Maybe the Devil doesn’t have all the best tunes……….. by Revd. Trevor Jamison

Maybe the Devil doesn’t have all the best tunes… Driving from Billericay, on my way to a hospital visit one Saturday morning I did not expect to find myself listening to a conversation between Annie Lennox and Graham Norton about the role of religion in world conflict, or to find myself singing along to her rendition of In the Bleak Midwinter. 

Graham Norton has made his reputation as a comedian, television presenter and now as host of the BBC Radio 2 Saturday show in succession to Jonathan Ross.  He comes from a Southern Irish, Protestant background but his public persona is as an openly gay, flamboyant, going-on camp, lovable purveyor of jokey innuendo.  Annie Lennox boasts an impressive career as a singer, song-writer and political campaigner.  She has long championed AIDS awareness and is a prominent support of Amnesty International, Greenpeace and the Burma UK Campaign. Whether my surprise that a couple with such backgrounds should be “talking religion” in public is more a comment on me, them or on the Church as we know it is an issue for another time.  For now, I want to think about Church and great music.
In her conversation with Graham Norton, Annie Lennox was quite clear about her position on religion – she’s an agnostic.  At the same time she did not come across as someone with an axe to grind about organised religion in the way some the “New Atheists”, such as Richard Dawkins obviously have.  This did not prevent her from pointing to the alarming and shameful correlation between strong religious beliefs and readiness to do violence to others in the world.  At this point Graham Norton had to take on his (unaccustomed?) role as defender of faith, arguing that human failings are about people (sin, we Christians might say) and not about religion as such. 

Although Annie Lennox was born on Christmas Day that doesn’t necessarily mean she is a Christian.  On the other hand (and this was the occasion for the interview on Radio 2) she’s recorded A Christmas Cornucopia, a collection of interpretations of traditional festive songs, some familiar to most of us (God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, The Holly And The Ivy, Silent Night), others less so (Lullay Lullay, Il Est Ne le Divin Enfant), and one new Lennox composition, Universal Child.  Now, a collection of Christmas carols from Annie Lennox has huge commercial potential for the singer and of course this interview was part of the publicity push for the recently released album.  At the same time, however, it’s clear that this is more than a purely commercial venture as far as she is concerned.  Lennox is emotionally and artistically caught up by this music.  For many of us, to sing or hear these songs is to be re-connected with our childhood and subsequent significant stages in our life journeys.  As Lennox puts it, “they are part of my backbone”.  Also, she is intrigued that this music has endured across decades and centuries and wishes to give it a further lease of life through her particular treatment of carols in the here and now. I have no problem with Christians appreciating Christ-inspired music performed by an agnostic, especially when she sings so well.  I am not so convinced that emotional resonances, anchored in significant memories and musically intriguing tunes tell the whole story about why this music endures and should be still sung today.  I just can’t get away from the content of the words.  In the Bleak Midwinter, to take just one example, begins with the bleakness of the human landscape, moves to the hope that it can be brought to life through heavenly intervention and then invites our response, treading in the footsteps of shepherds and wise men, coming to Jesus.  Today’s bleak human landscape includes unnecessary illness, death, unjust imprisonment, misuse of the environment and the persecution of people deemed significantly different by virtue of their sexuality; actions and attitudes on which Annie Lennox campaigns and which Graham Norton wittily subverts.  For me, as a Christian, these carols will always remain great (Church) music as long as they remind me not only of my childhood but of today’s world, its difficulties and of God’s response: 

Our God, heaven cannot hold him, nor human earth sustain,Heaven and earth shall flee away when he comes to reign:In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed,The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ. Christina Rossetti (1830 – 1894), Rejoice and Sing no. 162 

A blessed and happy Christmas to you all, Annie and Graham included.  Trevor p.s. Happy Birthday for the 25^th, Annie

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