Communicative Doubt
Communicative Doubt
This chapter studies the use of biblically inflected speech in political debate. It begins by examining the arguments raised by conservative Christian activists in their campaign to prevent the passage of the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act 2013. Introducing the concept of 'communicative doubt', the chapter argues that there is a sense in which neither 'religious' nor 'secular' arguments are thought to be an appropriate means of conveying Biblical Truth to those who are not (yet) Christian, for what is needed is the intervention of a speaking God. It then explores this doubt as it manifested in the lives of two Christ Church members who had been involved in one of the Christian Legal Centre's earliest cases. Five years on, they remained unsure of whether or not it communicated the Good News they had hoped to share. These doubts, hesitations, and ambivalences speak to the contested place of public Christianity in contemporary England, and to the difficulties faced by those who insist that their faith must go public: the challenge of rendering Christianity legible not only to law and politics, but to the individual men and women who are subject to these worldly institutions.
Keywords: biblically inflected speech, political debate, conservative Christian activists, same-sex marriage, communicative doubt, Biblical Truth, Christ Church, public Christianity, England
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