A Catholic Bishop has slammed a series of provocative billboards in Sydney touting Jesus as a “prophet of Islam”.
The Islamic apologist website Mypeace.com.au launched the controversial advertising campaign to provoke discussion and promote free literature.
Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Sydney, Julian Porteous, described the campaign as a direct assault on Christianity and called for the billboards to be immediately removed.
“In Australia with its Christian heritage a billboard carrying the statement ‘Jesus A prophet of Islam’ is provocative and offensive to Christians,” he said.
“Central to Christianity is the belief that Jesus Christ is more than a prophet. He is the Son of God. He is acclaimed Lord and Saviour of humanity.
“This statement is a direct assault on Christian beliefs,” said Bishop Porteous.
The bishop has also lamented that the incendiary campaign has the potential to damage relations between the Christian church and the Muslim community.
“It is important that religions do not set out to antagonise those with differing beliefs. This would threaten the social harmony which we enjoy in Australia.
“Dialogue between the religions can only take place when it is founded in mutual respect. It is not fostered by provocative statements,” he said.
“For the sake of preserving social harmony and respect between major world religions these billboards should be withdrawn, along with others which carry messages directly offensive to Christians.
Despite one of the billboards being vandalised within 24 hours of its launch, Mypeace.com.au has announced the campaign will now be extended beyond the original four weeks.
In clips that will hit the Internet to promote a new book, producers including "Friends" co-creator Marta Kauffman and "House" creator David Shore say Hollywood discriminates against and belittles conservatives.
Some of TV’s top executives from the past four decades may have gotten more than they bargained for when they agreed to be interviewed for a politically charged book that was released Tuesday, because video of their controversial remarks will soon be hitting the Internet.
The book makes the case that TV industry executives, writers and producers use their clout to advance a liberal political agenda. The author bases his thesis on, among other things, 39 taped interviews that he’ll roll out piecemeal during the next three weeks.
The Hollywood Reporter obtained several of the not-yet-released clips, embedded below. Each contains a snippet of an interview, usually some historical footage of the TV shows the interviewee was responsible for and, naturally, a plea to purchase the book, “Primetime Propaganda” by Ben Shapiro and published by Broad Side, an imprint of HarperCollins.
In one video, Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman says that when she cast Candace Gingrich-Jones, half-sister of Republican former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, as the minister of a lesbian wedding, “There was a bit of ‘fuck you’ in it to the right wing.”
Kauffman also acknowledges she “put together a staff of mostly liberal people,” which is another major point of Shapiro’s book: that conservatives aren’t welcome in Hollywood.
Maybe that’s because they’re “idiots” and have “medieval minds.” At least that’s what Soap and Golden Girls creator Susan Harris thinks of TV’s conservative critics.
However, the ranks of dumb right-wingers has dwindled, according to Harris, whose video has her saying: “At least, you know, we put Obama in office, and so people, I think, are getting – have gotten – a little bit smarter.”
Some of the videos have executives making rather obvious revelations, like when Larry Gelbart and Gene Reynolds talk about pacifist messages in M*A*S*H or when MacGyver producer Vin Di Bona says anti-gun messages were a recurring theme in that show.
But an additional video has Di Bona, who also created America’s Funniest Home Videos, becoming remarkably blunt about his approval of a lack of political diversity in Hollywood. When Shapiro asks what he thinks of conservative critics who say everyone in Hollywood is liberal, Di Bona responds: “I think it’s probably accurate, and I’m happy about it.”
Another video has Leonard Goldberg — who executive produces Blue Bloods for CBS and a few decades ago exec produced such hits as Fantasy Island, Charlie’s Angels and Starsky and Hutch — saying that liberalism in the TV industry is “100 percent dominant, and anyone who denies it is kidding, or not telling the truth.”
Shapiro asks if politics are a barrier to entry. “Absolutely,” Goldberg says.
When Shapiro tells Fred Pierce, the president of ABC in the 1980s who was instrumental in Disney’s acquisition of ESPN, that “It’s very difficult for people who are politically conservative to break in” to television, he responds: “I can’t argue that point.” Those who don’t lean left, he says, “don’t promote it. It stays underground.”
Another video rolling out soon has House creator David Shore acknowledging that "there is an assumption in this town that everybody is on the left side of the spectrum, and that the few people on the right side, I think people look at them somewhat aghast, and I'm sure it doesn't help them."
In the book, subtitled "The true Hollywood story of how the left took over your TV," Shapiro also tells anecdotes of bias against conservatives. One example is Dwight Schultz, best known for his roles as Murdock in The A-Team and Barclay in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The late Bruce Paltrow knew that Schultz was a fan of President Ronald Reagan. When Schultz showed up to audition for St. Elsewhere, a show Paltrow produced, to read for the part of Fiscus, Paltrow told him: "There's not going to be a Reagan asshole on this show!" The part went to Howie Mandel.
"Most nepotism in Hollywood isn't familial, it's ideological," Shapiro writes in the book. "Friends hire friends. And those friends just happen to share their politics."
Another video Shapiro will release shortly has producer-director Nicholas Meyer being asked point-blank whether conservatives are discriminated against in Hollywood. "Well, I hope so," he answers. Meyer also admits his political agenda for The Day After, a TV movie he directed for ABC that was seen by 100 million people when it aired in 1983.
