Durham University has two very large constituent groups; students that went to public school (I count myself as one of them), and Christians (not really my thing). What seems strange is how integrated Christianity is with “posher” students. After all, Jesus, who’s really very important, was the son of Joseph, a carpenter. Jesus was, in essence, working class. Pondering this, I wondered how many more of Durham’s well to-do would be ready to accept Christ into their lives if they knew he was a bit more on their level. A quick and easy change to the already Walter Mitty Bible would be to replace the 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness, which sounds like some kind of ASBO, with Jesus setting off on a Gap Year. Ah yes, the Gap Year; mainstay of the bleach-haired flip-flopper, chock full of hilarious anecdotes and glorious pictures of tanned people among the natives. Jesus could “resist temptation” in Thailand, and then do some good by spending an absolutely nominal period in Africa helping to build a bookshelf for an impoverished school, whilst taking as many pictures as is humanly possible of him standing proudly with a load of African kids to put on Facebook, as if to say “I saved the third world”. “Thank you for saving us Jesus!” NB Many people quite legitimately consider Christ as their saviour.
Disclaimer: Iain took a Gap year himself, enjoyed it very much, and continues to bore people with anecdotes to this day, and so is just as guilty as Jesus would be. Also, this is not a dig in any way at the Christian faith, just a cumbersome metaphor.