Television
God-slots
Peter Levi
110 eligious television has altered greatly. .1.\ It used to be High Mass in the morning, a ceremony designed to bemuse a suspicious God. In the evening ladies in ball-gowns sang religious songs which were the fine flower of a culture generations dead. But some years ago the old religious television was swept away. It was time for relevance and cutting edge, and I fear these fuzzy concepts still lurk around the upper offices of the television companies, haunted by the thought of ritual like a ghost haunted by a ghost. Parsons apeared in leather, with guitars and a screen audi- ence of youths and God was 'him up there', where he slept undisturbed one supposes.
Now we have come to a new period. Most of the old Sunday motivation goes into programmes like Scarman Returns (Channel 4), about Scarman's return to Brixton, where mugging is up by two thirds and burglary by a third, Asian Magazine (BBC1), Open University (BBC2), and The Human Factor: 'Boy on a Skateboard' (TVS). The boy was billed as legless, but he turned out to be cut off virtually at the navel. He lives in a town in Pennsylvania with 50 per cent unemployment, and goes about on a skateboard. He seems happy. But I may have missed some liberal pro- grammes. I caught only the end of Miriam Stoppard in Baby and Co (YTV), which seemed a sensible performance, useful to its proper audience.
The lady who told Bible stories in Knock Knock (BBC1) at breakfast time had a good, firm, old-fashioned style. but serious religion started at 9.30 with Methodist Sunday worship for the mentally handicap- ped (This is the Day, BBC1). 'If you wish to join in, please have with you a candle and some matches, some bread and a Bible.' The handicapped, who appeared to be very old people but quite clean and cheerful, were not given matches, but candles were lit for them and stood in a row. The bread suggested Communion, and why not. In Roman Catholic theology you are not allowed to consecrate by telephone or television, nor even to baptise in weak tea, but in this programme the symbolism was perfectly convincing. The bits of Scripture were extremely short, and 'deliver me from the paw of the bear and the paw of the lion' had an oddly nursery resonance.
The speaker was a woman minister of obvious goodness and sincerity. All the same, simplified exegesis of Scripture has its pitfalls. 'David was an ace with slinging stones, he had to be, and God was able to use that.' An alarming thought. The core of this programme was praying over peti- tions sent in by listeners. They were both funny and moving, as I am sure God would agree. We also prayed over clippings of world news, with attention to President Reagan and the Russians, but none to the Queen or her ministers.
At 10 a.m. on ITV we had Morning Worship, a solid service from a splendid neoclassic chapel at Coleraine, to com- memorate 200 years of the local Sunday school. The music droned along at first to an old harmonium like a cow in pain, but it cheered up at the end with a trumpet. The children were shampooed and trimmed, everyone looked healthier and more re- spectable than they would in England, with some Seamus Heaney faces and plenty of cake-baking ladies. It was refreshing to see them. The Revd Edmund Mawhinney, admirable in everything but his curious side-whiskers, gave a decent, low-keyed sermon. One can see why John Wesley liked Coleraine. The east window today shows the Holy Spirit inspiring what seem to be the armed forces of the Crown.
Songs of Praise (BBC1) came from Conway Castle; 'Since Jesus came into my heart' in Welsh with a texture like whipped cream, and a sense of animal enjoyment. Hymns were chosen first by a charming mountaineer: 'When I survey the won- drous Cross' with the Maelgwn choir, then by an old fisherman who liked a Welsh hymn he chose for his mother when she died at 90, about God at the helm. Then, alas, a ghastly Methodist Youth girl: 'Christianity needn't be stuffy . . . We have Rock-gospel.' Sanity returned with a Scottish lady, very pleased with God, who runs the Christian Endeavour Holiday Home. A vicar who liked graveyards gave a blessing in Welsh.
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