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Richard Littledale

Richard Littledale's
Views on the News: April 2006

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Let me entertain you…

Back in the early days of Robbie Williams' fame, he famously sung 'let me entertain you'. Since then, he has unquestionably done just that for hundreds of thousands of fans. His particular blend of memorable lyrics, energetic performance and cocky humour have made him a favourite with many.

His role in Derren Brown's Trick of the Mind tv show on Easter Sunday this year, however, is likely to lose him many fans. In the show he allows the hypnotist to put him into a trance, during which he suspends him on a steel cross-like frame and inserts 14" needles through his arms. Williams is said to have gone rather green during the procedure, but afterwards emerged to pronounce himself 'a fan of body piercing'.

This concept is so lacking in taste and so far wide of anything that might be deemed appropriate that it is hard to know where to start. The stunt will, of course, offend many Christian believers in this country. The cross is for them a symbol of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus on their behalf. It symbolizes the love of a saviour who would willingly undergo dreadful suffering on their behalf. To see it cheapened in this way will sicken them.

Christian theologians are aware of the broad spiritual hinterland which lies behind the cross, stretching all the way back to the dawn of time and the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. To see the crucifixion re-enacted as a circus stunt suggests falsely that its significance is all to be found only in the act itself. Others who will be offended, should they ever hear about this, are the widows of Sudanese Christians whose husbands were crucified by the authorities in recent years for refusing to renounce their Christian faith. Was Mr Williams, I wonder, aware of their fate?

The cross can never be anything other than offensive, since it is an instrument of capital punishment. Christians beautify it or adorn it at their peril. It speaks at once of the gravity of their sin and the depth of God's love. None of these things are self evident, and it falls to Christians to explain them to the offended or the curious. In the inevitable wave of protest which will follow this TV stunt, it remains to be seen whether Christians will make the best or the worst use of this opportunity.

One other question remains unanswered. If our tolerant society advocates the protection of religious sensibilities, as we have seen in the wake of the Danish newspaper cartoons and recent debates in Parliament - what makes this acceptable television?

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