Holy Crap!
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JimC
- The sentimental bloke
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by JimC » Tue Apr 06, 2010 4:40 am
In today's Age,
this report:
A CHRISTIAN church group will lodge an official complaint after police cut short a bloody Crucifixion re-enactment in the heart of Geelong.
Police say the performance, outside the Market Square Shopping Centre, was offensive and there had been complaints. But pastor Sarah Kenneally, of the Heaven on Earth Church in Norlane, said police had just yanked out their microphone and brought the performance to a premature end on Saturday.
The Jesus figure - fitness adviser Leigh Clough - was hanging from the cross smeared with fake blood, and the re-enactment was timed to attract the attention of Easter Saturday shoppers just after lunchtime. However, police said the realistic display had frightened children.
''The closing down of the display was not about religious beliefs. It was due to numerous complaints from the public regarding offensive behaviour,'' a police spokeswoman said.
Mr Clough said he had been on the cross to remind people of what Easter was all about and it was disappointing the message was cut short.
''We celebrate Easter and we take the weekend off because of it, but I think our society is becoming less and less aware of why we do the things we do,'' he told The Age.
''We were just bringing the Easter message to the people, and it is a happy message.''
He did not feel he was being persecuted for his religious beliefs, saying others had suffered far more for what they believed in.
Ms Kenneally said: ''We were not trying to cause any trouble, but they threatened to fine us unless we stopped. We stopped and asked them what offence we were committing, and they said technically we were not breaking the law.
''It was disappointing. They just came and yanked the chord out of our microphone.''
Ms Kenneally said the microphone was being used only to transmit music and not to preach.
''The male officer said if people wanted to see this sort of thing they could come to our church and see it,'' she said.
The city centre's streets close to where the performance took place have a notorious reputation for after-dark brawls and stabbings, and Ms Kenneally said that, in contrast, the weekend show was by a small group that worked with the disadvantaged in the community.
''We spend a lot of our time with drug addicts and alcoholics in the Norlane area. We are only here to do good,'' she said.
The church would lodge an official complaint today. ''It's supposed to be a free country but they would not let us do this,'' she said.
I liked this bit:
''The male officer said if people wanted to see this sort of thing they could come to our church and see it,'' she said.
Good call!
Certainly not a good thing for toddlers to be viewing...
Nurse, where the fuck's my cardigan?
And my gin!
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charlou
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by charlou » Tue Apr 06, 2010 4:55 am
''We were just bringing the Easter message to the people, and it is a happy message.''
The fuck it is.
Good action on this by the people who complained and the police.
no fences
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Ele
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by Ele » Tue Apr 06, 2010 5:35 am
Even if they weren't proselytising, I don't think any performing artists could get a council buskers permit for a show of this nature. They have no legitimate grounds for complaint if they did not apply for a busker's permit... or if they had but were knocked back and went ahead with the show. No permit, no show in the public mall - simple - it has nothing to do with religion.
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JimC
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by JimC » Tue Apr 06, 2010 8:40 am
Ele wrote:Even if they weren't proselytising, I don't think any performing artists could get a council buskers permit for a show of this nature. They have no legitimate grounds for complaint if they did not apply for a busker's permit... or if they had but were knocked back and went ahead with the show. No permit, no show in the public mall - simple - it has nothing to do with religion.
And in particular, given the prescence of children, a show involving blood and torture, which the participants view as needing celebrating...
In passing, Geelong is my old home town...
Nurse, where the fuck's my cardigan?
And my gin!
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Ele
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by Ele » Tue Apr 06, 2010 9:51 am
JimC wrote:Ele wrote:Even if they weren't proselytising, I don't think any performing artists could get a council buskers permit for a show of this nature. They have no legitimate grounds for complaint if they did not apply for a busker's permit... or if they had but were knocked back and went ahead with the show. No permit, no show in the public mall - simple - it has nothing to do with religion.
And in particular, given the prescence of children, a show involving blood and torture, which the participants view as needing celebrating...
In passing, Geelong is my old home town...
Well of course... it's highly unikely I guess that anyone would get a permit to put on a street show like that.
If you're feeling sentimental about old Geelong town, the pastor's father announced on ABC radio today that he intends to upload footage of the mall scene to YouTube to prove that no children were harmed in the making of.... (I have checked YouTube... nothing yet...)

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JimC
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by JimC » Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:23 am
Ele wrote:JimC wrote:Ele wrote:Even if they weren't proselytising, I don't think any performing artists could get a council buskers permit for a show of this nature. They have no legitimate grounds for complaint if they did not apply for a busker's permit... or if they had but were knocked back and went ahead with the show. No permit, no show in the public mall - simple - it has nothing to do with religion.
And in particular, given the prescence of children, a show involving blood and torture, which the participants view as needing celebrating...
In passing, Geelong is my old home town...
Well of course... it's highly unikely I guess that anyone would get a permit to put on a street show like that.
If you're feeling sentimental about old Geelong town, the pastor's father announced on ABC radio today that he intends to upload footage of the mall scene to YouTube to prove that no children were harmed in the making of.... (I have checked YouTube... nothing yet...)

My sentimentality is limited to a fervent and irrational faith that the Geelong Cats AFL team are capable of miracles...

Nurse, where the fuck's my cardigan?
And my gin!
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