This is the text of an article requested this morning by the Yorkshire Post in relation to the decision by cinema advertising bodies not to show an advert about the Lord's Prayer in their cinemas before Christmas this year. The decision has provoked a spat in the media and on social media – some of it even polite.
So, the major cinema chains have banned a one-minute advert from being shown in their theatres on the grounds that people may be offended. God, give me strength. (Which is a prayer.)
If you don't pray, then you are almost certainly in a small minority of people on the planet. Even people who claim no faith seem to admit to praying in certain circumstances.
In the last couple of weeks we have seen hashtags and posters, banners and even football scarves, emblazoned with 'pray4paris'. Why? As I said on last Friday's Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, “it is interesting that in times of tragedy or challenge, the most unlikely people resort effortlessly to the language of prayer. “My thoughts and prayers are with the victims,” we've heard; and we've seen people kneeling, praying before makeshift shrines and at packed services in the Notre Dame cathedral. But, prayer to whom?”
The fact is: people pray. Billions of people across the globe pray the Lord's Prayer every day. For some Christians in some parts of the Middle East and Africa, the utterance of this prayer can amount to a death sentence. Yet, it is a prayer I have seen uttered by those committed to other faiths, but who see in this prayer – taught to his friends by Jesus – a fundamental recognition of human being, human need, and the realities of human experience. We are not God, but we live in relation to God; we have daily physical needs and we get tempted to go the wrong way; if we don't forgive those who wrong us, then how on earth do we expect to be forgiven and reconciled by God and others?
In the Christian tradition prayer is not about presenting shopping lists of requests to a god whose job it is to make life comfortable, convenient or secure for us. Rather, prayer is that exercise that, bringing us into the presence of God, gradually exposes us to the mind of God towards ourselves and the world where we are. Inevitably, this then exposes us to the need to change so that we gradually see God, the world and ourselves through God's eyes. Prayer is open for anyone. Prayer invites us to be open and honest with God and one another – to tell the truth about our fears and anxieties as well as about the things that make us scream with joy. It's like being stripped back so that we see as we are seen.
So, why do the cinema people think prayer is so dangerous? And who exactly is going to be offended by a one-minute advert that consists of a pile of people saying a phrase of the Lord's Prayer in sequence? No propaganda. No coercion. No pressure. Just an encouraging invitation. What is the problem?
Well, the problem is basically the illiteracy of a liberal culture that thinks itself to be intellectually mature and culturally sound. This culture assumes (I choose the word carefully) that secular humanism is neutral – and self-evidently 'true' – and that, by definition, any religious world view is somewhere up the scale of irrational and loaded madness. A five year old child could demolish that one. There is no neutral space.
Secondly, as an irrational reflex, religion gets widely connected inextricably with 'problem', 'trouble' or 'conflict'. Therefore, it has to be neutralised. The five year old would be on a roll by now. Just this morning a Muslim tweeted that, rather than ignoring Remembrance Day and the poppy appeal, his group had actually raised more than £400,000 for the Royal British Legion this month. Has anyone actually asked who might be offended by this and why? This phenomenon has echoes in seasonal appeals to empty Christmas of its name.
Thirdly, this religious illiteracy goes deep. Last week the Daily Telegraph reported on the debates that nearly saw the word 'Abbey' removed from 'Downton'. It seems that there was no reference to church (although, for good or ill, church would have been an integral part of the life of those characters), and we never got to see them sit down for a meal because that would have meant seeing them say grace. Really.
There is still time for the people who run the cinema chains to change their mind. They might even invite a conversation about reality 'out there' in the world. But, even if they don't, they have exposed yet again the intellectual and cultural redundancy of a dominant knee-jerk assumption about religion and the world. It would be funny if it weren't so common.
(Of course, the word limit meant I couldn't ask how advertising actually works, if it isn't to get inside our heads and promise to meet our deepest needs by selling us something. Which, apparently, is unproblematic.)
