Last Saturday, in an interview in the Times, the comic actor Rowan Atkinson accused Church of England clergy of being smug and arrogant. He didn’t just poke a little fun at them and he didn’t seem to be joking:
I used to think that the vicars that I played or the exaggerated sketches about clerics were unreasonable satires on well meaning individuals… But, actually, so many of the clerics that I’ve met, particularly the Church of England clerics, are people of such extraordinary smugness and arrogance and conceitedness who are extraordinarily presumptuous about the significance of their position in society… Increasingly, I believe that all the mud that Richard Curtis and I threw at them through endless sketches that we’ve done is more than deserved.
The Times kindly asked for a comment before publication and duly published my response in full:
We take the hit and I am sorry that this has been Rowan Atkinson’s experience. But it takes no account of the thousands of self-sacrificial clergy who don’t fit this stereotype. I would be happy to introduce him to some.
The first mystery, of course, is why my response is described in the Mail as ‘hitting back’ and the Telegraph as ‘reacted angrily’. How unclear is the first sentence of my response?
Of course, clergy do not have a monopoly on smugness, arrogance, conceit or presumption – there are plenty of examples in other instances of human beings. The problem for clergy, however, is that they are supposed not to be like this. And I agree. We should not be arrogant, we should not be smug, and we should not be defensive when accused. As Frank Sinatra might have said, “I’ve seen a few” – and there will be people who will level the charge at me. Hands up, we take the hit, it shouldn’t be like this, but it sometimes is.
Not unsurprisingly, this has played around my mind a bit over the weekend and the first part of this week. I haven’t been able to follow it up or post on it because I have been out and about and had not time to do so.
On Saturday I was up in the Yorkshire Dales licensing a cohort of new Readers (lay ministers) who have given up three years of their time to train to give yet more of their time to serving their communities through their churches. They don’t get paid – indeed, it costs them to do it. Some of them have back-stories that are not uncomplicated and each one has a million excuses for not giving any of their time or energy to the church or community. But, they do.
Smugness? Arrogance? Conceit? None in evidence here. Only serious commitment, some trepidation and a sense of adventure.
On Sunday I celebrated with a small congregation in Bradford where the vicar and his family have faced considerable stress in the few years they have been living and serving in a tough environment. Not glamorous, not pompous, not triumphalistic. Just committed, stressed and humble.
Smugness? Arrogance? Conceit? No evidence here. Just a humility and courage that gets stuck in against the odds witha selflessness that is costly.
Later on Sunday I was baptising and confirming in a small church on a large estate in Bradford. Surely here I would find some justification for Rowan Atkinson’s ire.
Smugness? Arrogance? Conceit? None here either. Just clergy committed to the sort of area Rowan Atkinson doesn’t have to live in – and people Rowan Atkinson doesn’t have to bother with. How about those running from scratch an utterly demanding youth project in an unlikely area?
Monday and Tuesday I have been having face-to-face meetings with clergy in the fifth of the eight deaneries in the Diocese of Bradford. Last night we had an open evening in an inner urban church at which no holds were barred. (They never are, actually.) Eight meetings yesterday and another eight today. Tomorrow I have another four.
Smugness? Arrogance? Conceit? Not here. A weary resignation to the constant media battering, yes. Incomprehension at why clergy are such an easy target (always as a stereotype and never in the particular), yes. These were deeply impressive people who show no sign of smugness, who get on with doing amazing work in their communities without shouting about it, whose only conceit is never talking up their achievements.
My response to Rowan Atkinson was genuine. I have also met conceited clergy, but they are the exception and not the rule. Smugness is a charge all of us might be charged with from time to time, and we will hold our hands up. But, I could easily introduce Rowan Atkinson to clergy who will defy his stereotypes (partly by being genuinely funny, creative, committed and realistic), give him a stimulating and challenging conversation, and open his eyes to a world with which I suspect he is not familiar. It’s a genuine offer – it would make an interesting follow-up radio or television documentary.
