Bangor pastor blesses far-right killers

Most people might associate Christenings with a distant, dull and half-remembered enforced Sunday afternoon outing in childhood rather than as a platform for inciting Holy War, but they do things differently in Bangor, North of Ireland. Pastor Mark Gordon of the Shiloh Christian Fellowship has used the occasion of welcoming a child to Jesus to bless the anti-immigrant and anti-Islam crusade of assorted far-right goons. The child in this case was the godson of ‘citizen journalist’ and anti-immigrant bigot Freedom Dad, real name Mark Sinclair. You might expect those fleeing war and persecution, along with constantly maligned Muslims, to be precisely the type of people Jesus would most sympathise with, but not under this classically Northern Irish sectarian interpretation of the gospel.

In this reading, the good pastor sees:

…the enemy sending invaders into our land, into our nation to strip away everything of Christianity, to strip away everything of God and try to force us to bow down to a false god and to believe, Lord God, false doctrines.

Bangor pastor told audience: thugs are fighting ‘on your behalf’

Also receiving the endorsement was far-right vigilante and animal abuser Neil Pinkerton, who has appeared in court charged with directing racist abuse at a delivery driver. He has repeatedly subjected animals to brutal abuse in bloodsports, though the courts have failed to hold him properly to account. He is known to be part of a network of patrols that roam the streets seeking to intimidate migrants in East Belfast. It appears Glen Kane was also present at the Bangor gathering, infamous for his manslaughter conviction that stemmed from his role in the sectarian killing of Catholic man Kieran Abram in July 1992, who was kicked to death.

Several other men are visible in the group of eight, who the Bangor pastor tells the assembled audience:

..are fighting your battle, they’re fighting on your behalf. You may not necessarily agree with how they fight but they’re fighting on your behalf, on my behalf, and we have to acknowledge that, and whether you agree or not that’s fine.

Gordon goes on to say they are “suffering persecutions in so many different ways”, presumably a reference to the relatively tentative steps the police have undertaken to go after a far-right, largely loyalist menace preying on the most vulnerable people in society.

The blessing concluded with an apparently direct approval for their violent methods, with Gordon saying:

I just pray…that you father would equip them with the armour of God and with the weaponry, Lord God, that can bring down the strongholds of the enemy and that you, Lord God, can set our nation free from the lies and the evil that is Islam.

In the name of Jesus, may your blessing rest upon all of these guys. Thank you, Lord. Amen.

Bangor pastor—Mohicans, glue-sniffing and Jesus emerging from a plastic sheet

The praise for vicious thugs didn’t go down well with all Christians, with one commenter under the video saying:

Gordon has a colourful past, that involves going from being a glue-sniffing, Mohican-sporting punk rocker in and out of prison for drugs offences, to seeing the face of Jesus in a plastic sheet while passing out from an overdose, an experience that triggered his spiritual conversion. Describing the moment, he told the Belfast Telegraph:

I reached out to what I thought was Jesus and asked that He have mercy on me. I must have passed out because I woke about four hours later and I felt as if there was a hand on the back of my head that brought my head up.

I could clearly see the face of Jesus as if it had been painted on the inside of my eyes and his eyes were closed but when he opened them, in that moment such a weight dropped off my shoulders.

I knew instantly that my life had changed, and from that day I knew I would follow Jesus and I have been a Christian ever since.

His previous claim to fame is his alleged sheltering of loyalist provocateur Jamie Bryson, who was found in the Bangor pastor’s attic in 2013 while on the run from police. Bryson was found guilty in 2015 of involvement in unlawful public processions and blocking traffic during the 2012-2013 flag protests in Belfast. These were triggered by a reduction in the number of occasions the union flag would be displayed at City Hall.

Denied access to council building, ‘citizen journalist’ instead shouts at cars

Seemingly inspired by his now apparently divine mission, Sinclair aka Freedom Dad was present again at Newtownabbey Council offices on Monday November 24, seeking answers from Sinn Féin councillors regarding their views on immigration policy. He had previously attended a demonstration there at the end of October, at which the Ulster Unionist Party mayor Leah Kirkpatrick was shoved with a placard. Immigration had again been the focus of that protest.

On this occasion, a network of barriers had been set up to prevent protestors getting anywhere near the building, with a large police presence also guarding the councillors. Sinclair, a former Ulster Volunteer Force armed robber who was sentenced to 18 years in Scotland for his role in three bank robberies, elected to jeer at councillors exiting the premises in their cars:

Nothing to say? Bringing Islam into Northern Ireland! Do you think we’re stupid?

It’s always good form not to answer a rhetorical question, though Sinclair’s subsequent ramblings did seem to provide sufficient material to determine the truth on the matter, as he told viewers of his motivations for questioning the politicians:

We want to know why they’re behaving the way they are towards Palestine, towards Hamas, and why they’re wanting foreigners quite happily to come in here, Islam especially.

Mr Islam was unavailable for comment, but that didn’t stop Sinclair continuing to go on about him, along with the little known — but we’d say a very sensible — law that apparently prevents Islamophobic, far-right head-the-balls from procreating:

We’re not having Islam coming in and replacing us just because we’re not allowed to have children.

Blessing that media and politicians give to vile sentiments is the true danger

In fairness, the intrepid citizen journalist did later clarify that he meant the two child benefit cap, a reasonable enough point that he combined with another legitimate observation about a shortage of doctors resulting from medical staff going overseas to find better pay and working conditions.

It’s standard reactionary fare to throw in a few corn kernels of truth amidst the torrent of unhinged bigoted shite, and Sinclair concluded with a sinister version of the latter. He deployed the now popular idea of menacing even immigrants with settled status, saying:

Anybody that’s come into our countries that think they’re legal because they were brought in by a traitorous government, anyone that’s come in the past 15-20 years, you’ve got in here by a traitorous government who’s failing everybody.

Last week we learned how the North of Ireland operates a religious education system that amounts to illegal indoctrination. That may play some role in creating characters like Gordon, whose blessing is likely to be some encouragement for the likes of Sinclair and his cronies. More significant though is a media and political class that blesses hateful anti-immigrant and Islamophobic sentiment on a daily basis, from a platform with far greater reach than the likes of the Bangor pastor is ever likely to hold.

Featured image via Shiloh Christian Fellowship