Posted on 12/17/2005 1:46:43 PM PST by wagglebee
A Christmas magic show on British television claiming to recreate miracles – including making a virgin pregnant – has been condemned by Christian groups.
"The Magic Of Jesus," broadcast on the independent Channel 4, features illusionists Barry Jones and Stuart McLeod attempting to see if eight New Testament "feats" are possible, reports The Sun newspaper of London.
The performers sought to raise a headless corpse from the dead, cure a blind person, feed 5,000 soccer fans with five loaves and two fishes and walk on water, the paper said, but angry Christian leaders said Jones and McLeod are dishonest.
"Maybe these two fraudsters could try being crucified to see if they can rise three days later," said Bishop Michael Reid, founder of television watchdog the Christian Congress for Traditional Values.
"The big difference between a couple of tricksters performing illusions and our Lord's miracles is that Jesus actually healed people, raised the dead and forgave sins," Reid argued.
In the "Virgin Mary" illusion, the performers passed an ultrasound scanner over a woman to demonstrate she was not pregnant. Then, just seconds later, the scanner purportedly picked up a heartbeat, though the woman never had sexual intercourse.
John Beyer of Mediawatch said the program "seems to me a calculated attempt to cause offense."
The show will be broadcast December 28.
I wanna see the walk on water trick.
The attack on Christmas and our Christian beliefs continues.
I'd prefer to see the water into wine one myself, handy skill to have at parties, that...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1541651/posts?page=83
Here's something to take the edge off just a bit.
Aha...but lets them make the same woman become a statue and bleed out the eyes! ...I didn't think so.
There is a HUGE difference between a scanner supposedly showing a heartbeat and a living, breathing baby.
If I'm not mistaken, Britain censors any kink of positive religion speech on its broadcasting stations.
But just like the US, they find no contradiction in funding anti-religious programming.
Yep, I would have to agree.
British media seems to have it in for Christians.
Anybody seen any attacks in the British media against the Muslim Faith?
I didn’t think so.
kink=kind
Why?
"If I'm not mistaken, Britain censors any kink of positive religion speech on its broadcasting stations."
Yes, you are mistaken.
I don't see why christians would even care, really.
If not it is probably because they don't want to die a violent death.
Me, I'd like to see the rebuilding of a guy's ear after it gets hacked off by a sword. The kicker is you can only use your spit and some dirt. I can understand if they don't have many volunteers to submit the ear.
A horrendous insult to Jesus Christ's mother, a sick blasphemy. These people smirk and rub their maggoty hands together like flies with glee at producing these hateful, anti-Christian shows. But if the addage of the "last laugh" is true, I sure would not want to be standing outside Christ's Kingdom when He asks me: "why did you insult my mother, whom My Sacred Heart adores for all eternity"?
I think that was making the blind see.
No, I think you are.
___________________________________________________________________ RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
The Battle for the Airwaves of Britain
By Dan Wooding
Assist News Service
"...until the Broadcasting Act of 1990, it was illegal for Christians to even advertise let alone broadcast on radio and TV.
"But then a number of Christians lobbied to change that," he said...
"in September, 2001, Premier's license to broadcast came up for renewal.
"We re-applied for the license in January 2002 amid fears that there appeared to be a trend towards multi-faith broadcasting at the time," said Kerridge. "In practical terms, this would have meant Premier being forced to become a station which broadcasted a number of religious points of view, with for example, an Islamic show from 10am 11am, and then a Christian programme the following hour, and so on..."
"The Radio Authority, who enforces the broadcasting code, judged that these broadcasts were in breach of a section of the code that refers to the denigration of other faiths..."
"The Communications Bill of 2003 states that religious people or organizations are the only group who are not permitted by right to hold broadcasting licenses, i.e., 'You are a disqualified person who may be allowed a license at the discretion of the authorities', which is our position today," he said. "So under this proposed law, you can apply to own a station by right if you're the publisher of Playboy but not if you're Billy Graham..."
http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/BibleStudyAndTheology/Discipleship/persecution_britainairwaves.asp
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.