Inevitably, the journos also asked Terry Sanderson of the National Secular Society for a comment. Naturally, Rowan Atkinson’s comments pressed Sanderson’s happy buttons and he reported that he had met a few smug clergy and that clergy assume a role in their communities without having earned it. No names, no examples, no evidence. Funnily enough, I agree with him – that clergy do have to earn their place in a community and that is does not come as of right. Those days have gone. But, my experience is that this is precisely what most (but not all) clergy actually do – that the respect they earn is hard-won and evidence of the commitment they live out every day.
And I still find Rowan Atkinson’s film clergy caricatures funny. After all, they are caricatures – based on a certain acknowledged reality, but hopelessly exaggerated and wildly hammed up.
Nick Baines's Blog 
September 27, 2011 at 9:31 pm
Of course, it is quite unknown that actors should be smug and conceited with an excessive interest in themselves and how they are regarded by others. No, they are humble, self-effacing sorts conscious of their frailty and limitations …….
Cue: ‘I’m lookin’ at the man in the mirror …’
September 27, 2011 at 9:35 pm
I wrote elsewhere that Rowan Atkinson portrays the ‘All Gas and Gaiters’ image portrayed by Derek Nimmo all of those years ago.
Perhaps his perception is so bound up in that, that he is unable to see real Clergy struggling to serve in some of the most deprived areas in the country.
I wonder if he watched ‘Rev’ which is coming back for a new series, he might just be educated a bit more.
And of course, I actually think of Rowan Atkinson as a smug, self-satisfied, ‘lovey’ who needs to get a life outside his ‘cocoon’ of showbiz.
September 27, 2011 at 9:52 pm
Fabulous response. I also note that Rowan Atkinson is doing interviews to attempt to flog his latest dreadful film.
September 27, 2011 at 9:55 pm
The church, like the curate’s egg – is good in parts. Self-sacrifice and warm humanity more than outweigh the smugness, I find
September 27, 2011 at 10:17 pm
I suspect as with all these sorts of things, Rowan Atkinson will not take you or anyone up on their offer to meet or see ministry in action. Comments and an article that pushes the buttons of the media and our society but not willing to actually have their views challenged. A shame. So blinkered.
September 27, 2011 at 11:33 pm
There was a letter to the Times – perhaps yours? – mentioning out that most clerics don’t give interviews – implying Kieran’s point that self-publicising by actors suggests more smugness and arrogance in actors than in the clergy –
September 28, 2011 at 12:15 am
Rhiannon, I didn’t write a letter to the Times. But it is fear of the media that prevents many clerics engaging with them.
September 28, 2011 at 11:14 am
[…] Nick published a blog post about the whole business, expanding on his comment above. However, the last paragraph, to me, is the real […]
September 28, 2011 at 4:12 pm
He must have a film to promote. Oh, he has!
September 28, 2011 at 4:20 pm
There is a problem with many secularists that they have become obsessed with not being “hypocrites” – the only secular sin. Any priest/reader/ christian who is less than perfect is thus an easy target, hence we are are “smug” ‘arrogant” etc. I often quote William Wilberforce who preferred the hypocrite who pointed the way to virtue than the ‘honest’ man who pointed the way to vice.
We are suspect through seeking virtues that many of us will never completely attain. Our recognition of the goal makes us “smug”, our confidence of our redemption through the mercy of Christ, makes us “arrogant”.
Whilst posting can I ask for action and prayers for an Iranian Pastor under sentence of death for proclaiming the Gospel, having been born Muslim.
action/action?ea.client.id=88&ea.campaign.id=12209 I wonder what Mr Atkinson might make of him?
September 28, 2011 at 4:44 pm
I spotted the article in the Times last week and your reply, which was cool, balanced and constructive. I too realized what it was all about….publicity for his latest film. Frustrating.
September 28, 2011 at 5:39 pm
I’m not a member of the Church of England, not even a Christian, but I have worked in various roles alongside many C of E clergy over the years. Smug, arrogant, conceited are not epithets I would associate with most of the clergy I’ve had the privilege and pleasure of meeting and working with – including your good self, Nick, at the G8 religious leaders summit in Winnipeg last year – far from it.
Rowan Atkinson has set up a straw man and is having fun knocking it down. The truth is elsewhere.
