it difficult for religious charities not to employ well qualified gays or non-Christians or refuse to offer services) they are on disgustingly secure ground. In addition, a few years ago a nice man from CARE came to Stepford Central and gave local evangelicals a briefing on branding their business with a 'Christian ethos' in order to continue discriminating without fear of a court case should Manx law ever even entertain 20th century standards of civility, never mind drag itself into the current century.
Nevertheless David Gray had to improve on their last advert, for a manager, in which they tried to limit the candidates by saying the manager would be required to lead a daily act of Christian worship. When the probation service and DGH management were trying to pretend to the Minister for Home Affairs there was no problem accomodating those of other faiths - most particularly two Muslims awaiting trial who couldn't get bail - I pointed out that advert to him. They continue to deny there would be a problem, or that the worship is compulsory, but you can see they needed a less blatent strategy for ensuring that whoever continues to fail to deliver a publically subsidised 'social service' it will still live up to their previous standards of flat-earth, superstitious prejudice.
Saddest thing is, as numerous groups 'close to government' fiddle work permits over here, there is probably no point in even a reasonably decent Manx Christian applying. The spookchasers and their friends at the DHA will have already decided who to employ - from off-island - and just be running the advert to prevent Work Permit Committee objections.
Well, they already circumvent the rules on planning applications, so what else is new?

No faith in prison reform

A piece in yesterday's Observer about godbotherers in prisons make me wonder if even the 'broadsheet' press bothers with basic fact-checking any more.
In Faith groups spreading the word on the wings one Jamie Doward claims: 'the unspoken truth is that, in an increasingly irreligious society, Jesus continues to walk the wings of Britain's prisons, offering salvation to those who have no other chance of saving themselves.'
He goes on to quote ad nauseum from twattish cults like the Kainos Community and Prison Fellowship Ministries without bothering to verify their claims.
Take Kainos's claim, 'independently verified by academics' , that 'only 13 per cent of the serious offenders who complete its courses go on to reoffend after two years, compared with 35 per cent across the prison service average.'
Actually, the report they're referring to was demanded as part of a 1999 Home Office review to decide if Kainos should be further funded after running out of public money two years into a four year program. It's not available to the public, as Kainos paid for it, but a parliamentary committee considered it, and their 'executive summary' said that a comparison between those who had been through Kainos and 14,000 prisoners serving similar sentences in similar prisons found no significant difference in re-offending rates. By comparison, prisoners on other, more secular, rehabilitation programmes were on average 10% less likely to offend again.
Then he confuses things by saying 'The Prison Fellowship has more than 120 local prison prayer groups and 900 volunteers from all Christian denominations' , but unless I'm mistaken, this refers to their US program where they are one of four beneficiaries of a $22.5 million diversion of public funds towards evangelical chancers and away from proper prison reform work, not the UK. They shouldn't even be working in UK prisons since their 'InnerChange Freedom Initiative' was kicked out of Dartmoor for failing to ‘enhance diversity’ (i.e. they wouldn't work with anyone of other faiths or none) and this at the initial request of the UK's Chaplain General himself.
Funniest of all, Doward refers to Working with the Third Sector to Reduce Reoffending as a 'new document'. It has been available since early last year, and taken such a kicking from everyone from the BHA through to all serious prison reform and prisoners rights groups that there isn't a 'fact' left unchallenged.
OK, he later quotes doubters ranging from the NSS to the Howard League and NAPO, the prison officer union, but would most folk read that far anyway?
This has a Manx angle too. Since about 2003 the Salvation Army have been lobbying Tynwald to hand over prison reform to them in entirety, using an example of a Kainos style program they ran in a Nottinghamshire prison. They already run the bail hostel, where I continue to hear that good court reports depend on prayer meeting attendance - last year, for example, two Muslim remand prisoners seem to have been unable to get any bail before their court case came up because of this. The SA depend for 'drug and alcohol counselling' on the equally ridiculous Stauros cult running out of Broadway Baptists down the road. Housing and resettlement help for ex-prisoners is organised by a 'family liason officer' who also helps run Graih - another pathetic Broadway initiative where hardcore homeless alkies give an excuse for public funding to evangelicals too disorientated to stack Tesco shelves.....and so it goes on.
Considering that, by my calculations, at least as many evangelical pastors have been imprisoned for serious offences on the island in the last decade as have been employed for prison chaplaincy work, you have to wonder if anyone is still awake at the Department for Home Affairs.
The further you look and join the dots, the more you realise the Manx government are simply not serious about tackling social exclusion, but quite content to hide that by employing 'faith groups' to provide token programs with no proper audit procedure at a 10th of the cost of the professionals.

