Monthly Archives: January 2005

Church, Movies & TV

The Ongoing Springer Debate

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The debate about the Jerry Springer opera has rolled onward today.

The first suprise is that the Oxford Diocese seems to have performed a bit of U-turn with regards to their position, by deleting their positive review from Friday, replacing it with their complaint to OFCOM, and a letter they had recieved on the subject. The whole U-turn strikes me as a bit bizarre, in that since the review came from the Methodist Church, someone in the media team at Oxford obviously went to the trouble to get hold of the review (and the review hasn’t appeared on the Methodist Churches own website either). As the review clearly states on the top that it is “a personal reflection” it would seem to be decidedly more honest, and a better reflection of the division in opinion between Christians across the country, to keep the positive review, and issue a statement reflecting that, whilst they acknowledge the division in opinion, having seen the show, the opinion of the media team is to make a complaint to support the Christinas in the diocese who were offended. Instead the impression that is given to anyone who has read the previous review that the Diocese is operating as a dictatorship removing anything that dissents from their opinion. I’m half tempted to write and complain, but I suspect it will be a pointless exercise, if they had been at all concerned about reflecting the balance of opinion, and encouraging debate, it wouldn’t have been deleted in the first place. In general the whole behaviour is massively disappointing, after the careful way they handled the Jeffrey John affair, trying to give both sides a voice, this is a definite let down.

Talking of the division of opinion, as a balance to some of the other publicity Ekklesia has provided a helpful summary. The report highlights the ratings boost that the campaign produced, and also the higher than average number of calls of support the BBC has recieved over the broadcast. In addition, todays Times letter page includes a letter from a Christian stating that Christians owe a debt of gratitude to the authors of the show because:

“The work deals imaginatively and forcefully with many of the issues of sin and redemption, considered either religiously or secularly, in terms that engage with contemporary society in the best traditions of effective evangelism. It demands that we respond whilst reminding us of one of the central messages of Christianity — that no one is beyond God’s transforming love.”

One other interesting development is that the media is now starting to focus more on Christian Voice, the group that published the addresses and phone numbers of the BBC executives who were subsequently threatened. Stephen Green, their director was interviewed by Eddie Mair on PM tonight whilst I was driving home, and got a considerably more uncomfortable ride than he got on News 24 a couple of days ago. After some initial questions on the publication of contact details, and comparing this to the fact that the organisation “hides behind a PO Box”, Eddie moved on to a couple of points on this page asking “Why is the UK under God’s Judgement?”. The impression I got is that this probably wasn’t in the plan for the interview. This was based on the reaction when challenged over the statement that “TV, radio, and the arts are awash with blasphemy, violence and perversion, while virtue is derided”, and asked for examples, and also the criticism of the National Lottery on the site. Ekklesia also highlight how the website portrays those who disagree with its extremist views as “enemies of God”.

Looking at the ongoing comment on the BBC Talking Point there is still a mix of support for the BBC over the showing, against the complaints:

“Is the Christian religion really so weak, or so pompous, that it will not stand any type of negative comment? After all, they have made enough negative comments about others, including other religions.”

And the more forceful:

This is absolutely outrageous. I am sick and tired of the religious right telling us what is and what isn’t good for us. I don’t force my opinions down your throats. Believe what you want to believe and don’t attempt to bully your narrow minded perception of morality onto the rest of the democratic population. It’s nothing more that a neo-fascist attempt at media manipulation.

Also one or two supportive reactions from Christians:

“I am deeply committed to my religion and deeply committed to seeing a secular public space in which all viewpoints can be commented on, heard and judged on their merits. So good on the Beeb for showing it, let’s see more quality broadcasts from every viewpoint and not the ‘tellyban’ fanatics.”

As I mentioned yesterday, my opinion is that ultimately this ongoing debate is going to cause harm. Certainly from the discussion I had over lunch today, people who watched the show thought it was great, and whilst we had a very interesting debate over the points raised by the show, the general reaction was negative towards the attitude to the Church, with one person (a lapsed Christian) saying specifically that they thought the reaction of Christian groups was contrary to Christian teaching on tolerance. It is worth stressing that in most cases the media is a very blunt instrument, and getting subtle differences across does not work. The BBC is now linking to Christian Voice from it’s articles on News Online, and whilst I know there is strong feeling on the subject from mainstream Christians, the association is going to be made between mainstream Christians and the opinions of Christian Voice.

Church, General, Movies & TV

Oh Please…

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The showing of Jerry Springer: The Opera seems to have pretty evenly split opinion, judging by the BBC Talking Point. Based on the 1.7 million viewers the main result of the Christian Voice campaign seems to have been a 70% rise in the viewing figures that would be expected for a late night opera on BBC2. The additional audience seems to consist of two groups, people who didn’t know it was on, watched it and loved it, and Christians who forced themselves to sit through it all to judge it.

