You are here
UK: What The F*** Would Jesus Do?': Female VICAR causes stir with obscene car sticker
Reverend Alice Goodman put the sticker on her red Subaru Legacy
Some members of her parish in Cambridgeshire were offended by the motto
Dr Goodman claims it is harmless and says 'F***' is 'an Old English word'
By JOHN STEVENS
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/
August 8, 2013
Under fire: Rev Alice Goodman has been criticised by some of her parishioners for placing a bumber sticker reading: 'WTFWJD' on her car
When the Rev Alice Goodman bought a bumper sticker for her car, she wanted something that would catch people's attention.
But perhaps she did not envisage the unholy row that her choice would one day provoke.
For seven years the noted opera librettist and wife of a distinguished poet drove around happily with the sticker bearing the letters WTFWJD? on the back of her red Subaru Legacy.
Now, however, someone in her rural parish has complained after realising that the letters stand for What The F*** Would Jesus Do?
The offended parishioner took a photograph of the 54-year-old American-born vicar driving in her car and sent it to the local newspaper along with an anonymous letter quoting the Bible's prohibition of swearing.
Yesterday, Miss Goodman, rector in the Fulbourn and the Wilbrahams parish in Cambridgeshire, was unrepentant about the sticker and said her detractors should 'get a life'.
'F*** is not a blasphemy, it's a vulgarity, an Old English word,' said Miss Goodman, who is married to Sir Geoffrey Hill, professor of poetry at the University of Oxford.
'My bishop knows I have the sticker on my car, and has no difficulty with it, and I've had the former Archbishop of Canterbury in my car, Rowan Williams, and he didn't raise an eyebrow.'
The parishioner, quoting from James 5:12, had written to the newspaper:
'The Bible says: "But above all do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation".'
Miss Goodman said she has no intention of using the F-word in the pulpit. 'The sticker is urging people to just wake up and take notice,' she said.
'The Gospel that I'm preparing to teach on this week is the one where Jesus says he comes not to bring peace but the sword. I've never had a complaint about it before. 'I would suggest that anyone who thinks it is inappropriate should get out a little more.
'The important distinction to be made is with taking the name of the Lord in vain and the common vulgarities.
'I wouldn't use language like that in church. But that's why I have it on the back of my car - it's a different context.
'And I would say also that Christ came to save us and not to make us genteel.
'People have a lot of time on their hands right now. I think somebody must have had a lot of energy, animus and busybody-like qualities to photograph this.
'You want to say "for heaven's sake - get a life".'
The Venerable John Beer, Archdeacon of Cambridge, said last night that he saw no problem with the sticker.
He said: 'It sounds like the Rev Alice Goodman has responded in all good conscience to the criticism of this anonymous newspaper reader.
'Christianity has a long tradition of open debate where people can bring their differing views and share their perspectives.'
Miss Goodman is a former chaplain at Trinity College, Cambridge, and wrote the libretti for US composer John Adams's operas Nixon in China and the politically controversial The Death of Klinghoffer, about the murder of a disabled Jewish man by Palestinian terrorists.
Dr Williams's secretary said yesterday that he was on holiday and unavailable for comment.
END
