Peter And Hazelmary Bull: It's Their Golden Anniversary!

Peter and Hazelmary Bull have spoken to The Christian Institute about the keys to a long marriage, as they celebrate their golden wedding anniversary today.

The couple hit the headlines in recent years after they were sued for their policy of only giving double beds to married couples at their bed and breakfast in Cornwall.

The Christian Institute supported the Bulls through the court case, but they were ordered to pay £3,600 in damages and later lost an appeal at the UK Supreme Court.

The Christian B&B owners spoke of how their love, consideration for each other and a relationship with Jesus Christ have helped them to stay strong together.

Christian Institute.

And here's praying you'll soon have one YouTube view for every year you've been together.

Mary says; 'There are definitely three people in our relationship...'

Congratulations to you both -  and your kinky three-way with Mr Jesus Christ!

Tweet Of The Day: Christian Institute

Five-year-olds ‘should learn about gay equality in sex ed’: Primary school children should have compulsory sex... http://t.co/hyRHfWhNdW
— Christian Institute (@christianorguk) June 11, 2014

Compulsory sex for the kiddywinks???

Even Fagburn thinks they've gone too far now!

Gay Marriage: An Alternative View

What The Papers Said...

The push to redefine marriage has been branded a ‘crazy, vote-losing obsession’, an “embarrassment”, and “bad politics”, by three national newspapers.
The Sun said the Conservatives were in “a wilderness of dismal poll ratings and vicious Tory civil war”, triggered by David Cameron’s “own lily-livered leadership, casual arrogance and suicidal political instincts”.
The Daily Telegraph criticised Mr Cameron’s “insensitive” push for the change, saying it “fuelled that impression that he is part of a privileged clique that looks upon ordinary members as ‘swivel-eyed loons’”.
And the Daily Mail described the Conservative Party as “clattering” [Eh?] and said its leader was “utterly at odds with traditional Tories” over the issue.

This is the latest video news bulletin and press round-up by our friends at the Christian Institute.
Fagburn is publishing them here to show our deep commitment to objectivity, and to fair and balanced reporting.
Moreover, we're concerned that they regularly go to all that trouble of mocking-up a TV studio when they're only averaging 80 views a day. 

PS The Christian Institute never reply to our emails about why they chose their God over, say, the more fun-sounding Zeus, but now feels like a time for bridge-building, so let's let bygones be bygones.

Nigel Farage: Smug In A Pub

Here's a photo of Nigel Farage, pint in hand, looking smug in a pub.
Thought I'd post this just in case you haven't seen one recently.
Is there a Tumblr yet?

'Ukip Surge As Voters Reject Gay Marriage', Christian Institute.
This is, of course, utter bollocks, though it's a popular post mortem riff from the Tory right.*
In a YouGov poll published yesterday of people considering voting for Ukip, gay marriage hardly registered as an issue even when people were prompted and asked to give three reasons why out of a list of ten; but what else could they say after they've ticked "Europe" and "immigration"?
And besides, what kind of a nutter protests against marriage equality by voting for Ukip in a local election?
Time to end the disastrous democratic experiment etc etc.

* Tom Newton Dunn, from The Sun no-less, was asked about this on Today this morning, and pooh-poohed the idea, putting it succinctly; "Gay marriage isn't a left or right issue, it's an age issue."

A much-discussed article by David Davis in today's Telegraph, Tories Must Start Listening To Ordinary Voters, Not Their Old School Chums, only seems to allude to this issue in passing; "We have to do more to help conventional families through the hard times, including serious tax breaks for married couples."
The former Conservative leadership candidate proudly opposes gay marriage.

"UKIP fought the election on an increasingly hostile position to immigration. While the media became fixated with a few Nazi and racist candidates, we should really be looking at the party as a whole and analysing what their vote means and what is its long term significance."

Anti-racist and anti-fascist group, Hope Not Hate. 
Similarly, reading the politically idiotic Gay Star News you might get the impression all that's wrong with Ukip is that some of their minor local election candidates have said some bad things about The Gays.