Forget 'probably', just stop honour killings

I haven't looked at the excellent International Campaign Against Honour Killings site recently, but a visit today confirmed that in some parts of the world faith-based cretinism has reached such a low that I almost value the toytown stupidity of Manx Baptists and Pentecostals.
Take, for example, the report of an 11 year old girl in Jaipur set on fire by relatives for wearing lipstick. You did not misread that and I will repeat it - I DID write '11 year old', 'set on fire' and 'for wearing lipstick'. The poor kid had 90% burns and is not expected to survive.
Then there's the report from the Asian Human Rights Commission on the guy who killed his second wife for allegedly having an affair. Even from a religious court you'd expect a fine, a slap on the wrist....something, right?
Well, no.
The AHRC report tells us....
'According to the information received, Mr. Sher Dil Jatoi, 62 years old, killed his second wife in an honour killing for allegedly having an illicit relationship with a person named Mr. Shahoo Jatoi. The honour killing occurred in August this year. Based on this case, Mr. Mir Hassan Jatoi, one of the chiefs of Jatoi tribe, a powerful tribe in the area held a 'Jirga', a court which has been declared as illegal and unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, at Lucky Ghulam Shah, Shikarpur district, Sindh province on October 20, 2008 in order to make a decision on the murder case.
Several elites of the Jatoi tribe who have remained in power in both the military and civilian governments took part in the Jirga. The decision said Sher Dil Jatoi was the victim of honour and innocent in killing his second wife. It further said, "as Shahoo Jatoi developed the illicit relationship with the wife of Sher Dil Jatoi, Sher Dil had the right to murder his wife. Shahoo Jatoi was ordered to compensate Sher Dil by handing over his three minor daughters". Since Shahoo has only one girl, a 10-year-old daughter, the Jirga decided that the brothers Mr. Miro Jatoi and Mr. Khanan Jatoi should give their daughters of ages between 13 and 11 years to Sher Dil. Besides, it also ordered Shahoo's family to deliver 20 buffaloes, costing more than 100,000 rupees (around USD 1,400) each, as a fine for having the relationship.'
......and it gets worse. Believe it or not, Sher Dil also killed his first wife in 2001 to protect his honour, and got off that time too!
The truly depressing thing is, the site logs cases like this almost daily, along with suggested protests to the authorities involved.
Much as I love all the current buzz about bendy buses and atheist adverts, even though there's no god I can't stop worrying and get on with my life. Because there is no 'probably' about it, this shit will NOT stop until we stop it.
Please, just go to http://www.stophonourkillings.com/index.php and help that happen.

Big Daddy is watching, but even small kids are laughing

My wife came back from my daughter's school concert with a hilarious, if chilling, story about faith-based brainwashing.
It was advertised as a 'harvest concert', so should not have been a religious service. We've been getting letters home about it for a month and listening as she practiced her 'Thank you farmers' song, so thought we knew what was involved.
The Mrs knew all that was bollocks when the vicar from round the corner appeared unannounced to 'lead' it.
The 'thank you' our girl has been rehearsing turned out to be only one verse in a dirge thanking a fictitious twat on a cloud at every available opportunity. The words to this and other dirges were displayed, bouncing ball style, on a screen so the parents could join in and the kids could remember - or any 5-6 year old capable of reading them anyway.
Then came the lengthy prayers, led by old vinegar-face. Kids meekly held hands together, closed eyes and at the first 'Amen' went like mini-mujhadhin into the Lords Prayer without even being prompted. Mine didn't, of course, and turned round to Mum with her usual smirk.
My wife was furious. Bear in mind that she grew up in Ceacescu-era Romania, so lived through 20 years of totalitarian crap in which her every move was watched or choreographed, and every sign of dissent logged by teachers who she didn't even know were Securitate agents until much later. So when she says there is more blatent brainwashing going on in a small town Manx primary school than she ever experienced as a compulsory member of the Young Pioneers someone should sit up and take notice.
Finally, we are amused, and my daughter takes such crap in her stride. Since she could talk we taught her to ask questions, and that if anyone - including adults - can't or won't give a straight answer then she is free to consider them either dumb or dishonest. It seems to work, and as she's well ahead of her classmates her teachers have no complaints.
Maybe they enjoy, for once, teaching a small child who doesn't just sit there but asks question after question without a trace of fear. Maybe, like us, they are just waiting for the day when elderly politicians and civil servants who are hand in glove with a dying church also get tired of being laughed at -even by small kids.

