We wish to show our solidarity with Seismic Shock who has been the victim of intimidation for shining a spotlight on the anti-Zionist theology of Reverend Stephen Sizer.
These are the words from the CIFWatch blog:-
We wish to show our solidarity with Seismic Shock who, as described in his guest post below, has been the victim of intimidation for shining a spotlight on the anti-Zionist theology of Reverend Stephen Sizer. As Ben Cohen at Z-Word says “We Are All Seismic Shock” and he urges readers to tell Sizer what you think by emailing him here. I similarly urge you to do the same thing. For more on this developing story, visit Harry’s Place, ModernityBlog and Engage. We will not be silenced.
I utterly concur. I also posted about this here and am thrilled to see this on so many other blogs. Here is the story again for those that missed it:-
Anglican Vicar Uses Police To Intimidate Blogger
As some people have noticed, I’ve been rather quiet in blogging about the Reverend Stephen Sizer’s activities of late.
After all, what more can be said of a man who forwards emails from Holocaust deniers, shares platforms with Holocaust deniers, and shamelessly flaunts his anti-Zionist theology before Iran’s apocalyptic Holocaust-denying regime? As Iranian pastors are arrested and house churches closed down, why is the Khomeinist regime translating Sizer’s book on Christian Zionism into Farsi? How many more times can I point all this out?
Yet there’s another reason why I’ve been quiet, and whilst I’ve held my tongue and my pen for a while, now is time to speak.
At 10am on Sunday 29th November 2009, I received a visit from two policemen regarding my activities in running the Seismic Shock blog. (Does exposing a vicar’s associations with extremists make me a criminal?, I wondered initially). A sergeant from the Horsforth Police related to me that he had received complaints via Surrey Police from Rev Sizer and from Dr Anthony McRoy – a lecturer at the Wales Evangelical School of Theology – who both objected to being associated with terrorists and Holocaust deniers.
(Context: Sizer has associated with some very nasty terrorists and Holocaust deniers; McRoy has delivered a paper at a Khomeinist theological conference in Iran comparing Hezbollah’s struggle against Israel via suicide bombing with the Christian’s struggle against sin via the atoning death of Jesus, and describes the world’s most prominent Holocaust denier as an “intelligent, humble, charismatic, and charming” man who “gives quick, extensive and intelligent answers to any question, mixed with genial humour”).
The sergeant made clear that this was merely an informal chat, in which I agreed to delete my original blog (http://seismicshock.blogspot.com) but maintain my current one (http://seismicshock.wordpress.com). The policeman related to me that his police force had been in contact with the ICT department my previous place of study, and had looked through my files, and that the head of ICT at my university would like to remind me that I should not be using university property in order to associate individuals with terrorists and Holocaust deniers (I am sure other people use university property to make political comments, but nevermind).
With my research on Reverend Sizer’s associations with terrorists and Holocaust deniers making its way into a publication of the Society of Biblical Literature, I was quite content to hold my peace. However, now that Reverend Sizer is now misrepresenting what has happened in my case in order to intimidate others, now is the time to speak up.
A Christian blogger – “Vee” of LivingJourney, who is based in Australia – linked to my blog as a resource for Christians to learn about anti-Semitism in the Church, including “lots of info on Stephen Sizer and Sabeel”.
Rev Sizer left her this comment:
Dear Vee,
You must take a little more care who you brand as anti-semitic otherwise you too will be receiving a caution from the police as the young former student of Leeds did recently. One more reference to me and you will be reported.
Blessings
StephenSure, Stephen Sizer managed to somehow arrange a police visit to me from within the UK, but does Sizer genuinely think he can use police on the other side of the world to this effect?
Why is Reverend Sizer claiming that I received a police caution, when the police stressed I did not receive a caution? Is Sizer deliberately misrepresenting the same police force that he originally used to his advantage?
Who is Reverend Sizer reporting to, and why does Reverend Sizer genuinely feel he has the power to close down debate by threatening police action? Why call the cops rather than answer his critics?
Political and theological disagreements should never be accompanied with threats of litigation or police action, but instead with logic and open debate.
I hope that more blogs will pick up this story. Don’t let Stephen Sizer get away with this and create a precedent whereby bloggers who expose the truth can be intimidated through the apparatus of the law. This is what Ben Cohen had to say:-
Ben Cohen writes: Stephen Sizer, the Iranian regime’s dutiful mouthpiece inside the Anglican Church, has been intimidating the author of the excellent blog, Seismic Shock. Both cowardly and odious, Sizer’s action underlines the fanatical determination of the pro-Palestine lobby in the UK to shut down open debate. So it’s time to declare that “We Are All Seismic Shock” – and communicate that same message to Sizer by emailing him here.
