PYTHONS CLEESE AND PALIN DEFEND LIFE OF BRIAN ON 1979 BBC TALK SHOW

This is both fun and educational.  Fun because parts of the hour long program are extraordinarily funny, as you might expect.  But it's also educational in that this is a really good discussion, the kind of thing we just don't get to see much on television these days here in the States.

One of the most interesting aspects of this debate is how congenial everybody involved is.  I mean, they're talking about some pretty heavy stuff, blasphemy, free speech, Christianity's historic failures, how non-believers should or shouldn't show respect to a religion with which they disagree, and on and on, the kind of stuff that often results in shout-fests in 21st century America.  Indeed, the participants are quite passionate in their rhetoric at points, clearly doing some very serious business.  But moments later, they're smiling warmly at one another and cracking jokes, everyone showing respect for each other.  This is a lesson on how to discuss extreme differences in a civilized society.

I would like to say that the Pythons won the debate hands down, but I just can't.  At several moments their opponents are just wiping the floor with them, which isn't so surprising, I suppose, because the anti Life of Brian participants are professionals, a Church of England bishop, and an outspoken Christian veteran broadcaster.  Cleese and Palin do hold their own overall, though, which is definitely worth noting, given that the two are actors and comedy writers, rather than polemicists.  But clearly, they're pretty smart guys.  I mean, after all, Palin went to Oxford and Cleese went to Cambridge.  So no surprise there.

Having said that, though, I was frustrated by a point I wish they'd made, but didn't.  The influence of the Bible and Jesus Christ on Western civilization is so profound and long lasting that not a single Westerner can claim that Christianity has played no role in their intellectual development or understanding of reality.  In that sense, Jesus belongs to everybody in the West, as a cultural and philosophical concept, whether one is a believer or not.  Consequently, asserting that Jesus is beyond criticism, or unfavorable artistic representation, or satire, or lampooning, makes plain a severe misunderstanding of the role that Christ plays in Western democratic nations.  That is, Jesus, like all cultural concepts, must be discussed vigorously, in every way possible.  Or we're just not doing democracy correctly.

Ah well.  It's still a good debate.  Check it out:









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