Rising Tory star Philippa Stroud ran prayer sessions to 'cure' gay people

[Turborama]

Source: The Observer (UK)

A high-flying prospective Conservative MP, credited with shaping many of the party's social policies, founded a church that tried to "cure" homosexuals by driving out their "demons" through prayer.

Philippa Stroud, who is likely to win the Sutton and Cheam seat on Thursday and is head of the Centre for Social Justice, the thinktank set up by the former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, has heavily influenced David Cameron's beliefs on subjects such as the family. A popular and energetic Tory, she is seen as one of the party's rising stars.

The CSJ reportedly claims to have formulated as many as 70 of the party's policies. Stroud has spoken of how her Christian faith has motivated her to help the poor and of her time spent working with the destitute in Hong Kong. On her return to Britain, in 1989, she founded a church and night shelter in Bedford, the King's Arms Project, that helped drug addicts and alcoholics. It also counselled gay, lesbian and transsexual people.

Abi, a teenage girl with transsexual issues, was sent to the church by her parents, who were evangelical Christians. "Convinced I was demonically possessed, my parents made the decision to move to Bedford, because of this woman who had come back from Hong Kong and had the power to set me free," Abi told the Observer.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/may/02/conservatives-philippa-stroud-gay-cure

---

Secret Christian donors bankroll Tories

Increasingly powerful Conservative grassroots organisation numbers 37 prospective candidates among its members

Jamie Doward

The Observer, Sunday May 2 2010

=snip=

Michael Farmer, who founded a metals brokerage, gave £250,000 last month and has donated similar sums several times in the past. A self-made multi-millionaire, Farmer says he is happy to carry the "God squad" label. In a recent interview, he explained that he was backing the Tories because Labour "has governed incredibly badly... The tax and benefits structures put in place under Labour have not created a strong society; they've done the opposite," he said. "They've just encouraged unhappy lives. The core unit of society – husband, wife, parents, children – has been dismantled. Labour's idea of a family is three people who share a fridge."

It is perhaps not surprising to learn that Farmer has also donated £2,000 to Philippa Stroud's campaign to become Tory MP for Sutton & Cheam. Like her political ally, Nadine Dorries, the Tory MP for Mid-Bedfordshire, Stroud is one of growing band of Tories happy to wear their faith on their sleeves. She once explained that it was "massively important" for Christians to engage in politics because "we have a unique understanding of the value of human beings".

As head of the influential Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), a Christian-orientated thinktank set up by former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, Stroud has had a profound effect on the party's approach to social issues. The CSJ claims to have been responsible for formulating some 70 Tory policies. David Cameron's controversial tax breaks for married couples owes much to its thinking.

The rise of the Christian Conservatives is viewed by some in the party with a mixture of suspicion and fear. The Conservative Christian Fellowship, an increasingly powerful grass roots organisation set up by one-time Exeter University student Tim Montgomerie – who now runs the influential ConservativeHome website – counts no fewer than 37 prospective Tory candidates as members. Its chairman is David Burrowes, the shadow justice minister who was at Exeter with Montgomerie.

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/02/secret-christian-donors-bankroll-tories


Just in case any British DUers were still considering voting Tory...

[The Magistrate]

1. Jesus, Sir: They Really Are Becoming the Fifty-First State....

[Turborama]

2. Indeed, your honor.

The additional article gives credence to that parallel...

[No Elephants]

9. IMO, it's way beyond that, and has been for a long time. Please see Reply #8.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

23. Mandatory New Model Army video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_r_68x1AQc

[Democat]

3. Crazy woman thinks that Linda Blair's character in the exorcist was GAY!

That's really who you want writing the policies for your country?

[Bluenorthwest]

4. So she founded a church like Donnie McClurkin's

Donnie who was Obama's surrogate at events in which he denigrated the GLBT community. We were told that such associations were acceptable, and such dogmas mainstream. Obama defended Donnie to the very last, and retained his slander services.
So for Americans wishing to point a finger...

[axollot]

5. The irony that the UK's 'thugs have a think tank called Social Justice. Gah. n/t

[axollot]

6. Do we have UK DU'ers that have said they are considering voting in the Tories?!

That would be like a US Du'er voting for Thugs or an Aussie voting in "Liberal" (lil Johnnie Howard was a liberal - Labour is our Dem equivalent).

Cheers
Sandy

[IndianaGreen]

7. New Labour must die! The correct vote is for the Liberal Democrats

New Labour is like DLC Democrats, not the Democratic base. To save the Labour Party, Blair and Brown's New Labour must die the ignominious death it rightfully deserves.

This will sound familiar to American ears:

In response to terrorism, crime and anti-social behaviour Labour has bought security at an intolerable cost in liberty.

<snip>

The vital context for this election is the twin crises in our economy and our politics.

<snip>

This newspaper has consistently argued that the most effective change would be to introduce a fairer voting system. The current model contains a huge bias towards Labour and the Conservatives, giving them hundreds of safe seats where MPs can complacently ignore voters. Parties then divert money and skew policy towards a handful of tactically important constituencies.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/01/liberal-democrats-endorsement-observer

[KamaAina]

14. But now I'm hearing that the Lib Dems would be looking to form a coalition with the Tories

in preference to New DLC Labour. :wtf:

Prior to reading that, I would have backed the Lib Dems all the way, for precisely the reasons you outlined.