Afghan 'charity worker' death - sad, stupid, but avoidable

The press is full of stories about the recent shooting of the 'charity worker' Gayle Williams in Afghanistan by Taliban gunmen who said she was trying to convert natives to Christianity. Even humanist websites picked it up without asking questions about the source.
Everyone took the word of her 'Serve Afghanistan' colleagues as true, when they said she was only helping locals, not proselytising, and that is the problem.
Now it's a shame if anyone gets murdered by religious nutters; but unfortunately what the Taliban said is probably true, and it's just as likely Serve Afghanistan are as careless with the truth as any other bunch of evangelical Christians.
Just take a look on the England and Wales charity register at the Serve Afghanistan entry - charity number 1105086.
Their objectives are:(A) THE RELIEF OF POVERTY, SUFFERING AND DISTRESS AMONG THE NEEDY, THE SICK, THE AGED, THE HANDICAPPED, THE HOMELESS AND DISPLACED PERSONS IN AFGHANISTAN AND ANY OTHER PLACE IN THE WORLD; (B) THE PROMOTION OF AND PROVISION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BY WHATEVER MEANS MAY BE APPROPRIATE IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES IN AFGHANISTAN AND THROUGHOUT THE WORLD AND IN PARTICULAR, BY; (I) ACQUIRING, FOUNDING AND DEVELOPING SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES FOR THE EDUCATION OF EITHER SEX; (II) PROVIDING, ASSISTING AND FACILITATING THE PROVISION OF SUCH EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS CARRIED ON BY OTHERS; AND (III) PROVIDING, ASSISTING AND FACILITATING TRAINING AND INSTRUCTION IN ALL BRANCHES OF LEARNING AND KNOWLEDGE, CITIZENSHIP, HYGIENE, ARTS AND CRAFTS OF ALL KINDS, INCLUDING MENTAL AND PHYSICAL TRAINING; (C) THE PROMOTION AND UPHOLDING OF THE PRINCIPLES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION IN GENERAL.'
Got that?
Then look at the Trustees.
Look in particular at the other charities for which Mike Lyth is also a Trustee.
Firstly the Firm Foundation Trust - charity number 277298, whose objectives are:
THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH THROUGHOUT THE WORLD BY THE INSTRUCTION AND EDIFICATION OF CHRISTIANS THE CARE AND CHRISTIAN INSTRUCTION OF YOUNG PEOPLE AND CHILDREN AND THE EVANGELISATION OF NON-CHRISTIANS'.
and then The Kerygma Trust - charity number 1098784, whose objectives are:
'TO PROMOTE THE CHRISTIAN FAITH FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FOLLOWING DOCTRINES :- 1. THE FULL INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES; THEIR AUTHORITY AND SUFFICIENTLY AS NOT ONLY CONTAINING BUT BEING IN THEMSELVES THE WORD OF GOD; THE RELIABILITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN ITS TESTIMONY TO THE CHARACTER AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE OLD TESTAMENT; AND THE NEED OF THE TEACHING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT TO A TRUE AND SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE WHOLE. 2. THE UNITY OF THE GODHEAD AND THE DIVINE CO-EQUALITY OF THE FATHER THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD IN HIS CREATION PROVIDENCE AND REDEMPTION. 3. THE UTTER DEPRAVITY OF HUMAN NATURE IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE FALL AND THE NECESSITY FOR THE REGENERATION. 4. THE TRUE AND PROPER DEITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST , HIS VIRGIN BIRTH HIS REAL AND PERFECT MANHOOD; THE AUTHORITY OF HIS TEACHING AND THE INFALLIBILITY OF ALL HIS UTTERANCES HIS WORK OF ATONEMENT FOR SINNERS OF MANKIND BY HIS VICARIOUS SUFFERINGS AND DEATH; HIS BODILY RESURRECTION AND HIS ASCENSION INTO HEAVEN; HIS PRESENT PRIESTLY INTERCESSION FOR HIS PEOPLE; AND HIS FUNCTION AS THE BAPTISE WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. 5. THE JUSTIFICATION OF THE SINNER SOLELY BY FAITH THROUGH THE ATONING MERITS OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST. 6. THE NECESSITY OF THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN REGENERATION CONVERSION AND SANCTIFICATION; ALSO IN MINISTRY AND WORSHIP AND IN THE EXERCISING OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS THROUGH THE BODY OF BELIEVERS. 7. THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY; THE JUDGEMENT OF THE WORLD BY THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WITH THE ETERNAL BLESSEDNESS OF THE RIGHTEOUS AND THE ETERNAL PUNISHMENT OF THE WICKED. 8. THE OBSERVANCE OF BAPTISM BY IMMERSION OF BELIEVERS AS AN ORDINANCE OF DIVINE INSTITUTION; THE LORD'S SUPPER AS A COMMEMORATION OF OUR LORD'S DEATH BUT NOT AS BEING A SACRIFICE FOR SIN OR INVOLVING ANY CHANGE IN THE SUBSTANCE OF BREAD AND WINE. 9. THE PERSONAL RETURN OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST FOR HIS CHURCH.'
Now that's bad enough, but at least Mike Lyth admits his interests to the Charity Commissioners.
Another trustee, Andy Dipper, doesn't. But a few moments later and I established that he worked for Tearfund, then in 2006 became Chief Executive of Release International, which is a working name only.
The charity is actually called Christian Mission To The Communist World - charity number 280577, which tells the Charity Commissioners that it exists 'FOR THE PROMOTION OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION AMONGST COMMUNISTS ALL OVER THE WORLD AND THE RELIEF OF NEED, HARDSHIP AND DISTRESS OF PERSONS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD WHO ARE BEING OR HAVE BEEN PERSECUTED AS A RESULT OF THEIR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND THEIR RELATIVES, DEPENDANTS AND FRIENDS.'
I have friends and relatives in East Europe, and good contacts amongst groups who trace the resurgence of neo-nazi activity there, so can say without fear of being proved wrong that evangelicals have stirred up ethnic and sectarian conflicts, destroyed local communities and traditions, provided foot soldiers for attacks on Gay Pride festivals and, in the particular case of Latvia, even exported rampant homophobia back to parts of the US where it was otherwise dying out (see the excellent 'Intelligence Report' magazine produced by the Southern Poverty Law Center for more on this).
This particular little bunch of patronising, interfering godbotherers may turn out not to be part of the general US-led rabble which charges around past and present disaster areas destroying communities, hobnobbing with corrupt politicians and hoovering up foreign aid money, but they are not innocent either.
If you need an analogy for this sad, stupid death, don't think 'nice lady helping poor kids shot by nasty Taliban', think of the way established drug gangs wipe out the women and kids of new rivals first to scare them off. The Taliban absolutely, absolutely suck, but they do not pretend to be anything they are not.

Freaks Out Now!

