Seismic Shock, Rev. Stephen Sizer, Blogging, Christians and Censorship.

http://modernityblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/seismic-shock-the-video/

Please do embed it and pass it along to others,

Cheers

” 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/

Calvin

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.

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

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.

“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!!!

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.

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.