Barclay's Bank: So Big On Diversity They Even Like Bigots

This story appeared in the Sunday Express two days ago:

SOME of Britain’s leading banks and blue chip firms have been urged to withdraw their support from an awards event that brands the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland a bigot for opposing gay marriage.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien has been nominated as equal rights charity Stonewall’s Bigot of the Year, with the recipient due to be announced at the Stonewall Awards ceremony next week.

So far, so predictable.
But it ended with this quote from Mark McLane, Barclays’ Director of Global Diversity and Inclusion:

“Let me be absolutely clear that Barclays does not support that award category either financially, or in principle and have informed Stonewall that should they decide to continue with this category we will not support this event in the future.”

Today this was picked up by various anti-gay websites, such as the Christian Institute, and Christian Voice (who may have created this Hurricane Sandy in a teacup - Barclay's had happily sponsored the awards for five years), who shouted Hosanna in the highest heavens at this (apparent) news. 
Oops!
The line seemed a rather incongruous thing for a "director of diversity" to say - and, moreover, it was in the Express, so I thought I'd check with Mark if he'd actually said it.
His PA sent me a letter he's written, to clarify his position, where he writes in conclusion;

"I have recently been made aware of the inclusion of a ‘Bigot of the Year’ category in the awards. Let me be absolutely clear that Barclays does not support that award category either financially, or in principle and have informed Stonewall that should they decide to continue with this category we will not support this event in the future. To label any individual so subjectively and pejoratively runs contrary to our view on fair treatment, and detracts from what should be a wholly positively focused event."

To which the only possible response is... eh?

PS Email me if you want the full text of the letter. You may also want to read War On Want's report Banking On Bloodshed. Or this, on Barclay's and the Libor rate-fixing scandal.
Nice people to do business with!

Update: I understand Stonewall have told Barclay's "Fine, goodbye then".

Update 2: Good piece by Archie Bland in Wednesday's Independent on how this affair exposes Barclay's (and Coutts) public image of being "gay-friendly" as insincere and cynical PR. 

Christian Institute: We're Not The BNP At Prayer Honest!

From Christian Institute's laugh-a-minute website.
Fagburn loves the idea this implies that CI think this racist neo-Nazi shitbag has finally gone too far.
A plague on both your houses!

Coalition 4 Marriage: Behind You!

The Independent compares and contrasts Coalition 4 Marriage and Coalition For Equal Marriage; "One side appears well-funded; the other is a shoestring operation."
Nina Lakhani goes digging for the dirt on C4M.
Though she doesn't unearth much that's new, it's worth repeating all the same.

• Coalition For Marriage are basically being run and bankrolled by five shady and sinister evangelical Christian groups.

• They work out of the same building as the Christian Medical Fellowship - here's how much they hate queers. 

• Directors include: Dr Don Horrocks, the head of public affairs for the Evangelical Alliance "which in its latest annual review boasts 300 conversations in the corridors of power and regular contact with 40 MPs and peers".

• Nola Leach, the head of the cash-rich Christian Action Research and Education (CARE) "which, according to its annual report, spent £338,000 last year influencing public policy".

• Andrea Minichiello Williams, a barrister and founder of Christian Concern and the Christian Legal Centre, "which funds high-profile cases 'to protect the freedoms of Christians in society'" - like that mad crucifix lady.

• And Norman Wells, a director of Family Education Trust/Family And Youth Concern who tell lies in schools.

• Colin Hart, C4M's campaign manager, also runs the Christian Institute, "a charity which has been criticised for its overt political campaigning. Adoption experts condemned its organ donor-style cards which read: 'In the event of my death, I do not want my children to be adopted by homosexuals.'"

Stonewall's Ben Summerskill comments wrily: "We remain confused about who is behind the so-called Coalition for Marriage and equally confused about their motives. It would be much more refreshing if they just admitted that they didn't like homosexuals."

And Finally: Here Is The Mad Christian News

Bong! Godless communists ban prayers at council meetings.
Bong! Gaystapo ruling on lovely Christian B&B couple upheld.
Bong! Archbishop of York gets hate mail from racist Satanist homosexualists.
Bong! Primary school hands out contraceptives like sweets.
Bong! Ken Livingstone says Blair gave MPs cabinet posts just for being total bumlords.
Bong! Several Daily Mail readers' heads explode - call for immediate government enquiry.
Bong! The newsreader's quite dishy, isn't he?
Bonk! I bet she'll be straight off to Chariots after this.
And finally, remember all evangelical Christians are quite, quite mad.
Goodbye.