There's a petition at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/infiltration/ I'd encourage anyone sick of evangelical wierdos being allowed to roam around UK schools to sign.
It was put there by a Torbay parent, Alan Urdaibay, after an outfit called the Linx Trust was given unrestricted rights to pester kids at his daughter's secondary school.
In a letter to the school, he said:
"We write with great concern regarding the presence of Nigel Taylor and Linx in the school. Nigel Taylor is not a member of staff. In our view Taylor and other members of his group are undesirables and we want them to have no contact with our daughter. None of them is to address our daughter or communicate personally with her in any way. She is not to be approached at mealtimes, in the corridors, or any other location within or without the school.
Additionally, our daughter will not participate in any aspect of the school mentoring system until such time as its integrity is not compromised by the participation of any Linx member in any way. It is our view that any mentoring system within the school should be entirely secular and the government's 2007 Children's Plan indicates it should be carried out by a member of staff. Religious groups with an agenda of their own, especially those with unacceptable attitudes towards aspects of sexuality, have no place in mentoring in a non-faith school.
Linx describes itself as being associated with the Baptists, a fringe religious group whose representation in the UK is about the same as the Scientologists. Admitting no central authority, and not technically a denomination, they are a fractious grouping holding widely differing beliefs. Linx has no published doctrine or teaching and confines published material to banalities with the occasional attack on witchcraft. What is apparent is that Linx is a fundamentalist group responsible to no-one and which, despite its claims, does not reflect mainstream Christianity. Taylor has effectively created his own religion: a fringe of a fringe, so to speak. It is the case that Torbay school is not a faith school and that nothing about its prospectus or web site suggests that it is anything other than a normal school. It should not give privileged access to any religious group, either mainstream or, in the case of Linx, an extreme minority with no identifiable teachings.
Linx has the admitted purpose of inveigling its way into Torbay schools by offering free services not directly related to religion in order to gain access to other people's children. We consider this Machiavellian 'over the heads of the parents' approach to be unethical and it should be blocked by all schools. Parents' satisfaction with the school in general should not be used as a mechanism for lulling them into accepting input preferentially from any religious group, not least a fundamentalist one. Even the establishment of such a thing as a bible study group needs to be viewed with caution. A long-established bible club held at my daughter's school has been taken over by Linx and is tolerated by the school only because it is nominally independently run by the girls. It is certainly a deceitful attempt to go over the heads of parents. While my daughter was at [this school] I asked to speak to Mr Taylor about his religious views, but was refused.
It is our view that a school should be a place of safety away from sexual predators and no less away from religious predators. The objective of any participation by a Linx member in any class or school activity, is, directly or indirectly, to serve their proselytising agenda. They are certainly being funded with this in mind.
By giving Taylor a privileged platform within the context of assemblies, the classroom, and, shockingly, even in the refectory, he hopes to achieve a moral authority from which he can groom the vulnerable to participate in his religious beliefs and practices. These ways of gaining access to children are deceitful and should be stopped."
That struck a chord with me. Baptists are being allowed to hold services each Sunday at my daughter's infant school, Auldyn, not counting the number of times she's come home saying evangelical con-artists were there begging under the pretence of helping Eastern Europeans or something equally ridiculous. Having been visiting East Europe since she was 18 months old my nipper's more likely to wet herself laughing at such pillocks than fall for their twaddle, but Manx schools put no effort into checking such chancers out.
Almost as soon as I mentioned the petition above, I had a reply from someone who knew of a 15 year old getting pestered by our very own Southern Baptist throwbacks last year. Apparently a Port St. Mary based youth pastor is allowed into Castle Rushen to 'mentor' kids. When one refused to play music at his sad little youthie he started texting her out of school hours (where'd he get the number is another interesting question!). No action has been taken, and Isle of Man College is another place where such evangelical trolling is going on.
Also, interestingly, while our Sexual Offences Act has measures to stop 'grooming' of kids under 18 by adults from numerous community groups, church organisations are quite specifically excluded. This though the worst cases in recent years of underage Manx kids being preyed on sexually by an adult involved pastors and youth workers at other evangelical church youth clubs.
My informant on the Castle Rushen case suggests it might be time concerned folk got up a petition to get these freaks out of our schools. As someone with a lower opinion of evangelicals than drug dealers (seriously - I've lived in inner cities and known drug dealers with way higher moral standards than the average biblebasher) I agree.

As soon as this pub closes, the Revolution starts

There’s an advertisement in this week’s Manx papers for a new member of the Police Consultative Forum, which, so the blurb says, was ‘established in 1998 to gather views about policing and crime prevention issue’ and ‘to work alongside the IoM Constabulary and Department of Home Affairs to further improve relations between the police and the community’.
It’s also supposed to be independent…yeah right, and a herd of pigs just flew past Tynwald in a ‘V’ formation!
No point even getting an application form.
Last year there was an advertisement for a related body, the Police Advisory Group. This was also supposed to have representatives of a broad cross-section of Manx business, social and community organisations.
After months of time wasting the new members were announced, and coincidentally all were involved in Crimestoppers, Neighbourhood Watch or Victim Support and/or linked to evangelical churches. The owner of St. John’s Mill Conference Centre, (nicknamed‘Stepford Central’ because of all the right wing kooks who are based there) chairs both the PAG and PCF, aided by a Stepford sidekick.
The Department of Home Affairs is really going to have to tackle this flat-earth spookchaser monopoly some time. The Board of Prison Visitors are self-elected godbotherers, so many prison officers were recruited from Ulster and Scottish jails that they even formed a Manx branch of Ian Paisley’s church, the bail hostel is run by the Sally Ann, their 'drug and alcohol therapy' is done by bozos operating out of the Baptist church down the road, the police force has never recovered from being led by a James Anderton clone……
Funny how the Manx government assumes all concerns about policing can be expressed by a handful of superstitious village idiots – like the rest of us don’t care or matter.
No, what we really need is a new special interest group, and I know just how to start it. Forget prissy church hall gatherings of sourfaced grumps. Let’s all go down the pub.
By about 8 PM, after the first couple of pints take effect, the real problems will be getting well aired and we’ll know just what to do about them. And even by midnight ,when none of us can stand up or talk straight, we’ll still be talking less bollocks than a stone-cold Baptist on Sunday morning.
Get the drinks in: the fightback starts here.

