Dr Bridget McConnell, the head of Glasgow’s museums and art has been under siege from Christian fundamentalists, who have vowed to oust her from her job.
I was deeply ashamed to read this article, it makes the Christian community look like hate filled, religious extremist, scary nutters, seeking to impose their will on society and censor through intimidation. Does that sound familiar to anyone?
Dr Bridget McConnell: “Those who are protesting are not simply interested in expressing a difference of opinion but want to silence those they do not agree with”
It’s as if they want me executed, says culture chief enduring hate campaign
The letters and emails come in a daily tide. “Filth!” they cry. “Shame on you”; “You are a very sick person”; “The soul that sinneth shall DIE”. For the past six months, the head of Glasgow’s museums and art has been under siege from Christian fundamentalists, who have vowed to oust her from her job.
Dr Bridget McConnell, head of Culture and Sport Glasgow (CSG), the £100 million charity in charge of the city’s culture, says she is alarmed by what she describes as a “personal witchhunt” against her.
“It is almost like being phsyically abused,” she said. “You get knocked down by it every day and you pick yourself up, but then you come in the next morning and it happens all over again. It’s attrition.”
Since July, when a row broke out over an art exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) featuring homosexuality and religion in which comments were written on a Bible, Dr McConnell — whose organisation funded the exhibition — has been targeted by an organised group of protesters.
She has received up to 2,000 letters, e-mails and phone calls attacking her and objecting to the art show. There have been petitions and personal visits to her office. Her office has been routinely picketed by groups with a loud hailer, calling upon her to repent, and her staff have been harassed.
Police are known to be concerned at the targeting of Dr McConnell and on at least one occasion officers had to be called to demonstrations outside the art gallery when staff were “seriously intimidated”.
On a website linked to an English organisation called Christian Watch, the campaigners openly declare their intention is to have Dr McConnell removed from her post.
Notably, she has also featured on the front page of the BNP newsletter, in an article which claimed that her “misuse” of public money on this exhibition helped the case for reintroducing the criminalisation of homosexuality.
Sermons have been preached in Roman Catholic churches across Glasgow condemning the art exhibition and this week one man — Paul Mansbacher, a fundamentalist Protestant who has been banned from the Free Church of Scotland — wrote to the Archdiocese of Glasgow demanding that she be “officially and publicly excommunicated from the Catholic Church” for what he described as the funding of “blasphemous events”.
Dr McConnell, speaking exclusively to The Times, said: “It is not an exaggeration to say that on every working day from August last year until now I have had to deal with some protest concerning this issue. What is deeply worrying is the fact that those who are protesting are not simply interested in expressing a difference of opinion — which they are entitled to — but want to silence those they do not agree with. The menace, intimidation and misogny expressed in a great deal of the correspondence is deeply worrying.
“To get such venom and aggression from total strangers gives you the feeling they would like a public execution. They continually express this feeling that it’s unfair — if we were Muslims we could murder you for this. I’m not naive. I know I’m in a public position and I know the way it works. That’s life and I’m not complaining about it. It’s the way this campaign has become truly personal and quite vicious that I find so unpleasant.
“There is an aggression behind it which is really intimidating — and intimidating to my staff too, who have to deal with the calls.”
“It wears you down and you actually do start to feel personally intimidated. You don’t get used to it.”
The controversy began last summer as a result of an exhibition called sh[OUT]!, which contained works by renowned artists such as David Hockney and Robert Mapplethorpe, and had as its theme the representation of gay people in art. The exhibition was part of a wider contemporary art programme on themes including violence against women and sectarianism. A secondary exhibition within sh[OUT], called Made in God’s Image, invited visitors who felt excluded from the Bible, especially on the ground of sexual orientation, to record their names in its margins.
But some people recorded doodles and obscenities. The Bible was placed behind glass but the story reached the newspapers where, in Dr McConnell’s view, it was distorted by parts of the media to suggest that people were being actively encouraged to deface the Bible. The story was picked up by the international media and stirred outrage around the world. “The majority of people who are complaining didn’t see the exhibition, but were responding to the Daily Mail story,” she said.
