Friday Night Theology

Murray Fever

3 July 2009

"I'll be supporting anyone but England."

"I think we both played like women in the first set."

Two quotations from the notoriously outspoken Andy Murray. And you would think that on the basis of them he would have alienated so many that his support would be restricted to just the male half of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Except, as we all know, that isn't what has happened.  

For whether or not he gets through to the final or indeed wins it, the fact remains that the vast majority of the UK populace will be supporting Murray this weekend and proud of what he's achieved. So why is this the case?

Well, partly it's because the quotations have been taken out of context - especially the first one. Andy is not as anti-English as that jibe would suggest. But it's also because he is a winner - and we love to be associated with winners.

In particular, he seems to be offering us the best chance of a Wimbledon victory for many, many years. And now that an incredibly talented Scot has stepped up to the plate, dismissing his opponents with far more confidence than Henman achieved, we flock to be identified with his glory. The point has frequently been made that if Andy wins, he's British, but if he loses, a Scot, but the reality is that he has already achieved so much that he is firmly embedded in the UK psyche as one of us - whatever else takes place.

Yet that word 'flock' is interesting isn't it? It's a reminder that sheep-like following is the prevailing tendency of us all. The interesting thing, then, about being an evangelical - particularly a card-carrying, unashamed evangelical - is that 'following the crowd' is hardly an accusation that can be levelled with any kind of plausibility. Whatever else we evangelicals are, we do not simply go wherever the mass of society might wander. We plough our own furrow.

At times, we don't do that enough. We fail to be as distinctive as we should be: our complicity with consumerism would be an example. At times, we are distinct, but ploughing perhaps the wrong furrow or in the wrong way: our tendency to dogmatism for instance. But despite those failings, we are undeniably different. We do not just fit in. We walk, albeit falteringly, the narrow path.

So next time you get challenged for your Christian beliefs, I guess a response to your friend might just be this: 'yes, what I believe is different;' 'yes, what I believe is at times at odds with the rest of society, but at least I am making a stand.' 'I am being counter-cultural.'

And ironically, while no doubt the vast majority of us will jump on the Murray bandwagon this weekend, the one person who may not is Murray himself. He will continue to be independent, at times outspoken, not capitulating entirely to the media machine, speaking his own mind, not merely a popularist. And perhaps in doing so, he is an example to us all.

Justin Thacker, Head of Theology