If you are a blogger then blog about this.
Here is a list of blogs that have already run the story and let me know if you blog about this, so I can add you to the list.
If you have stumbled onto this blog and are not a Christian, get yourself a hot drink, pull up a comfy chair and then tuck into the following article written by one of the best in the business:- All Of Grace by Charles SpurgeonUPDATE 2: OK couldn’t resist one more link, check out this brilliant and balanced analysis (as usual) from Calvin L Smith.
UPDATE: OK, I think I’m going to call it quits with this list as this story has now reached the Guardian and the JC as well as the BBC. A job well done I think.
Be sure to keep in touch with my good friend Seismic, who is posting updates and of course the Modernity blog who has been absolutely superb throughout this. Also check out Harry’s Place for a guest post from someone called Seismic Yeze Joseph Weissman
BBC – Seismic Shock: When blogging meets policing
Mythusmage Opines – Who Won in ‘45?
We Are All Seismic Modernity Blog – Blogging, The Principle, Rev. Sizer And The Police.
Xanthippa’s Chamberpot – Seismic Shock: criticizing a clergyman opens a ‘police file’
Virtue Online – UK: Anglican Minister Stephen Sizer uses Police To Intimidate Seismic Shock Blogger
Living Journey – Thumbs down for Sizer…
Engage Online – Anglican Vicar Uses Police To Intimidate Blogger
Anglican Samizdat – Anglican vicar complains to police to shut down blogger
Z-Word – We Are All Seismic Shock
CIFWatch – We Will Not Be Silenced
Harry’s Place – Anglican Vicar Uses Police To Intimidate Blogger
Modernity Blog – Reverend Stephen Sizer Uses British Police Against A Blogger.
Solomonia – Anti-Semitic Anglican Priest Stephen Sizer Uses Police to Silence Blogger
Shiraz Socialist – Holocaust Memorial Day: Primo Levi speaks from the grave
JudeoSphere – A Shock to the System
efrafandays – Have Me Cautioned If You Can, You Anti-Judaic Twunks!
Simply Jews – We are all Seismic Shock or Rev. Sizer and Big Brother
feuj – We are all Seismic Shock or Rev. Sizer and Big Brother
Dont get fooled again – Uproar as UK vicar reportedly uses police to intimidate blogger
La FuSion – Anglican Vicar Uses Police To Intimidate Blogger
El Nuevo Pantano – Stephen Sizer Wants To Shut Someone Up
Dead Man Turner – Anglican Vicar Uses Police to Intimidate Blogger
Edmund Standing – We Are All Seismic Shock
BobFromBrockley – Blogging, hate and free speech: Seismic Shock vs Stephen Sizer
Israel News – Reverend Stephen Sizer and his anti-Zionist Anglican thought police
Newstin – We Are All Seismic Shock
Francis Sedgemore – Not fit for the cure of souls
The Debate Link – I, Too, am Seismic Shock
The Poor Mouth – Vicar uses police to stifle blogger
efrafandays – Stephen Sizer: Hebrews 8-13
Dolphinarium – That’s not the way to do it
Soccer Dad – Trying intimidation on for sizer
Pub Philosopher – Cleric uses police to censor a blogger
Seismic Shock – Stephen Sizer: “various police authorities” monitor Seismic Shock – Check out the Modernity Blog for some comments on this one (Update 12)
TheJC.com – Support Seismic Shock
Rosh Pina – We are all Seismic Shock
Spectator Melanie Phillips – The British police forget what country they are in
Flesh is Grass – Anglican vicar uses police to intimidate blogger
Adam Holland – An attack on free speech.
The Texas Scribbler – Anglican Vicar Uses Police To Intimidate Blogger
Atlas Shrugs – Seismic Shock: “Various Police Authorities” Monitor Blogger
Modernity Blog – Ex-National Front Leader And Rev. Stephen Sizer.
Index on Censorship – Why are West Yorkshire police harassing a blogger? (There is an update on this link with a police statement)
Mind Your Ps and Qs – Seismic Shock
The New Centrist – Modernity Blog: Reverend Stephen Sizer Uses British Police Against A Blogger
Al Jahom’s Final Word – A very good question
Martin in the Margins – Re. Stephen Sizer: Enemy of free speech.
