How unchristian...
BBC drops blasphemous comic
Australian comic Jim Jeffries has been axed from appearing on a BBC One religious show after a run-in with the hardline Christian Voice.
The near-the-knuckle stand-up had been due to appear on Heaven and Earth this Sunday to discuss blasphemy with the group’s director Stephen Green.
His group had taken issue with Jeffries’ Edinburgh show, which is called the Second Coming, is publicised with pictures of the comic as an angel emerging from the fires of hell, and proudly describes itself as 'morally bankrupt'.
But Green, who previously waged a bitter campaign against Jerry Springer: The Opera, refused to share a platform with Jeffries, who he called a ‘sick, repellent man’.
Producers capitulated, and dropped Jeffries.
The comic said: ‘It's stupid because I was looking forward to dropping the knob gags and having a serious debate about blasphemy. He could easily have beaten a hungover bloke on a Sunday morning.’
Green, whose right-wing group also campaigns against homosexuality, told The Independent: ‘Freedom of speech doesn't go so far as being blasphemous. This is a matter of God being gratuitously insulted.’Published: 10 Aug 2006
