Revelations: How to Find God (Documentary) - An Analysis

On Sunday 28th June 2009, Channel Four transmitted an interesting documentary from writer / director Jon Ronson on The Alpha Course. The Alpha Course, for those of you who don't know, is a series of talks and discussions held over a number of weeks that allows agnostics to listen to, and engage with, Christians about God, Jesus, the Bible, and the meaning of life.

I found the documentary refreshingly balanced for the most part, giving both Christians and agnostics a chance to express themselves in interview. Jon Ronson took the audience into the heart of the group discussions and lectures, managing to capture on film the workings of The Alpha Course with reasonable accuracy.

It was nice to watch a programme, (particularly one with such a potentially controversial subject matter), that didn't seem to have been blemished with a high degree of manipulative editing. However, the cynic inside me still thinks it a remarkable coincidence that the part where one of the Christian leaders apparently loses her temper with an agnostic wasn't captured on film for technical reasons, (they were changing the tape over!) So we only have director Jon Ronson's word for what was actually going on.

This was the main problem with the programme for me. Jon Ronson's voice-over commentary did not accurately reflect the true nature of The Alpha Course. (I myself can speak from personal experience, having recently finished one in December 2008.)

First, he described some of the agnostics attending the Alpha Course as "candidates for conversion," who would be "routinely transformed" by the "mathematical niceness" of the Alpha leaders. This reminded me of the Cybermen in the 2006 series of Doctor Who. They were originally humans who were forced to undergo conversion by a deranged scientist who believed he was making them better, after which, they became thoughtless, emotionless drones, incapable of thinking for themselves. Whether or not this parallel was intended by Jon Ronson, it does conform to the generalised misconception as to how Christians find their faith; they get manipulated and drawn in until they don't know any different, while the non-believers remain capable of seeing the world "as it truly is."

This was not my experience of Alpha. I didn't feel as if I was being twisted or drawn in by any number of faux-pleasantries. As the weeks progressed, I became good friends with my fellow attendees and the group leaders, and of course they were genuinely nice people! During the meals I used to talk geekily to my friend Adam for ages about Doctor Who, for example. There was nothing mathematical about that. He didn't know I was a fan until he very shyly admitted to me that he was, and all manner of Menoptra-related conversations ensued! What it boils down to is the fact that God is a god of love, and those filled with his loving Holy Spirit will reflect this quality, this "niceness," this sense of friendship. I find it strange that Jon Ronson was so obviously disturbed by this. I would be fascinated to know what he would have made of nasty, violent Christians, fighting tooth and nail to drag non-believers into their seminars for upgrading!

Second, Ronson draws particular attention to Alpha's structure. In one sequence, he juxtaposes footage from one of Nicky Gumbel's talks, (Gumbel being Alpha's founder), with footage from a talk being given in the church in which the documentary is based. Ronson shows that they are delivering an almost identical lecture. Why this should be quite so shocking is a mystery to me. It's a course! If we were looking at a Science GCSE in which one school taught that the Earth was flat while the other taught that it was a sphere, nobody would have a clue what the real answer was! So if what Alpha says about God is true, why would another Alpha Course at another church contradict this? At a time when people criticise Christianity and the Bible for supposed contradictions and inconsistencies, I find it startling that Ronson has drawn attention to the fact that Christian leaders are actually agreeing with each other!

There's plenty more I could say about Jon Ronson's rather bizarre commentary, (such as his fixation with young Christian women serving food, and the unusual comparision he makes between Nicky Gumbel and Tony Blair), but let's not turn this blog into one big moan! A nice thing for me was that, at one point in the programme, an agnostic called Mel was described as feeling a surge of energy during difficult times that she thought might be God. She's a non-believer, I'm a Christian, we don't know each other from Adam, and what she experienced is exactly the same as what I feel when I talk to the Holy Spirit! (In fact I've made mention of it in my blog on how I found my faith.) So although Ronson did annoy me a little with his moments of impartiality, I am grateful that he strengthened my relationship with God through this piece of evidence.