Diary – 11 November 2006

Ring ring …‘John Humphrys speaking.’ ‘Oh that’s wonderful because I just know I can help you!’ This has been happening a lot in the past week or two.

Ring ring …‘John Humphrys speaking.’ ‘Oh that’s wonderful because I just know I can help you!’ This has been happening a lot in the past week or two. Heaven knows how total strangers get my number, but they do. Maybe it’s divine intervention. I knew I’d be offering a sizeable hostage to fortune by doing a Radio 4 series with the preposterous title Humphrys in Search of God. I knew clever-dick columnists would write witty pieces about God in search of Humphrys (Michael Gove’s was the wittiest) and I knew I’d get lots of letters. But dear Lord — if he’ll forgive me — I didn’t know there would be so many. I could open a religious book store with the tracts, books and Bibles I’ve been sent. It will take me until the Second Coming to read all the letters. Of the hundred or so I’ve skimmed so far, their writers either want to convert me or to complain about Dr Rowan Williams. They seem to think an archbishop should sound more robust than he did in last week’s programme. I find that odd. It’s true that he was sometimes hesitant. I asked him the predictable question: can you reconcile your belief in a merciful God with the suffering of a child? He paused for quite a long time before he said, ‘Just.’ Dammit, the man’s a father and a decent human being as well as a Church leader. How could he not hesitate? Would it have been better if he’d sheltered behind Thomas Aquinas to ‘prove’ God exists? Theology is a cop-out if one is talking about faith. The best it can do is shore up an existing belief.