September 28, 2011 at 8:32 pm
Thankfully, attitudes like Mr Atkinson’s are only (almost) universal in the media. In the communities that I’ve lived and worshipped in, the clergy are still usually respected for their energy, compassion, and willingness to go the extra mile.
The danger is though, that the next generation of clergy will be put off from making the sacrifices needed for such representational ministry because they can’t face being pilloried in an increasingly media-centric world.
September 28, 2011 at 9:57 pm
The Times once “quoted” me: they took a sentence from an unsigned item on a weekly notice sheet, tinkered with it to make it look like a quote, stuck my name on it (getting my job title and church wrong) and published it – all without actually taking the trouble to contact me in any way! It’s no wonder clergy don’t want to engage with media which are so deceitful.
September 28, 2011 at 11:28 pm
Very well put Nick.
I actually think Rowan Atkinson has lost the plot quite a bit in recent years. I was a teenager when Not The Nine O Clock News first hit the screens and thought it was genuinely brilliant, as was Blackadder.
However, I have always found the appeal of Mr Bean utterly and totally inexplicable and one of the mosty overrated so-called “comedy” characters on TV. And for an overpaid actor to have the temerity to castigate the clergy en-masse without taking a look at the smug,arrogant, conceited people who can very easily be found in his own profession is almost beyond belief.
Also correct me if I am wrong, but I remember hearing about a car accident Rowan Atkinson was in recently, and although I am glad he was not badly injured, the make of car he was driving hardly screamed humble and self effacing by any stretch of the imagination! More “look at me I’ve really made it” it felt like to me.
Thanks also for your generous words about the Readers you were licensing. I liked your explanation of Readers as Lay Ministers for those who may not know what a Reader is. I do find it really frustrating that in a ministry which is meant to reflect the church’s bridge/interface with everyday working life, we are still labouring under a title which nobody “out there” either gets or understands at all.
I also agree with the person who praised Rev which I absolutely loved for its gritty honesty and for its attempt to truly reflect life in inner city ministry. I was also delighted to see that the Clergy/Reader relationship was developed in a way that no other clergy comedy has attempted to do, with real honesty and candour. The writers have clearly done their research very well and I can’t wait for series Two. It also has moments of real poignancy.
Perhaps Rowan Atkinson might write a script giving a portrayal of what a member of the clergy should be like…preferably one which is not highly caricatured (although sadly I think that appears to be beyond him now) and grapples honestly, grittily and realistically with the issues clergy face on a daily basis.
I am not trying to look through rose-tinted glasses here, and I am sure we can all cite examples where Rowan Atkinson might have a case, and that goes for some Readers too, but to generalise in such a dismissive way in itself had more than a touch of smugness, arrogance and conceit about it, or so it appeared to me.
September 29, 2011 at 5:56 pm
Is there any class of people in the world where one couldn’t find one or several who are smug, arrogant, etc?
Incidentally, seeing as how he is out there promoting his latest mock-spy flick ‘Johnny English,’ imagine how daft he’d sound if he had made the same comments about secret agents as he had made about clergy!
September 29, 2011 at 9:23 pm
[…] to their hearts. Dad’s on the mend and hoping to be home in a trice. And thank you today to Bishop Nick Baines who has written of many an angel working in unsung circumstances for the advancement of that […]
September 30, 2011 at 10:45 am
[…] of their position in society”. Ho hum. Much of it is no doubt deserved. [NB Bp Nick Baines nice rejoinder]. It’s worst when it comes in the post or emails, though. I’ve certainly received all […]
September 30, 2011 at 12:36 pm
Good response Nick, thanks
September 30, 2011 at 5:36 pm
The Spectator has weighed in on your side in its 2nd Leader this week.
Best line…. “Perhaps Mr Atkinson is above hypocrisy” but its contrast between the wealth of the “new priesthood” of comedians and the genuine article is also a well made point. Worth reading if you get a chance.
September 30, 2011 at 6:49 pm
[…] no mobile signal and no accessible wi-fi), I re-emerge to find all sorts of comment about the Rowan Atkinson interview last week. I am beginning to wonder if he regretted slagging off the clergy in the first […]
September 30, 2011 at 7:15 pm
There’s a sense of security and a relaxed approach to life that can come with the knowledge that you are in right relationship with your God, your place in eternity booked and paid for, and your calling for your earthly life in place and underway. Perhaps, for non believers, that is easily misread as smugness, arrogance or conceit?