Christian Voice themselves have moved on to the Cambridge Theatre itself, resulting in increased security for cast and audiences, and they are also considering bringing a private prosecution against the BBC over the show, due to it portraying Jesus as a “coprophiliac sexual deviant”. (Go get the dictionary out for that one…)

The Church of England bishops are somewhat split. The Bishop of Manchester, as lead spokesman on broadcasting has followed up his statement of last week, particularly objecting to the scene where (apparently) Eve attempts to masturbate Jesus, although having seen the two second shot I think he’s reading an awful lot more into it that there was. However the Bishop of Worcester in a radio appearance has criticised the threats against TV executives, the over the top reactions (including the inflated swear word count), and refused to condemn the show, saying that it could be “a good thing” if it provoked a debate about whether religion was an individualistic interest.

To my mind the ongoing campaign, if it continues to bring publicity to one aspect of the broad spectrum of Christians and their opinions can only be damaging to the image of Christians as a whole. Take for example a couple of the comments from the BBC Talking Point I mentioned above:

“Congratulations to the right wing Christian organisations for the publicity they have brought to the BBC and the Jerry Springer Opera in particular. These church organisations have unwittingly brought the show national and international headlines, whilst showing themselves to be so far out of touch with the vast majority of the people in this country. This event highlights why so many have abandoned organised religion in the last 50 years. Well done BBC, you’ve earned my respect for not caving in to the minority.”

And also, this very straightforward reminder of something the BBC does for Christians – the fairly heavy bias towards Christianity in the output of the religious department:

“If Christian licence fee payers don’t want to pay for shows such as this, then I want Songs of Praise, and the Heaven and Earth Show off my TV now!”

There is a general impression that in some ways Christians are being massively hypocritical, and that is the abiding impression of the church that they have. Take as an example the following teaching from Matthew Chapter 7:

Don’t pass judgement, so you won’t be judged. Don’t forget the judgement you hand out will be the judgement you get back. And the standard you apply will be the standard applied to you. Why do you notice the sliver in your friend’s eye, but overlook the timber in your own? How can you say to your friend, ‘Let me get the sliver out of your eye,’ when there is a timber in your own? You phoney, first take the timber out of your own eye and then you’ll see well enough to remove the sliver from your friend’s eye.

To me that reminds us that before we seek to pass judgement or try and control what people outside the Church do (or in this case watch on TV), we need to put our own house in order first. Having said that, I’m sure Christian Voice and the Bishop of Manchester would see it differently!!!

Church, General, Pictures

Bowling with the Youth Group

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As has become almost traditional, we started the term by taking the Youth Group bowling at the Hollywood Bowl at Bracknell. This time we took twenty-one young people, so barely fitted into the four lanes that we had booked.

Next time I suspect we’re going to have to book five lanes, as with the numbers of people on each lane it took longer than usual to get through.

All this bowling practice means that some of them are getting pretty good, with Steve getting fairly soundly beaten by Matt (although Steve blames the fact that the bouncy side-bars being up on his lane put him off). Nagio seems to be another of our star bowlers, scoring 123 without much of a problem. At one point she just bowled and didn’t even wait to see where it went, and went back to the jukebox behind the lane – she scored a strike with that shot! We also broke the record for how quickly we had to call out the lane engineer – within 5 minutes one of the young people (who shall remain nameless) managed to get a ball stuck between the side-bars and the edge of the lane.

Anyway, I’ve put some pictures below. Including two of the night bowling after about 8:30pm when they “turn the lights down and the music up”!!!

General, Music

More Old Tracks from iTunes

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Browsing through one or two iMixes on iTunes I came across a couple of tracks that I had forgotten about.

The first is Driven By You and could be described as a sort of Queen track, although it was released by Brian May alone on a solo album. Probably most famous for it’s use in a car commercial (can’t remember for who), not suprising given the words!

The other two are by Hue and Cry, who I know almost nothing about, aside from that they were a numericaly large band (9 people including a brass section) but I like the songs! Labour of Love is probably the better known, but I like Ordinary Angel as well, particularly the chorus:

‘Cause I’m an ordinary angel
Winning tiny victories
And though the ordinary angels fly
Their wings weigh heavily
I try to be a daily genius
There’s no idea beyond my reach
With all the angels and the geniuses
My company I’m gonna keep

Church, General, MobLog, Movies & TV

Jerry Springer: The Opera – My Opinion

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After discussing it, Beth and myself decided that, primarily due to the media debate that has been kicked up by it, we should watch the showing of Jerry Springer: The Opera. We also watched the Jerry Springer Night programmes beforehand that told the story of Jerry Springer himself, told the story of how the opera came to be written, and also included a repeat of a show where Ruby Wax goes behind the scenes of the real Jerry Springer show in the US.

Firstly, there were a number of important aspects that were brought out by the programmes beforehand. The Ruby Wax show especially, makes a number of points about the reasons that people go on the show, and the attitude of Springer (the “I don’t solve problems, I only put them on TV” idea that comes out again in the opera). What I find most shocking about the Ruby Wax special is the attitude of suprise when Ruby goes backwards and forwards between the various guests and attempts to get them to talk about their problems – the implication is very strongly that normal Springer practice is to throw them together on screen, and then pretty well stick them on a plane home and forget about them!

