Christian zealot’s Taliban tactics blow up in his face

POET Patrick Jones – so shamefully treated by Waterstones in Cardiff this week when they caved in to a low-grade terrorist threat issued by low-life Christian zealot Stephen “Birdshit” Green – has gained more publicity for his new book that he and his publishers, Cinnamon Press, ever could have hoped for … and he has even been invited to read his “blasphemous” poems in the Welsh Assembly!

Green is beside himself with fury that Peter Black, the LibDem’s culture spokesman, has invited Jones – “a militant atheist” – to read his poems, “which call for an end to Christian worship”, in Committee Room 24 of the Assembly at 12 noon on Thursday December 17.

If you want creepy, just look in a mirror Mr Green

Howls Green, on his Christian Voice website:

This is a creepy event at which Jesus-hating Assembly Members can swoon over poems packed with hatred for Christianity and which speak of Mary Magdalene and the poet having sex with the Lord Jesus Christ.

What, like in the film Passio, in which Jesus has it off with all his hunky male chums?

They will also hear Jones’ unfettered hatred of Christianity, which he has somehow managed to convince himself is indistinguishable from Islam.

The bigot continues:

What they will not hear is Jones insult the prophet Mohammed. He dare not do that at all, let alone in the sexual way he insults Jesus Christ, whom he sees as a soft target.

Your beloved messiah was hardly soft here, was he Mr Green?

Green adds:

Christians in Wales must not take this lying down. We need to stand up for our Lord against this attack on His honour and on the Church itself by Peter Black. He has gone out of his way to show contempt for Christians in Wales . As he is the LibDem Culture spokesman, that means insulting Jesus Christ is now official LibDem policy. The LibDems have thus become a political party Christians can no longer in conscience vote for or take any part in.

Meanwhile, we learn from the PTT blog that Waterstone’s are now claiming that they cancelled Jones’s planned book-signing because of the poet’s “provocative” action prior to the event. The company said:

The poetry reading was organised and planned in good faith between our store and the publisher. However, it would appear that shortly before the event took place, the author deliberately took provocative action to create a furore around the publication of his book. These actions were taken without prior discussion with the store or their consent and altered the nature of the pre-agreed event. For this reason and because of the risk of disruption to the store, our staff and customers we felt it appropriate to cancel the event.

Cinnamon Press hotly denies this:

I [we don’t know who “I” is, but presumably one of Cinnamon's team] was … told on the phone that Waterstone’s considered Patrick Jones had taken actions that instigated the cancellation of the event. Having followed this up with the author it is clear that this is not the case. In fact the leader of Christian Voice [Stephen Green] had published remarks several months ago that Patrick had responded to in verse.

This was a separate and historical incident and not related to the launch in any way. The leader of Christian Voice is well known for his attempts to sabotage anything that does not meet with his approval and there is no doubt that he would have orchestrated this bigotry even if he’d never previously heard of Patrick. The cancellation was not due to Patrick’s actions, but only due to Waterstone’s decision to accede to a very small threat in a way not consistent with your previous policy.

To cave in to threats of disruption or any implied threats of violence is an appalling betrayal of civil values. If threats were made (or implied, as seems likely from the language of “going to the battleground” and being prepared to “fight”) it is a matter for the police, not for capitulation.

Cinnamon has taken the controversy to a new level by posting the following video on YouTube.

UPDATE - Nov 16: There is more on this escalating row over on Peter Black’s blog, where an excellent editorial in the Western Mail is reproduced.