Religion across the pond
Nov. 17th, 2005 09:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
muck_a_luckContinuing the theme from last night...
We did something we *never* do and watched almost all of an episode of Jonathan Creek on BBC America. We both have a strong aversion to this show, but for some reason, possibly because we were too tired to bother to find something else to watch, we watched it.
For those of you who don't know, Jonathan Creek is a magician and master illusionist who uses his skills to solve crimes. This does not lead to intelligent television. In the episode we were watching, the villian wanted to make it appear that a police officer had committed a murder. So the bad guy arranged for a reporter to be in the window of a high rise office building directly across the street, murderdered the person by strangling them, hung them at a diffent location where the reporter would see the hanging dead body (all before the reporter's scheduled arrival), and built a wall across the office, neatly hidden behind a girder supporting the windows, so the cop, having been lured into the office (where he had never been) would loiter on one side of the wall, casually searching for evidence, while the body hung on the other side of the wall, appearing to the reporter across the street that this guy was hanging around the scene of the crime and gloating over his victim. You can see why we usually don't watch this show. That plot scenario is just too stupid for words. But anyway, I am not here to discuss that...
The thing that interested me was that somehow, as part of the story, it was important to know that this cop was, in fact, living a mysterious double life. He had a beautiful locked box in his home that held some unknown hidden object of great significance. He was known as Mr. G.
So, it turns out, he's, *gasp* a faithful Christian! He reads the Bible! Which he hides in the beautiful, carved, locked box, lest someone learn his horrible secret! Apparently, if it were known that he believed in God, read the bible, and generally paid anything more than lipservice to Christianity, he would have been mocked and reviled on the police force, possibly damaging his career severely. When his colleagues learn his terrible secret, they are clearly taken aback, but are forced to acknowledge that he is still the same professional they have always known and respected! A great exercise in tolerance is apparently achieved! Go police!
Now, I realize this is TV land. But it is interesting how this coincides with the stories of other informants I have had. One woman, who could not stop telling me how old the church was in her town, also felt the need to emphasize to me how bizzare most Brits find American faith. According to her, probably only 10% of the people she knew had ever even been inside a church. And of course, it is a favorite trope of the press to talk about how religious Americans are and how bizzare Europeans find us because of that.
So is this script really true to life in the UK? Is it actually a fact that the very business of being know to truly believe in God could get you in serious social and professional trouble? Because this guy wasn't speaking in tongues or handling snakes or anything. I'm pretty sure he was just portrayed as believing in God and reading the Bible.
I am intrigued.
We did something we *never* do and watched almost all of an episode of Jonathan Creek on BBC America. We both have a strong aversion to this show, but for some reason, possibly because we were too tired to bother to find something else to watch, we watched it.
For those of you who don't know, Jonathan Creek is a magician and master illusionist who uses his skills to solve crimes. This does not lead to intelligent television. In the episode we were watching, the villian wanted to make it appear that a police officer had committed a murder. So the bad guy arranged for a reporter to be in the window of a high rise office building directly across the street, murderdered the person by strangling them, hung them at a diffent location where the reporter would see the hanging dead body (all before the reporter's scheduled arrival), and built a wall across the office, neatly hidden behind a girder supporting the windows, so the cop, having been lured into the office (where he had never been) would loiter on one side of the wall, casually searching for evidence, while the body hung on the other side of the wall, appearing to the reporter across the street that this guy was hanging around the scene of the crime and gloating over his victim. You can see why we usually don't watch this show. That plot scenario is just too stupid for words. But anyway, I am not here to discuss that...
The thing that interested me was that somehow, as part of the story, it was important to know that this cop was, in fact, living a mysterious double life. He had a beautiful locked box in his home that held some unknown hidden object of great significance. He was known as Mr. G.
So, it turns out, he's, *gasp* a faithful Christian! He reads the Bible! Which he hides in the beautiful, carved, locked box, lest someone learn his horrible secret! Apparently, if it were known that he believed in God, read the bible, and generally paid anything more than lipservice to Christianity, he would have been mocked and reviled on the police force, possibly damaging his career severely. When his colleagues learn his terrible secret, they are clearly taken aback, but are forced to acknowledge that he is still the same professional they have always known and respected! A great exercise in tolerance is apparently achieved! Go police!
Now, I realize this is TV land. But it is interesting how this coincides with the stories of other informants I have had. One woman, who could not stop telling me how old the church was in her town, also felt the need to emphasize to me how bizzare most Brits find American faith. According to her, probably only 10% of the people she knew had ever even been inside a church. And of course, it is a favorite trope of the press to talk about how religious Americans are and how bizzare Europeans find us because of that.
So is this script really true to life in the UK? Is it actually a fact that the very business of being know to truly believe in God could get you in serious social and professional trouble? Because this guy wasn't speaking in tongues or handling snakes or anything. I'm pretty sure he was just portrayed as believing in God and reading the Bible.
I am intrigued.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-11-18 03:06 am (UTC)I mean. I wasn't there that long. But there are some considerable chunks of Eddie Izzard jokes dedicated to the laxity of English faith, especially the Church of England. He jokes all these other faiths have a convert to our religion or DIE! sort of philosophy, while the Church of England's mantra follows:
"Welcome to the Church of England. Cake - or death?!!"
"I'll have cake please."
But that's Eddie. I didn't have many friends who went to church often, or even heard of people who did, really, excepting a Malaysian girl who was Buddhist-come-Christian and homophobic to boot. Anytime I went into the Chancellor's office everybody seemed very laid back and chill and didn't get too worked up about anything.
It probably depends on the who and the what and the where.
But I think Europeans in general find American over-investment in faith bizarre because it is so zealous, conservative, extreme. They generally didn't seem to be so easily extreme to me.
But what do you expect of America? The foundations of our European culture here were the Puritans, which explains not only some Americans unimaginative religious zeal, but also general American weirdness about naked people and discomfort with the body, or sex. (Puritans were in denial of the body and pleasure liek woah, but you probably know that.) Additionally, we're a young nation with a young mentality. We're not generally mellow becaue we haven't been around long enough to mellow out.
/babbly blabble blabble
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