Derren Brown: Messiah

This is the title of a show I watched last night (which, incidentally, would be an excellent resource for studies of postmodernism!). Basically, the idea of the show is that Brown uses his psychological skills to raise questions about our acceptance of belief systems. He pretends to be (among other things) a medium, a UFO abductee and a Christian evangelist and in ease case wins the support of influential people in each of these 'faith groups'. By showing how reproducable these experiences are through psychological sugestion, he is not debunking or mocking any of these belief systems, but what he is doing is raising questions about our acceptance of power and authority.

Most interesting for me was the sequence on Christianity - where Brown (who was himself an evangelical Christian until his mid-twenties) uses suggestion to create "physical conversion" experiences in a group of atheists (getting them to fall over, collapse to their chairs and subsequently profess a belief in God).

Now I don't agree with all Brown says or does, but I do think there is a message here for us to hear. When we have (a) a theology of "conversion-as-event" (which, I believe, is not given the same weight in Scripture) and (b) a church model which has a great focus on the authority and personality of the man in the pulpit, we open ourselves to Brown's criticism. It is demonstrably true that "conversion" experiences can be acheived through psychological manipulation, and we need to be careful that we don't unwittingly produce a Christian-veneer version of Brown's show. Of course it would help if we didn't place too much weight on such experiences in the first place.

I currently go to a church where most believe that the spiritual gifts of tongues, prophecy etc. have ceased. I, for the record, disagree. But you don't need to be charistmatic to be at risk of psychological manipulation. All you need (as Brown shows) is a powerful personality 'up front' in a position of authority. I wonder if models of church which focus on the pulpit and preaching (sometimes almost exclusively) are inherently liable to create such a manipulative environment. What do you reckon?

Then there's the question of questioning. I think that honest questioning of our faith (if done constructively) leads to growth in faith. But how much questioning is healthy? What can we do to provide suitable environments for honest questioning - and not just for 'new converts' or 'seekers' but all believers?

I have my thoughts on these issues, but in light of Brown's show, I'll keep them to myself (for now) and ask the questions... ;)

J

P.S. There's more on the show on Derren Brown's webpage here, and I read a good (and short) review of the show on the channel 4 website here.

P.P.S. The other show I watched last night was a Newsnight special on anti-war protests by Iraq veterans - which contained many other examples of people accepting without question the views of those in power and authority; in this case, later totally (and sometimes angrily) reversing them!