“The whole thing took on a life distinct from the reality of what was happening. Hundreds of thousands of people actually visited the exhibition and enjoyed it. Despite this fact, this minority group has been given significant media coverage.
“The coverage has given the campaign a kind of respectable anger, when the reality is there’s a viciousness and misogny in response to something entirely manufactured.
“The majority of these people weren’t interested in the facts, let alone a reasoned debate. Their influence is completely disproportionate.”
Dr McConnell said the art exhibition had been “seriously misrepresented by the press”. She said: “The work did not invite people to deface or otherwise vandalise the Bible. All the artwork in the exhibition was made by practising believers in the various faiths (including Muslims) — no disrespect was intended to Christianity or to any of the other faiths represented in exhibition. This was a serious artistic project which addressed important issues.”
Dr McConnell, an art historian who was brought up a Catholic but no longer practises, said she was being attacked by the campaigners for art exhibitions with which she had no responsibility, such as one at the Glasgow School of Art featuring a deep-fried Bible, and a theatre show involving a transgendered woman.
She said the protests had reached the point where they had begun to feel sinister. “It’s a classic witchhunt. The things that comes to mind are the Hieronymus Bosch pictures of the mob. Undoubtedly, given the chance of being abusive and almost violent, they would take it. There’s that sense that there’s no reasoning with them … What I find quite disturbing is the increasing sense they have of being able to progress these sort of fundamental views and behaviours and demand that these people who they hate — there’s no other word for it — should have no means of expression.
“Some days you come in and … you have to respond to a really abusive letter, of which there have been hundreds, if not thousands, and you’re thinking: who is it they are writing about? I’m just a human being and if only I had the time to be as wicked as you suggest I am.”
Dr McConnell, who retains the full support of her board, said her organisation had apologised for any offence caused by the displays in GoMA “because that was not our intention or the intention of the artists”. She added: “But people do not have a right not to be offended, and arguing that this debate involves an attack on Christianity is, in effect, an argument against pluralism and free speech.”
She admits the campaign has had its impact. “What’s damaged me professionally is the indirect stuff — my family members find it appalling.” She also said it had left her more isolated and conceded: “If I want to champion something it makes it harder to garner support, which in turn can damage Glasgow’s cutting edge reputation for art. One of my strengths is to garner a whole range of views and What this campaign has done, completely inaccurately, is make me seem partisan.”
She said there were “undoubtedly lessons learnt” from the controversy, one being that the board of her organisation should have known about the content beforehand. But she said: “We would definitely have done the exhibition. The content would have been very little different.”
On the website set up by Christian Watch, www.csgwatch.com, the protesters state their aim is to stop the city supporting events and programmes that insult Christ, the Bible, Christians and to “have Bridget McConnell removed from her position”.
Bob Handyside, from Bearsden, one of the organisers, said they believed Dr McConnell was conducting a vendetta against them, rather than vice versa. “We’re not militants, we’re ordinary Bible-believing Christians who want a quiet life,” he said.
“She is on a campaign. She has funded, with taxpayers’ money, three attacks on the Bible. Everyone knows these things would never happen against Islam. Our outrage is far more legitimate then hers; that woman is on £132,000 of public money and she is betraying Christ.
“The protest is growing and we have plans for the next six months, but if she promises to change course, it will stop.”
Asked if the protest was misogynist, Mr Handyside, 76, said: “That’s outrageous. What’s this got to do with women? That woman is plumbing the bottom of the barrel to find something to say against us. This is nothing to do with women or gay rights or homosexuality. It’s all to do with singling out Christianity and offending Lord Jesus Christ.”
A spokesman for Strathclyde Police said: “We can confirm there was an exchange of correspondence between Strathclyde Police and Culture and Sport Glasgow, and officers from City Centre Police Office gave crime prevention and personal protection advice to staff members.”
To use the famous phrase, is this what Jesus would do? It is one thing to register a protest and voice dissaproval, but this sort of activity from the ‘Christian’ community is counter-productive at best.
