Fri, 24 Mar 2006

From: "Stephen Petter" <stephenbs3@yahoo.co.uk>

Subject: Letter re Boycotting Jerry Springer The Opera

To: "Letters EveningPost" <epletters@bepp.co.uk>

I reject your correspondent’s generalisation that "Jerry Springer - The Opera" is "offensive to Christians". I’m a Christian and I like many others enjoyed it and found its moral message most acceptable. Jesus taught that one should love people and hate evil, not that one should love or hate mere words. He taught in parables which often took some working out; maybe those whose first reaction to the play is that it’s offensive should try to see it as a parable. We don’t find Jesus offensive when he talked of beams in people’s eyes which taken literally is preposterous. Whether Moslem, Sikh or Christian, people who call for plays to be banned display theological ignorance and cultural immaturity. I don’t blame them, but, in the case of some Christians, the preachers who aim for a large and lucrative congregation by reducing the beauty and subtlety of our religion’s heritage to soppy songs and simplistic assertions.

From Stephen Petter, 145 Oxford Street, Bristol, BS3 4RH. 0117 904 1043