John Beyer, advisor to Church of England

England on Sunday, the online version of The Church of England Newspaper, carries a review of the horror film Constantine, which opens in the UK tomorrow. Starring Keanu Reeves as a dead exorcist who returns to earth for a second try at redemption, it has already been described by crosswalk.com as “blasphemy of the highest level”. The BBFC gave it a 15 certificate.

Speaking to the paper, “Massah” John Beyer, the Black and White Minstrels fan who likens himself to St Paul, said:

The BBFC guidelines don’t deal with the occult or blasphemy. Yet we’ve seen recently a preoccupation with exorcism, the occult and the demonic, as with The Exorcism [broadcast live on Channel 4] the other week. It is a trend in films that the church should take a position on.

John Beyer believes in demonic possession.


6 Responses to “John Beyer, advisor to Church of England”

  1. Shaun Hollingworth says:

    Cor… Crosswalk.com
    More bit part censors… I wonder what these “Christian folk would let us watch, if they had total control ? ” Stars on Sunday” perhaps ? Ooops – Jess Yates ran off with a young actress didn’t he ? Hypocrite.. That’s out then isn’t it ? Can’t have that.

  2. Adam Bowman says:

    Noticed on the crosswalk.com review that they described one character as a “Latina”. No that I’m suggesting that these ultra-right wing Christian are in any way racist, obviously…

  3. Dr Christopher Shell says:

    The debate will not be advanced by pigeonholing people into ‘leftwing’, ‘rightwing’ etc.. As between ppl who stereotype and ppl who take a more nuanced view, it is obvious which of the two should be listened to.

    You won’t catch Christians in this country voting overwhelmingly for one party – even for the Christian Peoples Alliance. It’s not an impossible scenario that they will do so – but currently they won’t. The reason is that no one party is largely in line with New Testament values. Historically the Conservatives have been more in line with Christians on family issues, and Labour on social/egalitarian issues (so that many Christians would see themselves in a line of descent from such Christian socialists as William Temple and David Sheppard). Just where did this idea come from that it was possible to divide ppl (let alone Christians) into neat ‘right’ and ‘left’ boxes?

    For example, I would have found it impossible to vote for either Bush or Gore/Kerry: the former re the environment and the war, the latter re abortion & family issues. A lot of Christians regard it as logical to stand up for the innocent and are therefore broadly anti war and anit abortion. Where does this leave them party-politically? Party politics is a procrustean bed – people’s views dont divide naturally down the middle like that.

  4. tom p says:

    ‘Dr’ Shell – What on earth does this have to do with the above comments?

  5. Christopher Shell says:

    See comment 2 – ‘ultra rightwing’

  6. tom p says:

    fair enough