Your actual Christian Institute Weekly News Round-up.

Christian Voice: Praying For Confusion In The Tesco Boardroom

"Tesco has recorded a disastrous Christmas after announcing in early November a £30,000 donation to next year’s divisive, depraved London ‘Gay Pride’.
"Sales in the UK were down 2.3 per cent on last year at Tesco’s busiest time of the year. The figures stunned investors and Tesco shares slumped 53.5p, or almost 14 per cent, to 331.6p, wiping more than £3 billion off its value...
"The news follows a Christian Voice campaign of prayer for confusion in the Tesco boardroom, backed up by emails to directors complaining at the ‘Gay Pride’ decision and leafleting at Tesco stores. Just before Christmas a panic-stricken Tesco announced that the 2012 ‘Gay Pride’ donation would be its last. Hours later, in the face of a homosexual backlash, it had to clarify that gays and lesbians were really important and promise that it would support its homosexual contact group ‘Out at Tesco’ in other ways in 2013, which only made matters worse...
"We also prayed for confusion in the Tesco boardroom. As the ‘Big Price Drop’ was launched in September, it seems that Almighty God, who operates outside space and time, was well ahead of us, anticipating our prayers, and seeing by our actions that our prayers were serious. Significantly, we prayed for a drop in their share price, which, with £3b erased from the value of Tesco, has been answered on what you could describe as a Biblical scale.
"On top of that, their ‘Gay Pride’ announcement, made six weeks before Christmas, could not have come at a worse time for them. It was madness to think that such brazen support for the tiny 1% of the population who are homosexual could have a positive effect. As a result, thousands of Christians and other decent people boycotted the store at what should have been its busiest time of the year..."

Stephen Green, Christian Voice, on supremely insane form.
This is so bonkers is it even worth critiquing?
So the all-knowing God predicted Tesco would donate to London Pride this year (not next, Stephen) so made them come up with an unsuccesful campaign called Big Price Drop?
Of course, dear, of course.
And the lines about Tesco dropping Pride in a panic after a Christian boycott, then after a "homosexual backlash" saying they were backing another gay group is BOLLOCKS made up by the Christian Institute - who you don't mention.
Why so, Stevie - a divine feud?

Update: Surprisingly straight-faced account of this in the business pages of Saturday's Guardian.

Tesco: Some GAYS Get Angry About Something That Didn't Happen

EDIT: Just realised this was misfiled and "lost" - so reposting it here for now...

Pink News has published a most odd "Exclusive".

'Exclusive: Tesco set to drop future Pride funding days into Christian boycott'

A few brief bulletpoints:

• I can't see how anything in the story backs up the statement made in that headline.

• Isn't this more like Christian Institute's "exclusive"? They put it out as a press release this morning [Dec 23].

• The Christian Institute/Pink News story is false. Tesco had not committed to funding Pride in the future. Thus they could not have "dropped it".

• The claim that Tesco has caved in to a threatened Christian Institute boycott is a self-serving fantasy put out by the CI.

• I think Tesco should be applauded if in future they donate not to Pride London - probably the gay event/group in the UK who find it easiest to attract (corporate) sponsorship - and commit to long-term support for LGBT workers groups. And how does this fit with them running scared of the CI for funding gay groups?

• The readers' comments on Pink News are depressing - "BOO! Let's boycott Tesco!!!" - but what do you expect people to think? My hope for 2012 is less "But I read it in the gay press..." credulity.

There are so many things Tesco do to get angry over and campaign about.
This is not one of them.

PS The reason I realised I'd "mislaid" this, is cause I went looking for it as Queerty have just run a story WHICH ADDS EVEN MORE NONSENSE TO THE MIX!