Bye Andy, and thanks for making history

Andy Arnold - Lay Reader at Ballaugh Church, and the kingpin for Manx Radio's version of Thought For The Day - died suddenly on September 30th.
It may suprise folk to know I'm gutted, but few know that Andy and his predecessor, Judith Ley, helped the non-religious to make history and show the BBC up as a weak, pathetic institution.
Unlike the BBC, the Manx Radio version of TFTD has non-religious contributors, and listeners. It was only when e-mailing him to set up spots for Amnesty International around Human Rights Day in December that I found out from his widow that Andy had died.
Judith Ley agreed at once when approached by Isle of Man Freethinkers about doing some 'thoughts' a couple of years back. As a Catholic, she knew all about Manx 'Christianity' and its sick sectarianism and anti-semitism, and was only too ready to have less bigoted voices on air. When Judith had to step down for family reasons Andy, similarly, helped me get Amnesty and other secular groups on there too. He was one of that fast vanishing species - Anglican but liberal , witty and worldly wise from an RAF career, and not about to take crap from any toytown priest or politico.
You knew where you were with them both. If you made a positive point - something to get people thinking in the morning, great. If you made them laugh, better. But slag others off and your tape mysteriously 'got lost'. It was the same rules for all, so fair enough.
Now Andy's gone I can reveal how little he thought of some evangelical snoremongers who tried to monopolise the spot. It was also Andy who quietly took godbothering retired senior army officers aside after the last 'Veterans Day' fiasco. He 'advised' them that if next year's also includes five hymns, prayers and responses and a sermon from the Bishop then interviews with angry vets would be the only radio coverage they'd get.
Great guy, who will be missed. Every time someone like Andy dies this island gets greyer.

Let Us Prey

There’s an old joke about bureaucrats dealing with every disaster by forming a committee. Similarly, you will be relieved to know, Manx churches also intend to deal decisively with the current international financial crisis.
They are holding a Day of Prayer next Thursday. Not to be outdone, the Buddhists are also offering weekly classes in achieving ‘inner peace’ at £5 a go. Even funnier, the Buddhist nun running them used to be a chartered accountant!
The current Anglican Bishop’s invitation for all to join in is on the Isle of Man Newspapers website at http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/Day-of-prayer-in-light.4580653.jp if you want to know more, while the Buddhist bid for punters is at http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/Seek-inner-peace-with-Buddhist.4577670.jp .
One thing intrigues me – the Bishop says ALL Anglican churches on the island will be open. This is ambitious, given that most parishes of three or four small churches stagger by with a few lay clergy supporting one professional vicar.
Some years back, the Synod seems to have decided that not replacing vicars, combined with selling off their rectories as they retired, would be the best way to balance the Diocesan books. In theory, the full-time clergy are gradually replaced by ‘hobby vicars’ – generally retired people or professional types coasting towards retirement who have trained as lay readers. This saves on salaries and increases the conservative voice in Manx clerical circles, while simultaneously reducing that irritating tendency towards liberal views seen in Manx professional clergy who have been ‘in the business’ all their lives. Crikey, some of them even favoured lady vicars and weren’t homophobic!
Another point is that, by the Synod’s own admission, 52% of their churches are ‘surplus to requirement’. We know this from the 2004 Manx government document ‘Study of Places of Worship’ – described as 'a jointly commissioned report by the Department of Local Government, Manx National Heritage and the Diocese of Sodor and Man into the architectural, historical, structural and pastoral significance of local churches'. It caused some controversy when the guy commissioned to write the report inadvertently let slip information given him in confidence suggesting the Diocese might already be lining up buyers.
So is this a last bid for punters before the big sell-off? Or just religionists mining misery for cash as usual?

