Christian Voice (UK)

Green has expressed support for the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill (2009) and its associated penalty of death, stating "The Bible calls for the ultimate penalty for sodomy... A Parliamentarian in Uganda is trying to protect his nation's children. The House of Commons of the United Kingdom is trying to corrupt ours."[17]

According to the group, abortion is the killing of human beings comparable to The Holocaust.[18]

The group wants to overturn the law on marital rape, stating that the promises given by a man and woman to each other during the marriage service in the Book of Common Prayer establish a binding consent to sexual intercourse.[19]

The group has been involved in campaigns against the Gay Police Association. Christian Voice is opposed to police officers participating in gay pride marches, and in 2003 wrote to the Chief Constable of each force which it alleged allowed its officers to march in uniform at Pride events. The organisation published the replies on its website and, in the accompanying 16-page document Homosexuality and the Police, described homosexuality as "characterised by disease, degradation, death and denial" and Gay Pride as "intimidating".[20]

On 2 September 2006, Green was arrested while handing out pamphlets urging homosexuals to "turn from their sins" at the Cardiff Mardi Gras. The police considered the leaflets hateful. The Crown Prosecution Service decided to withdraw their prosecution of Green on the grounds of insufficient evidence; the police stated that this did not "challenge the legality" of his arrest. Green's solicitor indicated he would seek damages in civil court for "abuse of police powers."[21]

Christian Voice was involved in criticism of British performances of Jerry Springer: The Opera, including a transmission of a performance by the BBC in 2005.[22] The group stated that the production was blasphemous in its depiction of Jesus, Mary and God as guests on the Jerry Springer Show. Green said of the production,

Jerry Springer the Opera portrayed Jesus Christ as a nappy-wearing sexual deviant, who said he was 'a little bit gay'. It called Mary a rape victim, said the birth of Jesus was because 'the condom split', ridiculed His wounds on the cross and the sacrament of Holy Communion, had God as an ineffectual old man who needed guidance from Jerry Springer and finished up with Springer as a counterfeit saviour of mankind who told Jesus to "Grow up for Christ's sake and put some f***ing clothes on."[23]

The group maintained a presence outside the Cambridge Theatre in London where it ran. It then mounted protests outside every theatre on the 2006 run of the show, attributing the financial disaster of the tour to divine intervention rather than its own actions.

Also in 2006, it mounted parallel protests outside the St Andrews University production of Terrence McNally gay rights play Corpus Christi.[24]

Christian Voice started a campaign for people to complain to the BBC and published the home addresses and telephone numbers of two BBC executives on their web site, Jana Bennett (Director of Television) and Roly Keating (Controller of BBC Two). Keating subsequently received death threats.

On 8 January 2007, submissions were made on behalf of Stephen Green at Horseferry Road Magistrates Court to pursue private prosecutions for blasphemy against the Director-General of the BBC Mark Thompson and the show's producer, Jonathan Thoday.[25] A summons was refused on 30 January 2007 due to lack of prima facie evidence that a crime had been committed, and the provisions of the 1968 Theatres Act, which enshrines the right of free expression in theatrical works.[26] An appeal to the High Court was dismissed on 5 December 2007.[27] On 5 March 2008 the House of Lords rejected the call to hear an appeal of the High Court's decision because "it did not raise an arguable point of law of general public importance".[28]

The offenses of Blasphemy and Blasphemous Libel were abolished by the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 with effect from 8 July 2008.[29][30]

CV placed an advertisement in the New Statesman asserting that HPV vaccines would make young people sterile. In January 2009, the Advertising Standards Authority ruled that the advertisement breached advertising regulations on accuracy.[31] Christian Voice had predicted the ruling and responded "requiring the substantiation of a future prediction in an opinion piece is preposterous and an infringement of freedom of speech."[32]

In November 2008, following the failed private prosecution by Emily Mapfuwa over the display of a foot-high statue of Jesus with a phallus in the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, Stephen Green urged Christians to "create public disorder if [they] wish such a case to proceed in future", and stated that the artwork in question would "not survive being put on public display again."[33][34]

On 8 January 2009, Christian Voice complained to the Advertising Standards Authority about the Atheist Bus Campaign's adverts on 800 buses across England, Scotland and Wales. CV objected to the slogan, "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."[35] On 21 January, the ASA ruled that the adverts were not in breach of its rules as the advert "was an expression of the advertiser’s opinion" and was incapable of substantiation. They also claimed that although the advert was contrary to many people's beliefs, it would not generate "serious or widespread offence".[36][37]

In December 2010, when the BBC aired The Nativity, described by the Church of England as a "gritty interpretation," Stephen Green objected to – in his eyes – the portrayal of Mary as a whore. He was documented in the press condemning the presentation saying "They wouldn’t mock the birth of Muhammad, or anything to do with his life story. They wouldn’t ridicule Hinduism or Sikhism, but Christianity is their big target."[38]