Well, all actions have consequences. And this, this has very severe consequences. I've decided to write a blog about it instead. Rowan, you owe anyone who has to read this an apology. Instead of tucking my views away inside a dissertation, most likely accessible by an audience that won't ever reach double figures, now anyone could unwittingly stumble across my ramblings on the matter.
So let's get the first point out of the way. I'm a Christian, I've seen it and I'm wasn't offended by it. All Rowan Atkinson did was what many comedians and comic actors have done and will continue to do by simply saying the opposite of what you'd expect that character to say. Armstrong and Miller did a series of sketches where a window cleaner came out with deep insights and considered strategies for complex political situations, Mitchell and Webb did a sketch about a librarian that insulted a woman before asking her out on a date, and in an episode of the IT Crowd we see innocent geek Moss talking tough in prison uniform. It's a standard comedy technique and wasn't really a commentary on the Church of England at all as far as I can make out.
Don't get me wrong, it wasn't funny either. It was obvious and unoriginal. If you're going to dress up as a Christian leader you've got to do something pretty good because it's been done before, an awful lot. All the same, at worst it was poking light fun at the mannerisms associated with church leaders and their apparent habit of being out of touch with aspects of modern culture, and at best was a light-hearted, if pretty weak sketch to help raise money for a great cause.
So, I do believe that those people who picked up the phone to complain didn't quite understand the humour and may have been a bit hasty. However, I find do myself a somewhat shocked by the amount of people who took to Twitter to express their outrage that anyone dare speak up for themselves when they feel they've been misrepresented. Whatever your feelings about Christianity, or whether you feel the sketch was offensive or not, people still have the right to speak their mind when they feel the BBC, or any other national broadcaster, has stepped over the line.
I was also baffled by one argument that cropped up a lot. Namely this one:
As far as I'm aware, the two aren't mutually exclusive. I'm sure at least a few of the 2,200 people who phoned to complain about the sketch also donated some money to Comic Relief. I just can't believe that people are so shallow that they'd refuse to give money to help those who really need it just because the middleman did something they didn't like.
I think the closest I've ever come to complaining about a television show is when the BBC stuck a 'on next' banner over the end of Doctor Who, however I do sympathise to some extent with the people who did complain about this sketch. There's a good chance that had this been an isolated incident the BBC wouldn't have received half the complaints. I reckon a good proportion of the Christians who phoned up were just generally sick of being written off as fools or evil by the media. This sort of came full circle when some people on Twitter raged that Christians shouldn't complain because the entire church is a joke, which is probably a view they've picked up from exactly the sort of thing the complaints are about.
I found the furious tweets telling people to lighten up pretty hypocritical, the ones that got some weird pleasure from upsetting a certain group of people somewhat disturbing, and the ones that said that Christians deserve it deeply ignorant. All in all, Twitter's response to the complaints were way more disrespectful to the Christian faith than the sketch itself.
Of course, people do have a right to express their views on Christianity. But they don't have a right for those views to go unquestioned or untested. Yes, some Christians need to get a grip. But many others also need to look a bit further than their tellies before they start casting judgement over Christianity.
I just couldn't believe the anger expressed from either end of the argument. Yes, someone dressed up as a vicar and said rude things. Yes, some people didn't like that. Neither are a surprise.
