The headlines loved it: “Atheism is cool, says Archbishop Rowan”, “The Reformation was down to the weather” and “It’s time to believe in miracles, comedian tells Archbishop”.
When Rowan Williams and the comedian Frank Skinner had an in-depth conversation about their shared Christian faith the headlines went to the jokes, the pull-out quotes and the things most likely to rile non-believers. Lambeth has obviously been taking the PR advice of poker queen Victoria Coren who, like Skinner, is an ardent admirer of the Archbishop and has made a plea for the cool, brainy, witty believers to ‘come out’. But does Christianity really benefit from celebrity endorsements?
When Frank Skinner speaks about his Christianity he gains attention because he is a well-known comedian and not because he is well-informed about the Christian faith – hopefully good comedy, sometimes good theology. When he made a joke about the austerity of Reformation theology being a result of the grim northern-European weather the archbishop replied, “There may have been one or two other issues around.”
This does not mean that comedians should stop talking about God. Skinner works in a profession where atheism has become the standard response. As he says, “You have to wear tight jeans, you have to have hair that looks like a chrysanthemum and you have to be an atheist if you want to be a cool modern comic.” He fails on all three points. So maybe he doesn’t fit the bill after all.
The real point here is not the cool, or the clever. As the Archbishop pointed out, “What tends to make a difference to people’s sense that things are possible is seeing someone’s life where it works... that’s why the very fact of someone like you professing a religious faith is more important than your ability or mine to answer Richard Dawkins in detail”. What is attractive is not Skinner’s combination of faith and celebrity, but of faith and ordinariness: his meandering route to professional success, his history of alcohol addiction, bouts of prickliness, his up and down relationship with his girlfriend. This is a man whose abiding memory of his drunken 30th birthday was being asked, “what’s it like to be 30 and on the scrapheap?” Christianity doesn’t look so Stepfordian with someone like him.
There are other comedians out there who are Christian. Milton Jones intentionally does not swear or blaspheme in his shows and has written a book called Ten Second Sermons that his website warns contains ‘religious material’. Tim Vine has been known to play the drums at his local church. Ian Hislop contributing to the book Why I am Still an Anglican, opens his chapter by saying “I’ve tried atheism and I can’t stick at it: I keep having doubts.” They’re obviously much cleaner and more respectable than Skinner, but less persuasive, less passionate and more cautious.
Celebrities in themselves don’t help the cause. What matters is that they have a story which is authentic. It may not be a headline, but if Frank Skinner is seriously funny and also a serious Christian then people might stop laughing at Christianity.
Rachel Neaum is currently an intern at Theos.