[Turborama]

16. Where/when did you read/hear that? n/t

[KamaAina]

18. Right here at DU. Where else?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8249534&mesg_id=8251095

[Turborama]

21. That's what the (misleading) headline said a week ago. It's not what Nick Clegg said, though.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/25/nick-clegg-coalition-conservatives

That headline is misleading. As I asked when it was http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4356708#4356801">originally posted in LBN last week, where does it say he "looks to the Conservatives" in the article? In fact, it states that "Clegg said Cameron and Brown would be vulnerable within their parties if they failed to secure an overall majority." That doesn't sound like he's "looking to the Conservatives".

Here's what he said in context...

The Lib Dems insisted that Clegg's remarks were being over-interpreted, and he was merely rejecting the constitutional assumption that the prime minister in the event of a hung parliament would always have the first opportunity to try to form a minority government.

Clegg said he would not prop up Labour if it came third in the vote yet secured the most seats. He said: "It seems to me that it's just preposterous, the idea that if a party comes third in terms of the number of votes, it still has somehow the right to carry on squatting in No 10 and continue to lay claim to having the prime minister of the country.

"What I'm saying here is pointing at a very, very irrational possible outcome of our potty electoral system, which is that a party that has spectacularly lost the election because fewer people are voting for it than any other party, could nonetheless according to constitutional tradition and convention still lay claim to providing the prime minister of the country."

With the campaign entering its final full week, Clegg may feel he needed to send out an anti-Brown message as polling suggested the Tory leader, David Cameron, was gaining traction with his warning that if voters back Clegg, they will end up with Brown in No 10.

Anyway, a hung parliament with the Liberal Democrats 'looking' to either party would bring Proportional Representation into the foreground of British politics, which can only be a good thing.

[IndianaGreen]

17. What Nick Clegg said, that in the event of hung Parliament, Liberal Dems

are more likely to partner with the party that got the most votes, rather than one that came in a distant third. A hung Parliament will certainly lead to elections a lot sooner than 5 years.

[Turborama]

11. Yes

No comment.

[No Elephants]

8. The religious right is an international cult. See, for example, The Fellowship,

Bohemian Grove, Carlyle Group, etc.

Seriously, the Left better wake up and get busy.

[Shallah Kali]

13. don't forget the New Apostolic Reformation

http://www.alternet.org/news/145796/heads_up:_prayer_warriors_and_sarah_palin_are_organizing_spiritual_warfare_to_take_over_america_?page=entire

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2010/1/20/131544/037

[rasputin1952]

10. Thank God all of the nuts aren't Americans...

:D

[daleo]

12. God must be crazy

If you believe the people that claim to know him best.

[KamaAina]

15. The Tories and the repukes: two would-be theocracies separated by a common language

:eyes:

[LeftishBrit]

24. Not really; most Tories are not theocrats -though Ulster Unionists often are

There is a theocratic element in the Tory party, like this loon; but no recent Tory PM, even Thatcher, was a theocrat (in fact, Blair may have come the closest!)

[KamaAina]

25. You are correct -- for the moment

but remember, there was a time when the Pat Robertsons and Jerry Falwells were considered loons, even within the repuke party. Don't let it happen to you!

Point taken with regard to the Ulster Unionists. Mr Paisley would fit in quite nicely in our own Bible Belt, and would probably cause a great deal less damage if he were to settle there.

[LeftishBrit]

30. All very good points...

and although this particular threat was beaten off, I am very shaken by events in my own constituency, where smear campaigns by religious fundies and other fringe-nuts against the local MP were seemingly the cause of his narrow defeat. (It's a very marginal seat.)

I would strongly recommend anyone, anywhere, to be on the look-out against the intrusion into politics of the religious fringe-nuts .- even if you think you live somewhere where this is not a problem. I thought so too, until rather too late.

Of course, it's nothing like the situation with the Christian Right in America; and not likely to become so, especially as there *are* many fewer highly religious people here. But any religious-righties (and similar ideologues) are too many.

[Skittles]

19. they need to cure homophobia

yes INDEED

[Initech]

20. Our religious fundamentalists really aren't any better than the ones we're fighting.

[LeftishBrit]

22. A complete lunatic

'Just in case any British DUers were still considering voting Tory...'

Well, I fucking hope none are! Personally, I don't think my hand would be *capable* of marking a ballot for a Tory.

Although there are far fewer Christian-Righties in Britain than America, they exist. I grew up in Wimbledon, and the MP at one point was Sir Cyril Black, who was a right-wing Tory and a fanatical religious crusader against Sin in all its forms, including gambling, 'obscene' literature, and breaking the Sabbath. By the time I was old enough to be aware of such things, he was no longer an MP, but was still giving the Religious Education prize every year at my school.

[Unvanguard]

26. It's really very simple: DO NOT vote for right-wing parties. EVER. n/t

[legin]

27. You really cannot afford to go MIA

Sutton is just down the road from where I live :mad:

I was nice and quietly retired and now this :eyes:

[LeftishBrit]

28. By the way, she lost. Phew!

[Turborama]

29. Did she?

With all the news about the coalition I lost track of who won and who lost. Thanks for that update. Phew! indeed.