Roger Pearse – How soon before I am “interviewed” by the police?
Polycarp – Blogger Faces Intimidation Tactics from Anglican Priest
Blazing Cat Fur – Support SeismicShock! Still think censoring speech is a good idea?
Square Mile Wife – MUST read:Clergyman Uses Police In Attempt To Silence UK Blogger
Ghost of Flea – Menace to society
Derren Brown – Anglican Vicar Uses Police To Intimidate Blogger
New Humanist – Blogger brings in police to silence another blogger
Online Journalism Blog – Police pay Seismic Shock blogger a visit over ‘harassment’
Scary Fundamentalist – Good Thing I Don’t Blog in England
A Blogspotting Anglican Episcopalian – Anglican Seismic Shock blogger
Philosémitisme – Antisémitisme: un vicaire anglican se sert de la police pour intimider un bloggeur
Little Green Footballs – Anglican Vicar Uses Police To Intimidate Blogger
Christian Hate – Solidarity against intimidation
The Social Republic – I too am Seismic Shock….
Kenneth Hynek – UK blogger “interviewed” by police…
New Appeal to Reason – We are all Seismic Shock–a shocking case of attempted internet censorhip
Tags: Internet & Technology
January 24th, 2010 at 11:10 am
Oh, I don’t think there’s any need to equivocate with calling it anti-Zionist. In the political sense, such people ain’t necessarily antisemites but do make a habit of stumbling into or associating with antisemitic politics (and might as well be anti-Lausanne Treaty).
I do wonder if Sizer is, in fact, a Zionist, but not for the group which had the temerity to reject his God. Here he appears to compare Christian Zionists to eczema, and definitely compares them to supporters of the Children of Hagar (Galatians 4:21/6).
The problem with this is that she is, of course, held to be the progenitor of Ishmaelites/Arabs. Arab Christians could be brought back into the tent for their faith, but where does this leave Arab Muslims when he speaks at Khomenist Holocaust Denial events?
It’s bad enough being a Christian polemical tribalist, but this is hypocrisy. Not that, I think, it concerns him… recently he was refused a visa to Iran ‘cos, when attending an erm ‘conference’, Bibles had been found in his luggage.
Instead of doing what any good self-proclaimed Christian evangelical and proponent of replacement theology would do – admitting he was concerned for the pastoral care of his Iranian brethren and sistren – he was at pains to assure Iranian authorities that his “primary objective is not to plant a church” but to discuss the iniquities of “Christian Zionism”.
Ugh.
As Seismic showed, Anthony McRoy, for his part, has compared Hezbollah’s attacks on and murder of Jews in Israel to Yehoshuan sacrifice. Pogroms at Easter, anyone?
Double ugh.
Sizer also believes that inaccurate blogging is akin to breaking the Eighth Commandment (in his Bible), putting the souls of the blogger and others at risk.
John 11:35!
I think Sizer and McRoy have shot themselves in the foot with this. I wonder what the Bish of Guild would have to say about this.
PS Thank you for the ping-back to A Rabbit’s Eye View.
January 24th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
Well said Alec!
January 24th, 2010 at 5:16 pm
[...] under: Ahmadinejad's Christian soldiers?, censorship — seismicshock @ 5:15 pm Over at eChurch Websites. Leave a [...]
January 24th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Can I have some more publicity, Webby?
http://efrafandays.wordpress.com/2010/01/24/stephen-sizer-hebrews-8-13/
I discuss Sizer’s latest blog missive (comments disallowed, of course) in which he compares contemporary Israeli Jews to the Roman Empire in occupation of the region.
I suppose this is an improvement on salivating over Paschal pogroms, but just as his reference to the Children of Hagar is problematic, so is this when one considers it was not the *Christians* being oppressed and then rebelling against Rome.
If you’re going to cite 2,000 year old religious texts as verbatim fact, use everything!
In Sizer’s views on calumnious blogging, which I linked to above, he said:
==> Responding to these calumnious blogs, even for defense of the individual or for clarification, only encourages the offender and prolongs the life of the calumny.
Whoopsie.
January 25th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
From p. 8 of Rev Sizer’s 2007 book “Zion’s Christian Soldiers”:
“The battle over intellectual freedom is waged in universities on both sides of the Atlantic. Organisations such as Campus Watch and the Union of Jewish Students monitor staff and students and put pressure on the authorities to censure them.”
