In the 2001 census, 390,000 people identified their religious conviction as Jedi. By the time of the 2011 census, that number had dropped by over half to around 177,000. Perhaps the new Star Wars film will boost their number – after all, this film is subtitled “the force awakens”.
But when this film is released in the runup to Christmas, the executives at the UK’s leading cinemas have decided in their wisdom that an advertisement featuring the Lord’s Prayer is to be banned from their screens. Apparently, the Jedi religion is fit for the big screen, but the Christian one is not.
The British Board of Film Classification gave the advert a U rating, the lowest available. But the Odeon, Cineworld and Vue chains – which control 80% of screens around the country – believe it’s apparently more likely to offend than an R18. It “carries the risk of upsetting, or offending, audiences”, they say. So what is its racy content, you may ask? Well, it’s a sheep farmer and a group of young people and the archbishop of Canterbury quietly saying, “Our father, which art in heaven …”. It doesn’t require the wisdom of Yoda to realise that banning the Lord’s Prayer from cinemas is nonsense on stilts.
Of course, the cinema’s executives are perfectly happy to surf the whole commerciality of Christmas. Some poor Starbucks’ baristas are now wearing stupid Santa hats. You can’t go into a high street shop without being bombarded by jingle bells or nauseating easy-listening versions of Christmas carols. Yes, I’m a bit of a Grinch. But as far as stealing Christmas is concerned, the people most guilty of that are the cinema moguls. They are the dark side of the force.
They say that people might be offended by the Lord’s Prayer. But for years now we have been told by secularists that religious people have to stop being so easily offended when their faith is challenged. And I agree. But secularists have to stop being so easily offended too. “Don’t impose your religion on us,” they shout. Well, it’s no more of an imposition than all the other advertisements we have to put up with.
The bigger point, though, is that in a free society peaceful religious speech should not be banned from public spaces. And here it is worth distinguishing between two very different forms of secularism – that which seeks the separation of church and state at an institutional level (bishops out of the House of Lords, for example), which I agree with; and the attempt to eradicate religious discourse from the public realm, which is anti-free expression and important to resist. Indeed, traditionally, free religious speech is the canary in the cage of a free society.
Of course, we can guess what those execs were really saying to each other. If we allow Christianity we are going to have to allow others, even – heaven forfend – Islam. You can feel their panic, their bureaucratic cowardice. We want to be left to get on and make our Christmas profits without getting drawn into such complicated altercations, they are saying.
I’m sorry, but the whole thing stinks. If you are offended by the Lord’s Prayer you are too easily offended. It’s a 60-second ad, for goodness sake. Just munch on your popcorn and ignore it. For others, it might just offer a welcome reminder that, when it comes to places of worship, there are – even at this time of year – still alternatives to the great cathedrals of Westfield shopping centre. Or is the real problem that the religion of commerce will brook no theological opposition?