Did Monty Python intend to mock the crucifixion of Jesus in The Life of Brian? They were nice boys and I don’t think they did. But suppose they had even given the faintest suspicion that they were mocking Jews being killed in gas chambers. Imagine the fuss. Dear Sir I was disgusted and appalled. Outraged Liberal Tunbridge Wells. Where does pomposity go in a secular society? I guess Jesus, least pompous of men, would have laughed at The Life of Brian. Even in his darkest hour, indeed most of all in his darkest hour, there was moral beauty. We have stressed, almost wallowed, in the horror of the crucifixion so much we have actually forgotten it – all those sanitized crucifixes in churches with Jesus modestly wearing a loin cloth and smiling down comfortably – let alone forgotten to rejoice in the moral beauty. The unbearable horror, the extreme love. Do Christians generally give you the impression of people still reeling from the enormity of the events? I’m sorry that the Pythons upset Malcolm Muggeridge so much. But maybe they made us think and did us all a service. Love does not take offence says St Paul.
