Thom Beckett

Stormzy’s had a couple of days being the focus of some manufactured controversy. Firstly, when asked in an interview whether he thought the UK was racist, he said “definitely, 100%” which some some media outlets interpreted in headlines saying he thought the UK was “100% racist”, which are two very different things.

This became a second controversy, led by some conservative Christians that Stormzy was not an appropriate choice to read from Luke’s gospel as part of the BBC’s celebration of Christmas. It was announced five days ago, but the racism controversy has brought it to the fore. I’m not going to quote the various criticisms because I don’t either want or need to, but all centre on the idea of him not being suitable.

It’s this I find interesting because surely the only measure of suitability is whether he is Christian or not, and Stormzy has made it abundantly clear on multiple occasions that he is, not least in his wonderful song, Blinded by Your Grace. To quote:

Lord, I’ve been broken

Although I’m not worthy

You fixed me, I'm blinded

By your grace

The notion of grace is a key one in Christianity, and is summarised on Christianity.com as “the love of God shown to the unlovely; the peace of God given to the restless; the unmerited favor of God." Notice the word unmerited, and Stormzy’s own admission of not being worthy. That’s the central fact of Christianity. No Christian is “worthy” of God’s love, but that love is freely given anyway.

That’s why, as an atheist, I find a Christian arguing that another Christian is not suitable or worthy to read from the bible on Christmas Day, extremely odd. The central fact is that no-one is worthy. All humans are flawed sinners. To quote Jesus’s own words in the NIV translation of Matthew 7:3-5

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, `Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.”