Innocent Until Proven Guilty
Francis Beckett asks why the preacher condemned the dead man in Tottenham without any evidence?
8 Aug 2011, 14:00
Was the Reverend wrong to assume guilt?
I was able to put in a note of caution, and suggest that, with Mr Duggan so recently dead, it was a little unseemly to be attacking him on live television. I said we didn’t yet know whether he’d fired at the police, but Revd Hargreaves assured our viewers that his congregation had given him cast iron fact. And of course, Mr Duggan is dead and cannot sue for libel.
The third panellist on Sunday Morning Live was a little man from Suffolk, billed as a teacher and broadcaster – he’s been on BBC Radio Suffolk, I think he said – who kept shouting crass reactionary things like “What do you want the police to do, give the thug sweeties?” I forget his name.
This morning, serious doubt is being cast on the statement that Mr Duggan was shooting at the police. The bullet lodged in a police radio, said to have been fired by Mr Duggan, turns out to be police issue, according to this morning’s Guardian.
Experience should have taught us to be cautious about the first statement coming from the police about such an incident, which is quite often self-serving and of doubtful veracity. What the little man from Suffolk thought doesn’t matter, but Revd Hargreaves is a significant figure in the local community, and has worked close with the Metropolitan Police.
It’s the appalling certainty of these right wing Christian evangelicals that worries me. Because they’ve embraced faith without evidence; because they condemn homosexuals without evidence (Revd Hargreaves campaigns against what he calls “gay activism”); they are not used to requiring evidence for anything. And that makes them very dangerous, for they feel they can make statements and condemn people without evidence. I wonder if he’s going to apologise today. I suspect not.
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Francis Beckett
Francis Beckett is a writer and journalist and editor of the book Prime Ministers Who Never Were.
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Comments (5)
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Gotta love those right wing Evangelicals. Worryingly the Tea party in the US seems to be the same. The same who nearly bought the US to default. I hope, unlike last time, our PM does not endorse the Republican candidate next year but stays out of it!
08/08/2011 14:25I, too, watched "Sunday Morning Live" and The Rev Hargreaves with absolute incredulity and horror. The other little man (whose name I cannot remember) who was also stridently Right-Wing and "shouty" was just as bad. Fundamentalists of all faiths are as dangerous as each other. They allow for no opinion other than their own.
08/08/2011 14:26Wouldn't it be lovely if everybody waited for the police inquiry. Especially the rioters.
ooops too late!
08/08/2011 14:31How can the Guardian know what's going on inside the IPC investigation?
It's supposed to be confidential so as not to prejudice the investigation.
A newspaper which has been preaching so high morally about the phone hacking scandal ought to know better than to leak information which might a) provoke rioting if not handled properly and b) which may affect the result of an investigation into someone's death.
This isn't celebrity tittle-tattle -- this is a man's death and as such deserves to be handle with more respect than having information 'leaked' out of what is supposed to be a secure environment.
08/08/2011 15:08Of course he was wrong to - but why single out the preacher? Why not the others that have jumped to conclusions?
But seriously, why the need for blanket statements like "Because they’ve embraced faith without evidence; because they condemn homosexuals without evidence"? What does that achieve? Aren't you now guilty of exactly the same thing? All the evidence hasn't come to pass on your first statement yet you're already drawing conclusions.
You believe that there's no evidence, but you've just interpreted the same things a Christian has and come to a different conclusion. You also don't appear to appreciate the Bible and hence go to the core of what Christianity is, and instead judge it based on some awful remarks of some "Christians".
God condemns all who sin, the Bible says, not just homosexuals or some other category (adulterers, those who deny God full stop) - but Christians also believe Jesus died to take that condemnation. Now if this preacher you've taken a dislike to campaigns against gay activism, that's very different to condemning homosexuals - it's simply pointing out people that the Bible says are sinning that are unrepentant - for good reason, I'm sure you'll think. He shouldn't single out homosexual people in that respect though, he should show concern for all who are unrepentant.
Most of all though I'm sure, you'd say that tolerance is all important. Which begs the question of why you're being so intolerant of Christians here...
08/08/2011 21:54