Church groups are planning to protest outside theatres hosting a ”blasphemous” comedy show.
Comedian Richard Herring, 43, is currently touring Britain with his stand-up show Christ On a Bike – The Second Coming.
But Christians living in the town of Lowestoft, Suffolk, have slammed the show as ”blasphemous” and ”vulgar” for its portrayal of biblical characters.
Several groups are now planning to picket local theatres hosting the stand-up gig in protest against its content.
The Reverend Kyle Paisley, from Oulton Broad Presbyterian Church, Suffolk, has slammed Herring’s humour as ”infantile”.
He said: ”When I looked at the flyer, I marked three things – the vulgarity, the blasphemy and the downright dishonesty of the man.
”We’re just using our right as Christians to say how we feel.
”It’s infantile. The continual reference to sexual things makes it manifest that Richard Herring hasn’t got out of puberty yet.”
Church youth worker Matthew Pickhaver added: ”We plan to peacefully stand outside the theatre and give out a simple tract about the real Jesus.”
Herring first toured with his show Christ On A Bike in 2001 and will be performing at Lowestoft’s Marina Theatre on 28 April this year.
The comedian describes his stand-up routine as a humorous look at Jesus ”combining childlike guile with rigorous academic research”.
Writing on his blog the Herring has hit back at his critics by describing them as ”backward”.
He wrote: ”Some of the more backward people of East Anglia (and imagine how backward that must make them) are planning on protesting, which is probably great news, as that is the one that is selling about the worst so far.”
Herring is no stranger to controversy and grew a Hitler-style moustache for his last stand-up tour in 2009.
He is famous for writing Al Murray’s TV breakthrough series Pub Landlord, Time Gentlemen Please.
how can he get away with it? he could never do that to muslims, could he? its blasphemous and vulgar, just as described.
as boook says, he could never do that to Muslims….true…but regardless of that little irritating point of our politically correct society….this is not blasphemous.
it would be in Islam of course, but in Christianity, blaspemous is strictly related to accusing Christ and or the Holy Spirit of operating under the power of Satan.
so while this may be infuriating, it’s not blasphemy.
and to all you Christians out there who think it is horrid….especially you ministers….perhaps you should take a close look at the unbiblical crap you preach like “Jesus died for the sins of every human being” …. or “Doing good deeds will get me to heaven” before you bitch about “christ on a bike” which is just about as ridiculous.
as God stated in the bible….Judgement begins in the church….so you might want to pay attention to what’s going on in the house of the lord, before you get your knickers in a twist over some silly twat on a bicycle.