And who the heck are Christian Watch? I have just checked out their dismal website, which says all of the old predictable hyperbole:-
Christian Watch was formed in 2001 by a small group of Protestant Christians who were concerned for the future of our nation. Rapid inroads are being made by the forces of Satan to undermine our biblically based Constitution, this is of particular concern.
We observed that the majority of professing Protestants are either content to remain silent or are unaware of what is taking place. We decided therefore to concentrate primarily on informing those who are willing to listen and to warn them of the inevitable judgements of God upon our nation, if the present trend continues.
And so it would seem that their answer to staving off the impending judgement of God, is to go out and be nasty, aggressive and intimidating, yeah very Christ like.
…..so we should concern ourselves with what might be called preventive social medicine and higher standards of moral hygiene”.
Uh huh.
…..we are to be actively involved in making the world a better place
Really? All sounds like good ol’ dominionism to me.
Tags: Christianity, Media, News
January 22nd, 2010 at 6:50 pm
Your wiki is for Christian Voice not Christian Watch. Theya re not the same thing.
January 22nd, 2010 at 7:56 pm
Thanks for taking the time to point that out Andy!
January 23rd, 2010 at 11:54 am
Hi
I stumbled upon your blog while earching for Bridget McConnell’s contact details.
As a non-believer, it is refreshing to read an article from the religiously inclined that is in support of free speech. To often, we only hear about what the hardliners have to say.
I fully support free speech and expression, and enjoy hearing ideas and opinions that are different to mine and force me to think about my position on subjects. It is one of the best ways we better ourselves and our society. I may not agree on the religion of your blog, however I give full respect to people who are out-spoken in defence of free speech.
January 23rd, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Thanks Nick, I really appreciate your comments. I’m an advocate for freedom of speech.
All too often the irony in the Christian community, is that they want freedom of speech to proclaim belief and yet seek to deny others the same freedom.
January 24th, 2010 at 5:22 am
What small minded people, to think that ranting and bullying is any way to make a point. Still, as the evidence would indicate, extreme superstitious belief does appear to be inversely correlated with intelligence.
February 24th, 2010 at 10:50 am
Empty vessels make the most sound, and the person who wrote this piece nonsense below has to be hollow indeed.
Dr Bridget McConnell, the head of Glasgow’s museums and art has been under siege from Christian fundamentalists, who have vowed to oust her from her job.
I was deeply ashamed to read this article, it makes the Christian community look like hate filled, religious extremist, scary nutters, seeking to impose their will on society and censor through intimidation. Does that sound familiar to anyone?
Dr Bridget McConnell: “Those who are protesting are not simply interested in expressing a difference of opinion but want to silence those they do not agree with”
February 24th, 2010 at 10:56 am
Sorry Alex let me get this straight, are you advocating using intimidation and terror tactics to silence those you don’t agree with?
February 24th, 2010 at 11:03 am
Barry should read history, if he did he might just find out that it was our Scottish covenanting Christian forefathers who fought for and died for the spiritual and civil liberties that we now enjoy to day, spiritual and civil liberties that are being eroded by people like Bridget McConnell and ignorant people like himself. Barry knows nothing of the people he insults, a sure sign of ignorance…perhaps Barry should stop believing what he read in the news papers.
Barry Keylock Says:
January 24th, 2010 at 5:22 am
What small minded people, to think that ranting and bullying is any way to make a point. Still, as the evidence would indicate, extreme superstitious belief does appear to be inversely correlated with intelligence.
February 24th, 2010 at 11:15 am
I can only speak for my own group, there were also nominal Christian protesting against Bridget McConnell, but show me where intimidation and terror was applied? if you have such evidence then hand it over to the police. As for silencing those who have different views from mine, this is nonsense. Bridget McConnell was irresponsible with tax payers money, especially in a time of financial crises in the country.
Webmaster Says:
February 24th, 2010 at 10:56 am
Sorry Alex let me get this straight, are you advocating using intimidation and terror tactics to silence those you don’t agree with?
February 24th, 2010 at 11:26 am
Alex says..
“I can only speak for my own group, there were also nominal Christian protesting against Bridget McConnell, but show me where intimidation and terror was applied?”
Alex, If you read the article fully, you will find this ..
