Last night i watch the BBC3 sketch show 'Horne & Corden'. I find some of the material quite crude but on the whole it's quite funny. Last night i got that terrible sinking feeling when i saw that the background image on the set was a large cross. I thought to myself 'oh no, not another Christian-bashing sketch'.
I am quite a fan of stand-up comedy, but always struggle when the humour moves on to insulting what i believe. I was in a comedy club once and saw a comedian ask everyone if there were and Christians in tonight. I, along with a handful of others , put my hand in the air to which he replied 'Grow up will you for (expletive) sake'. This kind of comedy I don't like. Comedy where people attempt to get a cheep laugh from discounting other peoples faith.
A few weeks ago I somehow ended up in the Apple store in London listening to Eddie Izzard being interviewed but Simon Amstell. Eddie talked a lot about God in a very hostile way. His conclusion was that there was a spiritual world but there definitely was no one God. It became apparent in later in the interview that his reason for not believing was that his mother died when he was a small boy so couldn't believe that a loving God would put him through that. I felt very sorry for him and now regularly pray that his anger will cease and he would let God in.
Anyway back to last night. I was already preparing myself to turn over, when the sketch started to really take shape. The sketch feature two 'evangelists' from the 'Young Peoples Church' or YPC (dangerously close in name to the charity I work for!). They both had trendy haircuts and spoke in quite soft but trendy language. One of them even had a clever Christian slogan t-shirt. They spoke about their own and their friends testimony before singing a silly song on a acoustic guitar. The whole sketch was over the top in cheeseyness and attempted coolness and I think that sadly it wasn't too far away from things that I have done in the past.
You see, in this sketch they weren't making fun of God exactly but how we sometimes try to deliver the message. I would love to speak to them and find out how they came up with this sketch because it is so close to reality in places I feel they must have experience a few youth events along the way.
The characters in the sketch are going to be quite regular on the show so no doubt some of the phrases and jokes will catch on and present a natural barrier between us and the people we are trying to reach. The challenge to us is whether we sit back and get angry about it or we use this a the motivation to make-over how we share the gospel with young people.
In some ways maybe this sketch will become a much needed kick up the backside for Christian youth work in this country.
I am quite a fan of stand-up comedy, but always struggle when the humour moves on to insulting what i believe. I was in a comedy club once and saw a comedian ask everyone if there were and Christians in tonight. I, along with a handful of others , put my hand in the air to which he replied 'Grow up will you for (expletive) sake'. This kind of comedy I don't like. Comedy where people attempt to get a cheep laugh from discounting other peoples faith.
A few weeks ago I somehow ended up in the Apple store in London listening to Eddie Izzard being interviewed but Simon Amstell. Eddie talked a lot about God in a very hostile way. His conclusion was that there was a spiritual world but there definitely was no one God. It became apparent in later in the interview that his reason for not believing was that his mother died when he was a small boy so couldn't believe that a loving God would put him through that. I felt very sorry for him and now regularly pray that his anger will cease and he would let God in.
Anyway back to last night. I was already preparing myself to turn over, when the sketch started to really take shape. The sketch feature two 'evangelists' from the 'Young Peoples Church' or YPC (dangerously close in name to the charity I work for!). They both had trendy haircuts and spoke in quite soft but trendy language. One of them even had a clever Christian slogan t-shirt. They spoke about their own and their friends testimony before singing a silly song on a acoustic guitar. The whole sketch was over the top in cheeseyness and attempted coolness and I think that sadly it wasn't too far away from things that I have done in the past.
You see, in this sketch they weren't making fun of God exactly but how we sometimes try to deliver the message. I would love to speak to them and find out how they came up with this sketch because it is so close to reality in places I feel they must have experience a few youth events along the way.
The characters in the sketch are going to be quite regular on the show so no doubt some of the phrases and jokes will catch on and present a natural barrier between us and the people we are trying to reach. The challenge to us is whether we sit back and get angry about it or we use this a the motivation to make-over how we share the gospel with young people.
In some ways maybe this sketch will become a much needed kick up the backside for Christian youth work in this country.
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