Psychic Show Chaos
Fundamentalist Christian demonstrators caused chaos at the Baxter Theatre last night as they hurled threats and anti-Semitic abuse at psychic Belinda Silbert.
The men said they were from a church in Claremont, and apparently sounded American.
The protesters first staged a disruption during the show after telling John Bowey, producer of Cross Over and Connect, that they wanted just to slip in for a while to see if the show was "suitable", as congregants had expressed interest in the show.
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"I told them it would be better to see the whole show," said Bowey, but they were insistent and he let them in.
People in the audience began praying loudly, heckling and disrupting the show, a shaken Silbert said today.
Then, at the end of the show three of the Christian protesters started shouting, "She's not your god", "There are only demons here" and "She calls up the dead".
"They were screaming at me as I went to sign my CDs, and saying I should accept Christ.
"I told them I was Jewish and that set off a stream of hate speech.
"They shouted, 'You murdered Jesus' and that's when I said, 'Nobody insults me or my nation.'
One was particularly aggressive. "He advanced on me, saying I was the devil incarnate and would burn in hell," Silbert said.
"I became alarmed and very angry at the anti-Semitic tirade. It was revolting."
Silbert gives messages to people "from the other side" during the show.
Security was ill-equipped to deal with the situation, and Silbert and Bowey left the scene to defuse it.