How To Win Government Friends And Screw Up Kids

A Department of Education press release today allows me to finally join the dots between various evangelical chancers with Manx government influence.
The press release puffs up 'The Story So Far' - Christian theatrics from The Lacey Theatre of Cardiff forced on any schoolchild who couldn't forge a sick note fast enough at the new Studio Theatre, Ballakermeen School.
Apparently it meets the National Curriculum requirements for understanding Christianity. So would studying the Holocaust with a professional history teacher.
The island owes this feast of fatuity to Bill Platt, self-styled 'youth worker' at Broadway Baptists, who apparently knew the late Robert Lacey, founder of the company.
Curious to know how much public money gets thrown at this kind of scam, I looked the Lacey Theatre up on the England & Wales Charity Register.
Suprise, suprise, one of their trustees - Norman Adams - is also a trustee of Care for the Family, whose Manx worker is involved in 'drug counselling' for the Manx Education Department and also the Chief Minister's Drug & Alcohol Strategy. This though the organisation has no formal charitable status on the island.
Having seen both CftF and Stauros (another evangelical 'drug project' operating on the island) in action I would say that their combined professional knowledge could safely fit on the back of a postage stamp and still leave room for BULLSHIT in block capitals. Yet under the latest proposals, such loons may be compulsorily foisted on not just kids but families who upset the temperance nazis. Be warned; three units and you meet your worst nightmare -a social worker with a bible!
And it gets uglier.
When Care for the Family started over here, it was via links with their Scottish and Northern Irish operations. Such sanctimonious timewasting attracts those 'charitable initiatives' whereby companies with a lousy reputation throw money at 'community projects' - often evangelical groups - in a cheap, tax-deductible attempt to look like they care. Their English and Welsh operations were even less clear, though on the face of it they were sad clowns, not serious bigots. Then the charity register threw up another suprise. One of CftF's other trustees, John O'Brien, is also a trustee of CARE ('Christian Action Research & Education'), notorious for favouring Section 28, opposing civil partnerships, counselling registrars how to plead 'conscience grounds' for not registering civil partnerships, and generally inflicting christofascist crap on anyone with the temerity to read books.
It is little known locally that the daughter of the last Manx education minister got a Westminster internship with CARE just after graduating, and Care for the Family's links with the Manx education system curiously enough began at about that time.
My attitude to an Education Department which invites dim 'religious charity workers' into Manx classrooms without background checks, allows knuckledraggingly cretinous Baptist cults to use some school premises for Sunday worship, but still finds it impractical for my child to sit out acts of prayer in one of the island's biggest, best-equipped infant schools has always been .................. somewhat tongue-in-cheek.
Knowing freaks like some of those mentioned above can not only be in the same room as my child, but get public money to try and make her as dumb as them, could make things far worse if I took them seriously.
Thankfully I will never have to, and make it quite clear that neither does she.

Pope and Bush say 'No' to stopping hate crimes

Well, life on the rock can be grim, and we only got rid of James Anderton's most famous protegee a few months back, but we never had it as rough as Kyrgyzstan, where lesbian and bisexual women and transgender men face violent abuse, including rape, both in family settings and from strangers on the street, Human Rights Watch said in a report issued yesterday.
But they also point out the Vatican and the US government are preventing an OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) program to combat hate crime and identity-based violence throughout Europe from including sexual orientation in the mandate.
Well, business as usual amongst godbothering throwbacks then.
Based on detailed interviews, the 49-page report, 'These Everyday Humiliations: Violence Against Lesbians, Bisexual Women and Transgender Men in Kyrgzstan',
tells of beatings, forced marriages, and physical and psychological abuse.
Several people interviewed for the report said they had been raped to punish them for not conforming to gender norms, or to “cure” them of their difference. One lesbian told how, when she was 15, her girlfriend’s brothers raped her brutally, saying: “This is your punishment for being this way and hanging around our sister.”
The police themselves sometimes abuse lesbian and bisexual women and transgender men, say HRW. And police have also raided and harassed organizations that defend the basic rights of these groups.
In all of Kyrgyzstan, only one shelter for survivors of domestic violence – run by a nongovernmental organization – helps lesbians or transgender people.
A sweeping law passed in 2003 should protect all victims of domestic violence. However, the report found that much more needs to be done to carry out the law, including training criminal justice officials to investigate domestic violence and educating the general public about the law’s provisions.
In some cases, officials have even endorsed hatred and violence. In 2005, a Ministry of Interior official said of lesbians and gay men at a human rights roundtable: “I would also beat them. Let’s say I walk in a park with my son. And there are two guys walking holding each other’s hands. I would beat them up too.”
Human Rights Watch called on Kyrgyz authorities to improve direct services for lesbians and transgender men; to train state officials in issues of sexual orientation and gender identity; to educate the public about domestic violence and sexual-rights issues, and to create measures for legal identity change to respect and recognize each person’s self-defined gender identity.
HRW also urged the OSCE to address human rights issues, including discrimination and violence against lesbians and transgender men, in its trainings for police and other programs in Kyrgyzstan.
“Programs to stop violence will not work unless they reach everyone who is vulnerable,” said Boris Dittrich, HRW's advocacy director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program . “Europe should not join Kyrgyzstan’s government in turning a blind eye.”
Well, Bush isn't European, and the Pope probably isn't human, so guess that leaves the rest of us to sort the mess out as usual.

Macho, Macho Mann

There was an odd letter about science and religion from an English vicar called Jonathan Willans in the Isle of Man Examiner last week, you can read it here http://www.iomtoday.co.im/your-letters/Examiner-September-30-2008.4540815.jp .
My good mate Jim Hawkins was bang on form and put him right, as you can see here http://www.iomtoday.co.im/your-letters/Examiner-October-7-2008.4561679.jp.
So I was ready to write him off as yet another clerical halfwit. Then I thought 'Why would an English vicar write to a Manx newspaper?'
So I looked further, and he's written to local papers way outside his parish before, here at http://www.hastingsobserver.co.uk/letters-to-the-editor/Your-Letters-July-13.3028576.jp , for example.
This was getting more intriguing - what cult was this prat from? Who funds him to write to UK regional papers, getting published apparently at random? Once I discovered a reference in an Edinburgh diocesan magazine linking him to something called Church Survey UK and looked that up things started to make sense.
On the surface he's just some vicar who surveyed 'grassroots Christians' for their views on where churches go wrong and why they're dying. But surely someone who did that would have to find, somewhere amongst all the nostalgic losers who just want England to be white, rural and innocent, Christians who stay away from church because they dislike homophobia or sexism. Wouldn't he?
Willans didn't. And if you go to http://www.churchsurvey.co.uk/?about to find out more about the survey you soon discover why.
It's that homophobic freakshow the Christian Party and their moronic mouthpiece the 'So Macho' Reverend George Hargreaves!
No-o-o-o-!!!!!!!!!
But I suspect that nice Reverend Jonathan Willans doesn't know the biggest joke - there IS a Manx connection with Hargreaves. He moved here on the proceeds of 'So Macho' and was so bored he ended up hanging out with the local pentecostals.
Yes - Hargreaves 'got God' on the Isle of Man. For which, yet again, on behalf of the entire population of the Isle of Man, I apologise profusely.