November 23, 2015 at 5:13 am
I gather they exclude All religious and political advertising. If they accepted the excellent CoE advert I suppose they would be required to take what might purport to be religious advertising most of us would find offensive.
November 23, 2015 at 7:22 am
Reblogged this on Peddling and Scaling God and Darwin and commented:
The silliness of politically correct atheism whereby all are offended because none can be offended. (My atheist friends are all politically incorrect atheists!!)
November 23, 2015 at 10:11 am
I’m not in the cinema that often nowadays so i don’t know if they are showing the John Lewis ad over this period. i find that one very offensive – not the content, I admit, but the amount of money spent on making the advert and buying the commercial slots to show it.
How would you answer the Secular Society’s representative who said that if the Lord’s Prayer was shown then it would have to accept every faith (and cult’s) advert? One for discussion there with the advertisers, surely.
November 23, 2015 at 7:23 pm
Perhaps the word ‘pray’ could be interpreted in 2 ways. One, in expressing sympathy and hope for the victims of a terrible crime (committed by people who believe in a god), or two, asking a different god to please stop it happening?
November 24, 2015 at 8:41 am
[…] such a tiny, infinitesimal part of the whole. I suspect the poem is influenced by reading yesterday a blog post by the Nick Baines who is the Bishop of Leeds and whose blog comes to my inbox on a regular basis. Every single post of his is always worth […]
November 24, 2015 at 3:11 pm
Reblogged this on hungarywolf and commented:
A recent cinema ‘advert’ for prayer has been ‘censored’. Here, Bishop Nick Baines makes a powerful argument against the cinema owners.
November 24, 2015 at 3:30 pm
Here in Hungary, many Christians follow their government’s line that much of western ‘Christendom’ has given up the fight to atheistic liberalism and multi-culturalism. Although I keep pointing out that faith, in my opinion, does not need the advocacy or protection of the state, I am glad that David Cameron has expressed his disapproval of this crass decision. I would like to suggest a re-make for the big screen of Henri Geon’s classic play, ‘Christmas in the Market Place’ which I once played in aged 14. As the most genuinely materialistic of all the world religions, there should be no ‘commercial’ boundaries to the Christian message, especially in Britain, which is founded, since 1690, on the principle of the state allowing a free market in religious belief. In our modern mission, we need to reclaim the market places, the malls, and the multiplexes for both prayer and witness.
November 25, 2015 at 11:42 am
Nick: you talk about the illiteracy of a liberal culture. Could I invite you to re write that rather less offensively? I am proud of my liberal culture. I am your age and attended one of the first sixth form colleges in the country. It offered a classical liberal education. So if your A levels were basically arts based, you were asked to also study the sciences as Foundation Studies. I studied philosophy as well as physics. Creative writing as well as maths. We had lectures from the leader of the LSO and the chief Rabbi. It was a generous education. I tended an allotment for 2 years. I learned skills as well as words. That’s the liberal culture of our generation. It equipped me for a career in the BBC, enabled me to win even a Sandford St Martin award, and has (almost) sustained time within the C of E, despite it being, at times, a much less Christian organisation than my former employer. I hope I’m far from illiterate. But it’s not the first time I’ve heard conservatives make this ridiculous accusation.
You also write:
“This culture assumes (I choose the word carefully) that secular humanism is neutral – and self-evidently ‘true’ – and that, by definition, any religious world view is somewhere up the scale of irrational and loaded madness. A five year old child could demolish that one. There is no neutral space.”
I doubt five year olds have a clue what you are on about and care even less. Would you care to put that a bit more charitably and make your point with a little evidence and a bit less spin?
November 27, 2015 at 4:46 pm
Bishop with a sad sense of entightlement – all political and religious adverts are banned to ensure that everyone feels comfortable. Bishop Nick – you are in thrall of your own beliefs – understand that many have no faith and those that do may well not share yours. It’s a cinema – we’re all in it together – let’s not highlight our divisions.