LOOKING GOOD, BEING BAD
The subtle art of churchmanship
By Adrian Plass. Authentic Media. 206 pages. £9.99
ISBN 978-1-85078-814-0
Man walks into a charismatic prayer meeting. Sits down, waits his turn. Then recites the names of the Sri Lankan cricket team. Lady next to him gives her interpretation of this ‘speaking in tongues’: God wants them to build a community launderette in Sussex.
If you find that hilarious, or belong to the Adrian Plass fan club (30 books in 20 years), this could be for you. Next come some Bible books ‘with a new spin’: ‘Ecclesiastes: a great laugh written by a real optimist. Lamentations: too jolly. Philemon: too long…’, etc.
To criticise humour invites the charge that the critic is humourless. But a friend and I once tried something similar to this. We didn’t expect to go into hardback; we were in the Lower Fifth.
And the tables can be turned. Planning a major church conference? Never mind the speakers; just get Plass for the warm-ups, whatsisname for the music and there you usually are.
Like his other books, this is tailored to the New Life Fellowship Community Church next door; will they appreciate it? Yet the need remains; we have all heard tirades against the sins of the age (Liberalism, Atheism, Ecumenism, Romanism…) without any suggestion that the real killer, self-righteousness, might be among them. There are pastors who ask you something, then look at their watches or over your shoulder as you begin to answer. Adrian meets them too.
He seems to have a thing about Streatham, can’t spell Bexleyheath, dislikes Labour MPs and may not know the Dean of Salisbury. But, among the many pictures, I laughed at one of the man yawning (page 111).
Christopher Idle,
a comedian who lives in Bromley (Streatham, 7 miles)