Homelessness, Sweet Homelessness

The Kemmyrk newsletter dropped through my door this week.
Kemmyrk (Manx Gaelic for 'Shelter') is the island's homelessness charity (in theory), and I was on the steering committee that set it up last year. In fact, I even named it.
But I doubt Kemmyrk could get accepted as a bona fide charity anywhere except the Isle of Man, because the hands of government and faith groups who now benefit are too obvious.
I got involved from the first public meeting - partly because I have a 20 year record of campaigning against Manx homelessness, partly by being the only person in the hall without a vested interest to volunteer, but mostly to ensure the parties planning to steer the venture could not just rubberstamp what had been previously agreed in private.
At least that one was a genuine 'public meeting', packed with ordinary people wanting to get something done. However, after another two months trapped in a room with rabid evangelicals I had great empathy with Alan Johnston.
At the second public meeting launching the charity the rot was setting in, with a last minute venue switch from a government building to the island’s biggest Baptist church. This meant evangelicals, not the general public, attended and duly elected their stooges to run the charity.
I left so depressed that I quipped in the next print column of Clinging To A Rock that perhaps now we needed a charity to protect the homeless from being exploited and humiliated by the Manx homelessness charity.
I still hung on in there, most importantly to ensure Kemmyrk and the government set up a database to which all relevant agencies supplied information via a questionnaire, which would gradually establish the real nature and forms of Manx homelessness, and demolish the folk myths peddled by faith groups trying to beg donations for non-existent 'community work'.
I was partly successful. The questionnaire model used was supplied by Shelter, and was detailed enough to reveal factors in homelessness like racism, sexism or homophobia, as well as government ineptitude or inter-departmental lack of communication. Then the 'invisible hands' whittled it down to a 10 question form, thus removing all evidence of their own role in perpetuating such problems.
The newsletter is worrying. It uses photos obviously lifted from US evangelical material,which suggest to me those involved favour the US model - run down public sector services and hand them over to churches as pay-off for the 'faith vote'.
It also mentions residents being 'invited' to join a community liason group for Kingswood House, the government building leased to Kemmyrk as a night shelter. Actually local residents and politicians demanded the committee to prevent repetition of the situation with David Gray House - the Salvation Army bail hostel - which Braddan Commissioners (local council) were astonished to find is being relocated to their area after the Department of Home Affairs pushed through planning permission without even consulting them.
Significantly, two David Gray House officials are now the chairman and secretary of Kemmyrk - though to be fair I proposed the secretary myself as at least he had the decency to turn up to some steering committee meetings and prove his worth! Also, to be fair to the local faith community, I know there are Christians involved in pushing for homelessness action as frustrated as me.
Still, there will be many Manx people in housing dificulty this winter, and neither government nor their puppet charity are likely to tackle the root causes - which, to me, centre on faith based bigotry and government 's lack of interest in doing their duty to any Manx citizen with a less than six figure income.

Mark Damazer - Turd Of The Day

The excellent weekly 'Newsline' from the National Secular Society today revealed what happened when someone wrote to the BBC to complain about a Thought For The Day broadcast which was even more biased than usual.
To the complainant's suprise, Radio Four Controller Mark Damazer replied as follows:

'In response to your query about Thought for the Day on Radio Four, this reply is on behalf of everyone at the BBC you have contacted.
TfTD is commissioned as a theological reflection on current events. It is not an opinion piece. All contributors are told to ground their 'thought' in their own theological tradition, using the words of scripture or liturgy that have been worn smooth as a pebble by centuries of repetition and devotion. Their authority is drawn from faiths that have survived the centuries, including periods of persecution and intense scrutiny and still proved themselves valid. It is therefore a unique voice on the BBC. I would contend that the BBC should strive to maintain its 'uniqueness' in an increasingly overcrowded market place and serve the audience by giving them a chance to hear a perspective from the great faith traditions that have shaped our society and continue to wield enormous influence over current events. So if you change the commissioning brief to allow in secular voices it would no longer be Thought for the Day and I hear no appetite for such a change from Radio Four. I do not accept that the majority of the country are [sic] atheistic or agnostic. The last census showed 71% declaring themselves Christian and another 8% spiritual. Since then with immigration continuing apace from countries more religious than our own I see no reason to think the religious majority has declined. In a survey a few years ago Radio Four discovered that one in four of its audience go to a worship service every week so we know there is a lot of interest in the subject. Secularism has not swept religion aside as some would have hoped, indeed some academics are writing about the new visibility of religion, albeit more fractured and fragmented than before. With religion so high on the agenda it would be a strange time to change the one place where it is possible to hear the intelligent religious voice in a secular setting and understand something of why millions if not billions of people still put faith at the centre of their lives. '

Jaw-droppingly stupid, but about par for the course for Damazer.
A couple of years ago, at the request of an octagenarian friend who got tired of hurling himself across the kitchen to switch stations when the Sunday Service came on, I organised the following letter to Damazer, which was signed by 24 Manx regular Radio Four listeners, mostly of a similar vintage:

'We are a group of dedicated Radio 4 listeners from the Isle of Man. However, even your excellent station could be improved, and even our dedication could be tested if it is not.
We write with a simple request for change which would considerably improve our lot.
Would you consider giving non-religious listeners a long-wave opt-out at 8.20 AM on Sundays?
Many thousand loyal Radio 4 listeners are forced to choose either to turn to another channel or switch off when ‘Sunday Worship’ begins. For such unbelievers Radio 4 is essential morning listening.
The expense of filling this time would, we believe, be minimal. The return, in terms of new listeners attracted to your general programming but not inclined to hear sermons during breakfast, should be more than adequate compensation, '

He never replied, but then BBC service to the Isle of Man has always been rubbish. My friend was himself a Beeb reporter in the days when they wore dinner suits to read the news and saw it as yet more evidence of a once fine institution's slide into audiovisual excrement.
As it happens, I've had previous experience of poor BBC quality -but at least then they got round to replying to my complaint.
When I found out senior BBC management were meeting 'faith leaders' to beef up religious broadcasting as part of an exercise called “Taking Belief Seriously”, I wrote saying (amongst other things):

'At a time when religious belief amongst well informed people has never been lower it is ridiculous to regard the 'problem' of emptying churches as a social ill which licence payers should be asked to help solve. It seems to me the problem of emptying churches is one for churches to solve, not society, and certainly not the vast majority of the UK public (who have rejected religious belief as too ridiculous and organised religion as too easy a hidey hole for those who seek to destroy democracy). In short, perhaps religionists should recognise that people simply have higher moral standards these days.
Pandering to the superstitious is an unacceptable policy for a publically funded body, and it is interesting to compare your total lack of interest when the non-religious complain about religious bias. For example, I note your failure to address problems with a programme you still laughingly call 'Thought for the Day', even though thought is remarkably absent from the contributions of the religious minority exclusively featured on that programme.
There are probably more regular illegal drug takers or alcoholics than churchgoers in the UK. Given the 'problems' caused to those 'misunderstood minorities' by drug education programmes, should we expect that, in the interests of fairness, the BBC will be meeting drug dealers and addicts worried that their source of delusion and income is under threat? It seems no more ridiculous than your response to those whose livelihood depends upon the peddling of religious mythology.'

They replied:

'As a public service broadcaster the BBC has a responsibility to meet the needs of all audiences. Over 75% of the adult audience claim some religious allegiance (2001 census).Much of the BBC's output approaches the world from a secular, non-religious point of view. A minority of the BBC's output has specifically religious content - some of it celebratory and affirming, some of it journalistic and scrutinising - while other programmes, such as Jonathan Miller's Brief History of Disbelief, have addressed atheism directly. On Friday 13 May the BBC Governors held a seminar, attended by Mark Thompson, senior executives and a panel of invited experts, to discuss the BBC's religious and belief programming. The BBC has a public service responsibility to provide religious programming. The purpose of this seminar was not to find ways of increasing religious output, but to discuss how the BBC can best meet this commitment by providing programmes of the highest quality. The seminar also explored how different faiths and beliefs could be reflected across a range of genres. '

But it gets worse than that. Consider, for example, the role of an organisation called the Churches Media Council on BBC policy. Their strongest influence is the Evangelical Alliance. One CMC protegee of the EA's ridiculous Joel Edwards not only 'advises' both the EA and the BBC on religious broadcasting but with another hat on is actually the BBC producer responsible for this year's gobsmackingly dumb telefilm of the Easter myth.
How much worse can it get?
My BBC licence demand arrived today, as it happens, which gave me my own Thought For The Day.
If Damazer ever replies to our letter I'll pay the price of the stamp towards the licence fee. If they put non-religious commentators on Thought For The Day (as Manx Radio have for years) I'll pay a quid. If they sack Damazer and tell Edwards and his knuckle-dragging friends to take a running jump I might even pay the lot in one instalment, rather than, say, 10p weekly at the local Post Office.
Maybe a lot more of us should consider action like this, until the Beeb starts providing what they say we're paying for.

Mock The Weak

The island’s ‘alternative medicine sector’ is in for a damn good mocking when Dara O’Briain gets here on November 6th.
As you'd expect with a place which attracts tax-dodgers, there's a growing industry in quasi-religious bottom-feeders flogging aromatherapeutic tat to the richest and thickest at a massive mark-up. (How much does a box of Woolies candles and a box of matches cost, fer feck's sake?)
The acerbic ‘Mock The Week’ host made his views on these shabby shamans pretty clear in a Manx Independent interview on October 2nd, and promised to devote a section of his Villa Marina show to cutting such charlatans down to size.
He told his interviewer: ‘I devote a section to railing against bad science and homeopathy and psychics and all that malarkey…..those topics get on my empirically minded tits.
I really hate it when people draw upon themselves the clothes of authority when they have never had the application to find out how things actually work.
They talk blithely about Eastern mysticism and the flow of chi through the body. Would it have killed them to find out where the kidney actually is before declaring that it is in your foot?’
On those grounds alone I'm only too happy to make Dara an Honorary Associate of the Manx Rational Response Squad – willing at a moment’s notice to stop wrong-headed purveyors of ‘Intelligent Design’ in their tracks and each capable of blowing out a roomful of Hopi ear candles with a single guffaw.
I'd love to go and watch these quacks get what's coming to them, unfortunately Dara’s show sold out almost as soon as it was first announced.
…..I could always try chanting for a ticket.....