Police are known to be concerned at the targeting of Dr McConnell and on at least one occasion officers had to be called to demonstrations outside the art gallery when staff were “seriously intimidated”.
Alex, you speak of your group of ‘nominal’ christians, who are your group?
And regardless of whether or not it is a waste of tax payers money, do you honestly believe that this gives you and your group the right to bully and indimidate others???
February 24th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
Caral, we are using our democratic right to protest in a peaceful manner, so please stop using words like bulling, or intimidation, if anyone is guilty of bullying, and intimidation it has to be the fringe group who invited people to write filth in a Christian Bible, this is irresponsible, or do you support this sort of irresponsibility? Both Bridget McConnell and this fringe group behaved irresponsibly
As for the police being sent out to deal with us that was just paper talk, the facts are that a local shop keeper complained that our singing, etc, could be heard inside his premises. The as for the police force, this consisted of one little police woman, who entered the shopkeepers premises to find out the extent of the so called noise threshold. She then approached our Group and asked if we could move a bit further up the road, she was told that the protest was on the verge of finishing, being content with that, she then withdrew. Caral, you really should get your facts right, and you will not do that if you rely on the media. If you happen to be a secular humanist, Gay or a nominal Christian, then anything that I say on this issue will no doubt be unacceptable to you. At the moment you seem to be playing a game of tennis using words, you bat the ball into my court, I bat it back, and somewhere along the line someone scores a point, if that is what this is about, let this be the last word. Our campaign consist of people from various denominations, I am nondenominational.
One of the Greek philosophers once said, “Democracy when abused, becomes an obscenity” What we have in this country is an obscenity masquerading as a democracy, there seems to be no parameters, anyone can do what they like in the name of free expression and Art. The late President J.F Kennedy said, “A man may think what he likes, but he must not say or do what he likes” I concur, do you?
February 24th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
Alex is proving my earlier point. I read the history of religion and note its track-record of killing, torturing and generally denying all who disagree with its unprovable mindset. I read of the end of slavery that came about despite a tenth commandment that supports it. I have spent a lifetime discussing people’s faith and have noted how they willingly disregard evidence – eg a creationist colleague who, despite teaching physics, cannot accept evidence for the speed of light, radio-carbon dating of fossils or particle physics. I have been head of one of the most successful psychology departments in the UK, specialising in evolutionary psychology and have, therefore, examined more scientific evidence concerning human behaviour than Alex will ever be aware of. I have noted how morality and scientific progress flourish in inverse proportion to religious fervour. For Alex to mention spiritual and civil liberties in the same sentence is breathtaking in its naivety. Look at Iran, where those seeking freedom are raped, tortured and killed for, in the words of the theocractic government, insulting god. I have read all mainstream religious books and compared them with the scientific evidence. I base my comments on knowledge, not faith. Alex’s behaviour is perfect confirmation of my original point. We must continue to support Dr McConnell against this desire for unsupportable religious control by people who take juvenile delight in being offended, in being victims.
February 24th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
@Barry, Gandhi’s famous comment comes to mind:-
I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
I personally have no doubt that there are Christians who would like to impose a theocracy on the UK, not unlike the Islamic world, which was the point I was alluding to at the beginning of the article.
February 24th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
Alex,
I pray that one day you will come to know the Author of the book that you defend with such vitriol.
February 24th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Barry, you put a lot of faith in science, I put my faith in the person of Christ. Christians will never be perfect this side of Glory, but true Christians nevertheless, strive towards that goal. And it’s true that religion is responsible for blood letting down through our history. The most bloodthirsty religion of them all has to be Atheism, atheism, has more blood on its hand than the entire world religions down through history put together. I believe that religion is a man made wall that not only separates him from God, but also from his fellow man. From behind their wall they snipe at each other, religion creates mistrust, suspicion, some religions even breed hatred. I however, am a Christian, but I am not religious. Let me explain, my religion used to be RC but in 1970 when I came to a saving knowledge of Jesus as my saviour God took away my religion, and he does the same with the Muslim, Protestant, Atheist, etc with our religion gone we can sit in the same church and embrace one and another as brethren…. Do you hear what I am saying Barry… I did not come out of Rome, God took Rome out of me; he took my religion away because religion is the enemy of God. It was religion that paid a man to betray Christ, it was religion that bore false witness against him, and handed him over to the Roman Governor, and when religion had the opportunity to have him freed, it cried out with one voice, crucify him.