September 30, 2011 at 10:14 pm
Rach, that would indeed be interpreted as smugness, arrogance and conceit if you let them know that you believe that your relationship with God is superior to theirs and that their lives were somehow in more “danger” because they didn’t share your faith. It would also be interpreted as dillusional, whatever you personally may think of it, and that would increase the perception of smugness.
But I do agree with the commentators here, most priests (and most Christians, come to that), are amazingly self giving, non-judgemental people working in the most challenging of environments and giving more than outsiders will ever truly know. But steretyping is so easy! Sadly.
October 1, 2011 at 1:34 pm
Some interesting comment here .. http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=118588
October 1, 2011 at 5:51 pm
Rach Warwick, I find myself totally unable to support the charitable interpretation of your views offered to us by Erica Baker. The fact that you cannot see that the ONLY interpretation of your position is that of smugness arrogance and conceit, you ought to find extremely worrying. I don’t think ‘easily misread’ even begins to cover it, or even ‘delusional’.
October 1, 2011 at 6:17 pm
In the epistle for Sunday 2 October, Philippians 3. 4 – 14, Paul says (and it initially looks a bit smug/ conceited /arrogant) how wonderful his own religious pedigree is; but then that it’s just excrement compared to the righteousness in Christ. Message for the clergy?
Am I right in thinking that other clergy like me should not be twisted by the pain of sniping and pillorying into saying: “Ah, but I’m NOT ‘smug/conceited/arrogant’.”? Our own goodness – or lack of offensiveness – is not what we are about. It does hurt when we are attacked. But we ought to hold on to something other than our reputations.
When people make hurtful comments, sometimes we just have to live with the pain of it for a bit. Believe in the promises. Pray for those who persecute you. And if you think they might find that arrogant, don’t tell them you’re doing it, and pray for yourself at the same time.
October 1, 2011 at 8:17 pm
David,
this isn’t about your own goodness or your reputation. This is about your ability to attract those who are not members of the church. If people perceive the church and its representatives as arrogant and smug they would never even think of coming near you in a time of crisis when they might otherwise be willing to explore the possibility of God.
The church has much of importance to say in the public, political forum too. If it is perceived as arrogant and smug people won’t listen, however good the arguments may be.
There’s a lot more at stake than our own egos.
July 10, 2013 at 4:33 pm
Look , there are al lot of people on here saying Rowan Atkinson is smug and arrogant. That is not true , Rowan is a nice , kind and gentle , lets not even mention HUMBLE person. He is rich and famous but that does not automatically make him arrogant or sumg. I know lots of celebs are , but Rowan is a true gentleman.
Just because someone has a diffrent view to your own does not give you the right to make judgements about them. Rowan is my UNCLE , I actually know the guy , he’s fucking awesome , a real do-gooder.
Nobody has to think a certain way just because you want them to , if you think everyone thinks like you , then YOU are arrogant and smug. Thus making YOU a hypocrite. Leave Rowan alone , he is only expressing his beliefs , nothing wrong with that.
July 10, 2013 at 5:35 pm
Kerenza, I think you need to read the original post I wrote and to which people were responding. I do not accuse Rowan of anything – and, in fact, I do take the hit he offers. I should add, however: if it is wrong to accuse other people of smugness, then you could ask whether Rowan was right to accuse unspecified clergy of smugness and arrogance in the first place.
July 10, 2013 at 6:01 pm
I’m not saying what Rowan did was right at all. But neither was it wrong , you do get smug and arrogant clergymen , you get smugness and arrogance in all fields of life. I just don’t like the people who don’t even know Rowan who are saying just because he is a celebrity that automatically makes him smug and arrogant. Most british celbrities are actually nice , humble people. Especially Rowan , Rowan hates himself , he thinks he is nothing. It’s sad and I have tried giving him confidence and put him at ease but he just dosen’t like himself. Poor Rowan. People should think before they type.