Calming the Twitter Storm

We had a discussion about this after Mattins yesterday morning - concerning the ludicrous little spat the CofE publicity department got itself into after posting a Tweet referring to praying for celebrity unbeliever Richard Dawkins after he suffered a minor stroke a couple of days ago. The assembled Anglicans at Morning Prayer in Swanvale Halt (all four of us) were unanimous in feeling thoroughly uncomfortable and sympathetic towards those who accused the Church of a bit of internet trolling.

I have no doubt that whoever stuck this on Twitter thought they meant it sincerely; although I also doubt that there cannot have been a little frisson of ironical pleasure at being able to do so. And that's probably the problem. It isn't just that Dr Dawkins will not care whether anyone is praying for him or not: I regularly pray for a great many people who have entirely different world-views from myself, and have no intention of stopping regardless of what they might think about it. These are people I love, I'm a Christian and it's What We Do. But I don't feel the need to publicise the fact. 

Making a point of announcing that you're praying about a particular matter leaves a bad taste and not just because we're English and feel embarrassed about religion and emotion. What's the point of doing so, especially in this particular way? I'm reminded of the 'Pray for Paris' hashtag that zipped around the globe after the terrorist shootings there in November, and which several people I know with close links to France and its very secularist official culture got thoroughly aerated about. The declaration that you're praying about something, unless it's only passed around other Christians for their encouragement and information, soon becomes less about the prayer, or who you're praying for, than about you and your self-image, and I think non-religious people - normal people - can see through this very easily.

For an organisation, a Twitter feed isn't just about sharing your thoughts or what you're having for dinner. It's part of your public relations. That's why you can access the CofE Twitter account through the Media and Communications section of the website. Therefore, what goes up on that feed is what the CofE wants people, especially media people, to know about it. You may note, if you have a look, that not much of its content relates to praying for this or that at all, and as there is so much stuff in the world Christians might pray about, you might well ask what's so special about Dr Dawkins. What's special about him, clearly, is that he's the world's most public atheist, and that's why I can't take at face value the Revd Arun Arora's very defensive defence of the original Tweet as something entirely innocent and with no edge to it whatever: a bit of Lenten self-examination might be in order. 

Public relations isn't just about sending out via social media the things you want people to know about you: it also involves having some sense of how normal people will react to that content, and it seems the CofE is still some distance away from that.