You couldn’t make it up!!!
January 25th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
You read Sizer so we don’t have to!
January 25th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
January 25th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
I am little concerned by some of this, and I don’t propose to be bracketed with people who simply are pro-Israel in their politics. The issue is one of free-speech.
I don’t think the issue is whether someone is anti-Jewish. That’s irrelevant. Let people who dislike Jews or hate Jews say their piece, and if they have good arguments, let’s hear them.
Let us remember that people opposed to “anti-semites” have an evil track record on this one. All this “holocaust denier” (pronounced with the same intonation as “dirty jew”) stuff is just as much opposed to free speech, and has been used ruthlessly to suppress criticism of Jews and of Israel, even when these have been up to no good. There is even evidence of “Nazi’s” being manufactured by Jewish groups in Canada, in order to get censorship laws passed. Enough of this.
The issue, I repeat, is free speech. I don’t care if someone wears jackboots and hates Jews when they post (rather uncomfortable, surely) or wears a lounge-suit and hates “anti-semites”. Both must live with themselves, and are no concern of ours. No, live and let live.
Some will talk about “incitement”. But “incitement to hate” is merely a weasel-word for suppression of free speech. We cannot police emotions, and indeed those who call for it merely intend to hamper their enemies. Their own hate is generally open and explicit.
No, I think that the law should make clear that all speech is legitimate that is not an direct incitement to specific violence against specific people. Anything else looks rather like politically-motivated censorship.
January 25th, 2010 at 8:54 pm
Add Atlas Shrugs and Little Green Footballs to the list please
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/01/seismic-shock-various-police-authorities-monitor-blogger.html
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/35644_Anglican_Vicar_Uses_Police_To_Intimidate_Blogger
January 25th, 2010 at 8:58 pm
Thanks Armaros, already done.
January 26th, 2010 at 8:46 am
I’ve just approved your pingback on Who Won in ’45, and I hope others will write about Seismic Shock’s troubles and the nefarious Mr. Sizer.
I believe in evolution, global warming, bigfoot, and free speech. I am opposed to people using their position of authority to stifle debate. I think it is better to explain yourself than to shut others up. For when you try to shut others up, you are admitting you haven’t a let to stand on.
January 26th, 2010 at 8:48 am
Thanks Alan.
January 26th, 2010 at 10:51 pm
An excellent record-keeping job, Stuart. Has really helped a lot us of. Thanks.
Calvin
January 26th, 2010 at 11:38 pm
Thanks Calvin. Couldn’t resist adding one more link above, to your excellent article.
January 27th, 2010 at 3:04 am
[...] Seismic Shocks original post called “Anglican Vicar Uses Police To Intimidate Blogger”. Oh, and here the growing list of just how many blogs have covered this [just scroll down to the bottom of the [...]
January 27th, 2010 at 10:54 pm
One more. My key points:
” I don’t think that a published author and controversialist will cover himself in glory by complaining to the police about hostile articles by somebody else. I hope that authors would pay more attention to the principle of freedom of expression. If material is defamatory, then the action should be for defamation. If it is a vigorous argument, then argue back. Note: I have not of course – since it has been deleted – seen all the original content of the Seismic blog.
I think we have a problem with a nebulous definition of harassment, which is being assessed too heavily on the basis of the statements of the victim; some reform is needed.
And, I’m reluctant to say it, but I think that there are so many petty interferences and use of laws to intimidate individuals by different varieties of policemen – the most topical example is photographers – that I think we need to make it almost a principle not to give in to “a quiet word from a Constable”; we need to make our police justify their actions at every point.
I think that it is important to keep the principles of law at stake here separate from the arguments about Middle East politics and religion.”
The link is here:
http://www.mattwardman.com/blog/2010/01/26/rev-stephen-sizer-vicar-of-virginia-water-reports-critical-blogger-to-police-for-harassment/
January 28th, 2010 at 9:15 pm
Seismic Shock the Video is out.
http://modernityblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/seismic-shock-the-video/
Please do embed it and pass it along to others,
Cheers
January 28th, 2010 at 9:22 pm
Absolutely classic. I have just posted it on my new Seismic Shock post:-
Seismic Shock, Rev. Stephen Sizer, Blogging, Christians and Censorship.
January 29th, 2010 at 2:58 am
[...] *If that link doesn’t work, try this or this. [...]