Directly before the showing of the opera, there was a short documentary about the opera itself, which included a contribution from a Christian from the Churches Media Trust who had seen the show. He in common with others said that he had enjoyed the show, but expressed concern over the second act. In terms of the warnings for the opera itself the continuity announcer gave a verbal warning before the show, and during the show itself there was a verbal warning and on screen caption about bad language before act one, and again before act two, additionally highlighting the religious aspects.

Moving on to the opera itself, as I said in an earlier blog entry, this isn’t usually the kind of thing that would appeal. I am neither an opera fan, nor do I have any great interest in the Jerry Springer show. The whole concept was frankly bizarre.

The first part of the opera is pretty much an example of a Jerry Springer show. The warm up man encourages the audience to boo for the bad people, and cheer for the good people beforehand, and then through the show you get a parade of people who “have a secret to tell”. There is a running theme that a lot of guests are on the show for their “Jerry Moment”, a chance to appear on the show of the great man himself. Part way through the show Jerry sacks the warm up man for encouraging the audience too much. This comes back to haunt him at the end of the act when the warm up man returns with a gun, and passes it to another guest who he encourages, and helps to shoot Jerry.

The second half begins with a sequence that reminded me of the ghost of Christmas future idea in a Christmas Carol, in that Jerry is faced with a selection of the guests from the first half, several of whom are now dead. Each tells their story, but the response of Jerry is the philosophy shown in the Ruby Wax documentary earlier that it isn’t his fault, all he does is put the people on TV, he isn’t there to solve their problems.

However things start to get worse for Jerry when the warm-up man reappears, revealed to be the devil. He again wants Jerry to solve his problem, (again the I don’t solve problems point is made) he wants Jerry to reconcile him with heaven, and to get him an apology from God. Jerry is taken down to hell, where we get another Jerry Springer show, and the conclusion of which, God himself appears, and he also wants Jerry to come and sit at his side and help him guide the world. (This is where the “millions of voices making all the wrong choices, and all of them blaming me” line that I quoted elsewhere is sung.) Following this Jerry has failed to reconcile the Devil with Heaven, and the devil condems him to hell forever, however then after pleading, Jerry is told that it isn’t his time yet, Jerry finds himself back on the stage in his show having been shot. However then the audience demand Jerry’s last thought, where he talks about how people should love one another, and then he dies.

Looking at the controversial aspects of the show, firstly, the message of the show that comes through loud and clear is about the Springer show, and American television itself. Aside from the recreated Springer show, it also includes two advert breaks, which again target American TV. Again and again, the Springer philosophy of not being a problem solver, and the difference with what people coming on the show are expecting is highlighted. There is also, in a more direct way than through the Ruby Wax documentary comment on the effect that the show could have. The point is made that Jerry hasn’t made these people what they are when they appear, however the question that is raised is whether the Springer show has made things worse once they leave.

Moving onto the Christian aspects, let me first say that I can well see why Christians would be offended by parts of the second act. However I also think it is very important to remember that the person who wrote the show has been brought up as a Christian, sang in the Church choir, and opted to continue doing religious studies to A-level. However it is just as important to note that he does not call himself Christian now. To some extent he is an example of what has been called ‘the lost generation’, people brought up Christian, but who turn away when they become adult.

Two of the characterisations highlighted as most offensive are that of Jesus, and Mary. Jesus is portrayed as weak and wishy-washy, and almost iffemenant, leading to the ‘I’m a little bit gay’ line. Mary comes on to choruses of ‘raped by an angel’ from the minions of hell.

At this point, I’m sure there are people wondering why at this point I am not saying how shocked I am, and complaining that the show should be banned. The reason is that this is not the first time I have come across either idea. Both have come up in discussions I have read by lapsed Christians (the lost generation) as questions they have had, but that have not been adequately explored, in fact the wishy-washy wimpy Christian aspect has come up in a slightly different way in discussions in the Youth Group. Whilst there is not the space to explore either aspect here, what is common with all the people who have posed these questions is that either the answers they have recieved have not made sense to them, or worse they have pretty well been told that they shouldn’t be asking questions like that. Either way their questions have not been answered and they have been lost.

As this article on Ekklesia highlights:

“During the opera, the character representing Jesus is challenged to respond to accusations of injustice and make sense of the world’s problems. His response is to say ‘respect me’ without giving any meaningful answer or explanation to his accusers.�

Although I am well aware of the offence that the characterisations will cause, isn’t the much publicised campaign against the show, exactly the same? Haven’t Christians been saying the same, saying ‘respect us’ without giving any meaningful answer or explanation as to why?

“Through their protests, Christian campaigners have reinforced the very stereotypes of God and Jesus Christ that they are protesting against. Christians would have done far better to take the opportunity to engage meaningfully with the important moral issues of life, relationships, justice and the problem of evil, that the opera raises, �

Having watched the show, I think that I must agree. Whilst the casual viewer may have missed them, the Springer opera poses some big questions, how do we as Christians answer them?