As a followup to my posting yesterday over the charity donation from a gala of Jerry Springer, Ekklesia today reported on the appearance of their director on the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2, in discussion with Stephen Green of Christian Voice.
I’ve previously blogged about Stephen Green’s appearances on TV and radio, where he often comes across badly, and this appearance was no exception. He defended his actions saying they were principled, and showing that Christianity wasn’t a religion for wimps and women. He also said that he believed that God would make up the shortfall in funding for the charity. However when challenged by Jonathan Bartley to make up the shortfall if his prediction didn’t come true, he refused.
This produced a pretty adverse reaction from callers to the show, some Christian, expressing dismay at his reluctance to “put his money where his mouth was”, and also at his comments about women.
In addition to the reaction to the head-to-head, two church denominations have criticised Christian Voice, and MP John Cryer has issued a statement condemning the action.
Good ol’ Jeremy, eh! (nice to know there’s another Radio2 fan out there!) I listened to that spot as well–it was the first time I heard of the whole Springer controversy–and I think both sides could’ve handled it better because it’s the whole ‘gotta defend Christianity thing’ but personally I find apologetics really difficult–not my Spiritual gift, shall we say. I struggle with it, because I know I have a Faith but it’s so hard to describe it esp. in the face of people who know world philosophy and that sort of thing. Tempers flare, points get taken out of context…but this is a whole other debate, right?
It was also interesting that on the show as well there was the whole ‘is the whole Royal Civil Ceremony thing’ really legal and what struck me is the tone was pretty much the same in the discussion. Go fig.