This is the script of this morning’s Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2’s Breakfast Show with Scott Mills.
Later this morning I’ll be remembering Guy Fawkes and his dastardly plot to blow up Parliament in 1605 – 420 years ago to the day. He was rumbled by the authorities under what is now just in front of the chamber to the House of Lords – where I’ll be today. Then, tonight, while I’m worrying about the Liverpool-Manchester City game on Sunday, bonfires and fireworks will celebrate the traitor’s execution in parties everywhere.
Don’t you think that’s a bit weird? Shocking, even? We’re actually celebrating the burning of a Roman Catholic and thinking it’s funny.
But, history is always a bit more complicated than the stories we get told at school. Things aren’t always black and white, right or wrong, good or bad. If Guy Fawkes had been successful in his parliamentary endeavours, our country might now look a bit different. And it’s easy to look back and wonder why some passions, beliefs or affiliations caused such violent disagreement.
Well, I’ve just got back from five days in Germany where history is always complicated. I began in Erfurt – where Martin Luther was a monk before kicking off the Reformation -the subsequent peasants’ war caused up to 100,000 deaths. I then went to Leipzig and heard some wonderful music in the church where Johann Sebastian Bach was the director of music for 27 years. Yet, Bach was not just a wonderful musician and composer – probably my favorite in a Radio 3 sense; he was also a stubborn businessman who knew how to get his own way.
I can struggle to be grown up when it comes to memories. Reality is always more messy. It shouldn’t be a complete surprise to find out that someone we thought was a saint turns out to have been ‘complicated’ after all. It’s possible to be a saint in one area of life and a torment in another – despite best efforts.
So, when the Bible says that all of us have messed up – the word is ‘sinned’ – it is simply being obvious. Yet, as the great Leonard Cohen – who died this week in 2016 – put it: “Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in.”
