Looking Good, Being Bad (by Adrian Plass)

I first read Adrian Plass’s book ‘Looking Good, Being Bad’ back in 2009. It was definitely time for a re-read, but I couldn’t find my copy. I must have lent it to someone years ago, but have no record of whom. So I turned to the AwesomeBooks site, and found an inexpensive edition in the ‘Bargain Bin’. That arrived a few months ago, and I’ve just finished re-reading the book. 

Adrian Plass is one of my favourite modern Christian writers. He has a readable, enjoyable style, often including gentle, self-deprecating humour. He also has a tremendous gift for exploring or demonstrating complex issues through his use of satire - and that’s what he does in this book. The ‘story’ is that someone has come across a lengthy report after a somewhat bizarre incident - and the bulk of the book consists of this supposed report.

But that’s just a device to get it going.  The idea behind the book is that there’s a particular breed of church-goer - called a ‘Churchman’ (or woman) in the text. Their desire is not to grow closer to God, or to further the Kingdom, but to disconcert speakers, confuse believers, and generally try to reduce any outreach or effectiveness of the Gospel. The ‘report’ essentially explains the best methods for going about Churchmanship, and is full of words such as Disconcertmanship or Communicationmanship, as the author explores the different categories used by his fictional experts in the field.

It’s cleverly done, as a kind of teaching guide for those wishing to be as unhelpful and disruptive as possible, without it being obvious that they have this aim. The aim of Churchmanship, it appears, is to be well-thought-of, pleasantly spoken, welcome at all events… and yet to sow as much discord and confusion as is possible, without anyone quite realising. And while some of the ploys are extreme caricatures, others are all too recognisable - and so the points are well made.

There’s some humour in the writing, mostly in the diagrams or offers of special packages for sale to aid in Churchmanship, some of them more ridiculous than others.  It’s not laugh-aloud humour; instead it’s just sufficient to lull the reader into the sense that this doesn’t apply to them...  only to realise, a page or two later, that some other recommended technique is just a tad too close to home. Not that most readers will have done these things deliberately. But church circles are remarkable for the sense of wanting to be considered a better person than one is. Ironic, really, given that we Christians are all too aware of our brokenness and sinfulness, and ask forgiveness week by week. 

It’s not a book for new believers, or for those outside church circles.  And it’s not really for people who might be practising ‘Churchmen’ (or women), who are aware that they belong to churches for the wrong reasons - although they probably won’t recognise themselves. But for Christian leaders, or those who have been around a long time in Christian establishments, it’s a bit of a breath of fresh air, even if much of the content doesn’t apply.

But you have to be in the right mood for this book. If you’re already feeling cynical or disillusioned, it probably won’t help much.

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