Mail On Sunday: Sunday Lie-In

You may recall this story in the last Mail On Sunday.
'Demoted for not backing gay marriage: housing manager's pay slashed for criticising new law on Facebook'
Here's what the Mail didn't tell its readers.
According to a statement made by Trafford Housing Trust;
"At the end of 2010, we updated our Code of Conduct for Employees and provided it to all staff.
"This version of the code clearly set out what use employees can make of social networking sites such as Facebook.
"Some three months after this new code was issued, Mr Smith, without our authority or knowledge and on a Facebook page that identified him as a manager at Trafford Housing Trust, made comments that were found, by a full disciplinary investigation in which he had trade union representation, to be in breach of the company's code of conduct and other policies.
"Mr Smith was disciplined for his breach of company policy. The trust made no comment about any personal beliefs that he holds."
So the Mail On Sunday's claim that Adrian Smith was "Demoted For Not Backing Gay Marriage" was - to put it bluntly - another of their lies.
Whoda thunk it?
You may also be unsurprised to learn Mr Smith's legal action aganst THT is being bankrolled by the loons at the Christian Institute.
Praise be!

The Mail On Sunday: Crucifictions

The Mail On Sunday returns today to one of the Mail's favourite themes; "the persecution of Christians".
There's probably one being nailed to a cross somewhere in Britain even as I type.
Apropos of fuck all the MoS runs an interview with Dr Hans-Christian Raabe.
Dr Raabe, lest we forget, was dropped like a hot knife from the government's Advisory Council For The Misuse Of Drugs in February after it emerged he'd written a paper suggesting a link between homosexuality and paedophilia.
Or to put it another way, his "scientific advice" was shown to be so infected by bigotry as to be useless.
The Mail On Sunday runs the obligatory hysterical quote from The Christian Institute; "His removal is worryingly like some sort of anti-Christian McCarthyism."
Raabe claims there has been "a witchhunt" against him.
Though it could be argued that witchcraft has a better claim to scientific rigour than Dr Raabe.

ONS Gay Survey: A Brand New Myth

The Daily Mail can hardly contain its excitement today.
Their headline? "Only one in 100 Britons is gay despite long-held myth... but 71% of public say they are Christian."
Eh?
"The first ever official count of the gay population has found that only one in 100 adults is homosexual."
Even The Guardian said that the survey had "found" this ('1.5% of Britons say they are gay or bisexual, ONS survey finds') - as if this was the final word, a real eureka moment.
Utter poppycock!
The survey can only be said to have found that 1% of people who took part in their survey were willing to tell the person conducting the survey that they were lesbian or gay.
Does anyone really think 1% is anywhere near the real figure?
"The figure explodes the assumption - long promoted by social experts and lobbyists - that the number is up to ten times higher than this at one in ten."
Eh?
Does anyone still believe that 10% of people are gay?
Some gay businesses and marketeers may still push the 1 in 10 myth, but even they don't actually believe it.
Similarly most newspapers claimed that the survey had "found" lesbians and gay men were more likely to be younger, better educated and "middle class" than the general population.
Here's The Guardian's headline; 'Young, educated and middle-class: sexual identity survey profiles typical gay Briton'.
"...The latest detailed figures show that gay people are much more likely to be in managerial or professional occupations – 49% compared with 30% for straight workers - and better educated, with 38% holding a degree. Their age profile is also much younger than the rest of the population, with 66% under the age of 44 and 17% aged 16 to 24."
But you could make an educated guess that all this may actually show is that young people, graduates and middle class people feel it's easier to be out (to a stranger conducting a survey).
Perhaps the worst outcome of this ONS survey is that we will now have to endure a brand new myth; only one in 100 people are homosexual.
Which means we'll be seeing a lot more crap like this from - but of course - the Daily Mail:
"The gay population, while small, is highly educated and economically successful, the survey showed.
"Gays and lesbians are twice as likely as heterosexuals to have university degrees or the equivalent.
"Nearly half of all gays and lesbians work in managerial or professional grade jobs, compared with fewer than one in three heterosexuals."
This is an old argument loved by the Right - how can gay people be considered "an oppressed group" when they're all doing so well?
And thus...
"The figures brought calls from religious groups for less political attention and public money to be spent on meeting the demands for legal protection for homosexuals.
"Mike Judge of the Christian Institute think tank [sic] said: 'A large amount of public money has been spent on the basis of higher figures, which have turned out to be a lie.'"