"My private, grandiose notion was that this movie would unseat Ronald Reagan when he ran for re-election," Meyer says.
Even seemingly harmless shows like Happy Days and Sesame Street have been used to advance a progressive agenda, according to Shapiro.
A California bill working its way through the state legislature providing more protection for transgender individuals in the workplace could allow for cross-dressing employees to wear whatever they want to work, despite workplace dress codes.
AB 887, which passed through the state's Assembly on May 16, is causing a stir among critics who feel it's raising the identity of a transgender individual to the same level as one's ethnicity or gender.
"If you talk to the average (human resources) manager and ask if there would be any disturbances if a man came dressed as a woman one week and then as a man the next, I think the (HR) rep would say 'yeah, this would be disruptive to the workplace,' " said Brad Daucus, a California attorney and president of the Pacific Justice Institute. “It will inherently cause customers to be uncomfortable and not want to do business.”
Sponsored by Assemblywoman Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) and co-authored by Equality California and the Transgender Law Center, the bill would strengthen civil rights protections in the areas of employment and housing for individuals based not only on the gender of the person's assigned sex at birth, but also by a person's "gender expression."
Atkins, Equality California and the Transgender Law Center did not return FoxNews.com's requests for comment.
But in a press release from May 17, Atkins said she was "grateful" for the support the bill received from her Assembly colleagues and will "continue fighting for this important legislation to become a law."
Critics like Daucus feel the law would limit the authority of employers who disagree with an employee's cross-dressing attire.
"This is not dealing with harassment, we already have laws in California that address harassment," said Daucus. "This is about employers having to deal with employees who dress in a way that employers know will cost them either in terms of customers, employer morale, or employee operational efficiency."
Daucus is not limiting its effect to just the sales industry. He believes businesses, such as child day care centers and retail clothing stores, would be affected by cross-dressing employees who might have the upper hand when it comes to legal disputes with employers regarding their clothing choices.
"If you have a mother taking her son to a store for back-to-school shopping and the retail clerk is a man dressed like a woman, the mother is going to take her son and go to another store," said Daucus.
May, an assistant director for a Christian-run daycare center in Calif., who did not want to give her last name or the name of her day care, agrees that the law could have an impact.
"Even if we change our hair, the kids notice right away. If one day a teacher comes dressed like a man and then the next day as a woman, the kids will wonder 'What's going on?'"
Shawn Jackson -- a California-based attorney and consultant for the California Business Development Center -- a business development association in Rohnert Park, Calif. -- says the law could bring some changes in the workplace, but doesn't think a business will necessarily lose clients because an employee decides to cross-dress. But he also understands that everyone doesn't necessarily share this viewpoint.
“People are flawed creatures and will have their biases and prejudices," said Jackson. "You have to weigh the advantages and disadvantages. There's going to be people who say 'you hire a transgender, I'm not coming in.' You can be legally right, you can be spiritually right. But from a business standpoint, you just shot yourself in the foot."
The bill still needs approval from the state’s Senate.
Daucus hopes California legislators take into account all sides of the issue.
DETROIT – Jack Kevorkian, the audacious, fearless doctor who spurred on the national right-to-die debate with a homemade suicide machine that helped end the lives of dozens of ailing people, died Friday at a Detroit-area hospital after a brief illness. He was 83.
Kevorkian died about 2:30 a.m. at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, close friend and prominent attorney Mayer Morganroth said. He had been hospitalized since last month with pneumonia and kidney problems.
The retired pathologist, who said he injected lethal drugs that helped some 130 people die during the 1990s, likened himself to Martin Luther King and Gandhi and called prosecutors Nazis and his critics religious fanatics. He burned state orders against him, showed up at court in costume, called doctors who didn't support him "hypocritic oafs" and challenged authorities to stop him or make his actions legal.
Churches in 500 cities will unite behind an annual national ad campaign this fall that aims to bring Americans back into a relationship with Jesus Christ.
In its fifth year, “The Alpha Invitation” campaign brings churches across denominational lines to invite people to a dinner where they will be introduced to the Alpha course, a 10-week practical introduction to the Christian faith that answers questions about God’s existence, people’s purpose in life, and who Jesus is. The ad campaign will begin in mid-August and the dinner event will take place in mid-September.
“The main purpose of the Alpha Invitation is to make more disciples of Jesus Christ but it is also leading to greater church unity in hundreds of cities and communities across America,” said Gerard Long, executive director of Alpha USA, in an e-mail to The Christian Post.
“Denominational barriers are coming down as Christians work together in their communities in prayer, planning and promotion with the goal to invite as many people as possible from outside the Church to hear the wonderful news of Jesus Christ on a local Alpha course.”
Founded in 1997, Alpha USA helps churches create a welcoming environment where people are free to make up their own minds about the teachings of Jesus Christ. In the beginning, Alpha saw a surge in interest, but the church didn’t quite understand what the program was about. Many thought it was a 101 discipleship class when Alpha was really aimed at those outside the church. Because of this misunderstanding, interest in Alpha dropped. But in the last two years there has been another surged in interest – the number of churches that use the program doubled over that period. There are more currently than 4,300 churches representing 127 denominations running the Alpha course in the United States.
s would threaten the social harmony which we enjoy in Australia.