Please do not confuse religion with genuine Christianity; religion was the villain of history not Christianity.
Christ never fails, but science does, in France there is a library with science books that go back thousands of years, it is said that if the pages of these books were laid end to end they would go around the world twice; now, in their day, people believed that they contained the truth, but today scientist would not touch them with a barge pole. The word of God however, is the same yesterday, today and forever
February 24th, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Thank you webmaster – a valid point indeed and great comment.
For me, in the context of the attacks on McConnell, a comment that comes to my mind is that of Steven Weinberg, Physicist, Nobel Laureate: “With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.”
February 24th, 2010 at 8:30 pm
Alex,
Your posts are confusing and contradictory. You declare yourself a Christian, and yet you state that “religion is the enemy of God”. Which religion? All religions? Part of your logic appears to be the claim that because Christ suffered at the hands of religious people (amongst others), all religion is guilty.
Even if the first part of your premise were correct, your conclusion still makes no sense.
Religion could be defined as a belief in, worship of, or obedience to a supernatural power or powers considered to be divine or to have control of human destiny.
Surely your Christianity qualifies you as belonging to a religion? Maybe not RC but still whatever you call your particular form of worship.
As for your comment that “Christ never fails, science does”:
This is a wholly absurd statement to make if you think about it. It’s about as absurd as saying that words you wrote with a pen were written by your pen, and thus any mistakes are your pen’s fault, and not you as the holder of the pen. Can you not see science as part of God’s creation. Humans may misinterpret science and come to wrong conlusions, but that does not invalidate the concept of science. If science is not a part of God then God is not the omnipotent God that I’m sure you believe.
You might think that I am just trying to be clever and playing with words but words are all we have here, and if we are to win our arguments we must make our words work for us and not against us.
I suspect that you feel that you are being persecuted because people react so strongly to your words. Can you not see that your message is being destroyed by your choice of words?
To be totally honest, when I first read your posts I just dismissed you as someone who had simply no understanding of what it is to be a Christian. But we all owe it to each other to try to understand others points of view. At the moment I cannot see further than an angry man filled with hatred. That’s not the real you is it? Please tell me I’m wrong and explain why.
February 24th, 2010 at 8:42 pm
And atheism is NOT a religion Alex. Atheism is a rejection of God or Gods.
And whilst some notable bloodthirsty tryrants may have also been atheists, it was not their atheism that caused them to be bloodthirsty tyrants.
The Crusades, or the Inquisition on the other hand depended on religion for their justification.
That’s all history and hopefully most of us are now more enlightened. I just think it’s important that if you are going to make sweeping statements like this you can support them. Yes, I know others are also guilty, but that does not change the fault. if you argue this with someone who knows their facts you will end up losing credibility when trying to win the more important arguments.
Do you see my point?
February 24th, 2010 at 9:47 pm
Jim, like religionist, Atheist have a belief therefore their belief bocomes their religion.
February 24th, 2010 at 11:25 pm
Alex,
In this, as in many other things, you are plain wrong.
February 25th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Alex, Jim is quite right on this. Atheism is a lack of belief in the supernatural. Religion is a belief in the supernatural. Atheism is not a religion. You are throwing out angry words and statements without fully understanding them. Such is the problem of indoctrination.
February 25th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45874
Looks like atheist want it both ways.. see the link
February 25th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
I think somebody named Alex said in an earlier comment “don’t believe everything you read in the press”.
Anyway, it’s been fun everyone, but we’ve gone off the most important topic here – Dr Bridget McConnell.
Goodbye
February 25th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
Alex,
Don’t you think that the report actually weakens your view? The point of the outrage in the article is that for legal reasons Atheism is treated AS IF it were a religion. That article does not support your argument. Be that as it may, I agree we’re wamdering off the point, and for my part on that I apologise. I just hate to see people misrepresenting important pronciples and doctrines.