I was amused, but at the same time appalled, by the John Lewis home insurance advertisement featuring a cross-dressed young boy trashing his home while his sister tried to concentrate on her artwork.
Backfiring advert
The 60-second TV ad, ‘Let Life Happen’, was eventually pulled for its potentially misleading message that bad behaviour can be rewarded by compensation if you simply take out the company’s insurance.
It was attacked as everything from a crass cultural lecture to a treatise on sexism. But obviously, home insurance doesn’t cover deliberate damage. The John Lewis ads have gained a reputation over the years for being oh so clever, but they have now gone over the precipice into absolute foolishness.
All of which is a salutary reminder of the media’s potential power, and its ability to say so much with so few words or pictures. Indeed, I believe in the necessity of doing this, especially where the gospel is concerned – to make the most of the time or space we are given to communicate the message. The most helpful lesson I learnt at journalism school was being able to write a story ‘intro’ (first paragraph) in just 20 words.
The most helpful lesson I learnt at journalism school was being able to write a story ‘intro’ (first paragraph) in just 20 words.
‘Songs of Praise’ special
As for the 60-second ad, what a contrast to the several short testimonies broadcast on last Sunday’s Songs of Praise! Having just criticised the BBC for the liberal inclusion of blasphemy in a new series of Shetland (I will come back to that), I have to salute them for the show timed to coincide with Halloween.
Hosted by the lovely Katherine Jenkins, it featured the Blackpool illuminations and served a knockout blow to the traditional occult darkness of this time of year with its exemplary focus on the light of Christ.
Emblazoned underneath a huge figure of Jesus, as part of the annual light show attracting millions of tourists, are our Lord’s words: “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25).
Both clergymen interviewed managed a profound gospel message in less than a minute, and even the closing prayer was a perfect summary of the ‘good news’. In addition, a husband-and-wife music duo couldn’t have sounded a clearer note with their 60-second testimony of how the Lord rescued them from homelessness and despair. When the BBC do things well, they really do excel.
BBC blasphemy
Only days earlier, I had sent a complaint to their Points of View show about the darker side of their broadcasts. I told them that, while I was intrigued by the new version of Shetland (a detective series), I was appalled by the liberal, and quite unnecessary, use of blasphemy.
The BBC is now helping to produce a nation of foul-mouthed people dishonouring both God and their fellow man.
I suggested that the 9pm threshold was no excuse because millions of adults still honour the name of Jesus, and the Beeb wouldn’t dream of using Islam’s prophet as an expletive. More to the point, the BBC was built on Christian foundations, dedicated to the broadcasting of everything that is “true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy,” as expressed by St Paul when guiding the Philippian believers in their thoughts.
But in these episodes we are presented with so much that is ugly, impure and unclean. As Jesus said, it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles a man, and the BBC is now helping to produce a nation of foul-mouthed people dishonouring both God and their fellow man.
Israel misrepresented
What we say is so important, and the damage of misleading information is incalculable. I’ve already taken the climate change activists to task for generating more heat than light, though Boris Johnson could be right about it being one minute to midnight – that could be how close we are to judgment, and the Second Coming!
But there is also the matter of the shocking misrepresentation suffered at every level by Israel. The BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement, which seems to have successfully brainwashed swathes of gullible people across the globe, continues to peddle its grossly anti-Semitic message portraying the Jewish state as oppressive and violent while ignoring the unprincipled dictatorships that surround it.
Miss Universe controversy
Now Nelson Mandela’s grandson is encouraging a boycott of the Miss Universe pageant being held in the southern-Israeli port of Eilat next month, denouncing Israel as an ‘apartheid state’. But Inkosi Zwelivelile Mandela, a member of the South African Parliament, has met with a fierce riposte from a former Iraqi beauty queen, who has called him out in a video posted on Twitter.
Many of those who attack Israel as an apartheid state are haters of women and women’s rights.
Sarah Idan, who has visited Israel and spoken out at the United Nations about the reality on the ground there, says: “All I can say is, how dare you? How dare you as a man try to tell an organisation for women and women empowerment what to do?”1
She pointed out that many of those who attack Israel 
as an apartheid state are haters of women and women’s rights, and she hoped Miss South Africa, Lalela Mswane, will be allowed to judge the truth for herself.
“I’m positive that, just like me, she will be shocked to see that the Israeli government consists of Muslims, Jews, Arabs, Christians…who not only get to vote on policies to shape their future, but are also part of the Knesset (parliament).”
While a majority of South Africans support the Palestinian narrative, some key activists, such as Kenneth Meshoe, bristle at the ‘apartheid’ comparison, calling it a dishonest insult that cheapens the suffering of blacks who lived under strict racial segregation. Meanwhile organisers of the Miss South Africa contest are said to have distanced themselves from Mandela’s statement.
When people turn their backs on God, their thinking becomes futile and their foolish hearts are darkened. They claim to be wise, but become fools (Rom 1:21f). Our faith must not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power (1 Cor 2:5).
Endnotes
1 United with Israel, 31st October 2021.See also.
