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How Cliff stays faithful
Cliff Richard celebrates 50 years as a pop star. His faith is almost as old, reports Ed Beavan
 Anniversary: Cliff Richard signs copies of his 50 Favourite Bible Stories |
| “NATIONAL TREASURE”; “legend”; “Summer Holiday”; “tennis fan” — responses from an impromptu office survey on Sir Cliff Richard, one of Britain’s most famous pop stars. His career spans the past 50 years, and he is the only British artist to have hits in the UK singles chart over six consecutive decades.
But, undoubtedly, the most common reaction when people mention Sir Cliff is his Christian faith. It is ceaselessly ridiculed by anyone looking for a “cheesy” Christian stereotype; but the singer, born Harry Webb, continues to be open about the faith he has practised since his conversion in the 1960s.
It has clearly informed his career, and he has taken part in various national campaigns, such as the Billy Graham rallies in 1966, and the launch of the Festival of Light in 1971, spearheaded by Mary Whitehouse and Malcolm Muggeridge. His long-term commitment to the aid agency Tearfund is well known.
His beliefs have also shaped his back-catalogue. In 1975 he withdrew the single “Honky Tonk Angel” when he discovered that the phrase was used to describe prostitutes. His most recent number-one songs have been overtly Christian: “Saviour’s Day” at Christmas in 1993, and “The Millennium Prayer” in 1999.
A new book by Steve Turner, Cliff Richard: The bachelor boy, chronicles the 67-year-old’s life through the voices of friends, families, and other musicians, as well as the singer himself. The book also highlights his struggles with his faith after the murder of his close friend Jill Dando in 1999.
Speaking about the murder, he said: “The person who killed Jill carried out a despicable act — a bad, evil thing — and poor Jill was the victim of his anger. . . With regard to my faith I cannot say why it happened to Jill, but one day we will know.”
Sir Cliff has distanced himself from the more hardline elements of the Evangelical wing over the issue of homosexuality. In early 2006, during an interview with Sky News, he said he was saddened by the attitude of some Christians, and called for tolerance.
“I’m sad, because we have to learn to deal with everything. The Church has got to come to terms with the fact that things have changed since even Jesus has died. It’s only a mere 2000 years.
“There are gay people in this world. Some of them are very talented. Some of them could be great priests.”
Last week, Sir Cliff unveiled a new book for children, 50 Favourite Bible Stories, in which he narrates his favourite Bible stories on an audio CD.
THE RELEASE of the book coincides with Sir Cliff’s 50th year in show business. At its launch last week at Methodist Central Hall in Westminster, he was as frank as ever, fielding questions about his faith and career, the state of the Anglican Church, and the fact that he has never been a father.
When asked how he had kept going in the Christian life, he explained: “Maintaining your faith is not an easy thing; but once you’ve read the Gospels, and been confronted with a personality like Jesus, it’s really hard to have doubts.
“In the Gospels you meet a solid being; and maintaining my faith hasn’t been as difficult as it could have been, because the Christian story is based on archaeology and, probably most importantly, on countless millions of experiences that people have discovering God through Jesus.”
Did he ever find that there was a tension between his career and his faith?
“Originally, people said if I made my faith public I’d lose my career, and I had to say to myself that, if my faith is important to me, then my career is less important, and it made me fearless.
“I did originally think I couldn’t possibly be a rock-and-roll singer and a Christian, I did believe that, and very early on in my Christian life I decided I would retire. . .
“But then I was invited to do gospel records, and Billy Graham invited me to do films as a Christian actor . . . and I was asked to do a television series based on the parables . . . and I realised people were wanting me to be a Christian publicly, because of what I had with my career, so it drew together quite well.”
He expressed his sadness that Britain had become such a secular society, and pointed to the spirituality of the United States, particularly after 9/11, when the first reaction of President Bush was to call the nation to prayer.
When asked why he got involved with the book of Bible stories, Sir Cliff said: “A lot of people have never opened a Bible at all. That seems a shame to me, because even if they were to denounce it after having read it, at least they would have made an educated decision. Whereas now people say they don’t believe it; and you say: ‘Have you read the Bible?’ and they say: ‘No, we haven’t.’
“The Bible makes such incredible claims, it needs to be at least read before it’s rejected.
“We always say children are tomorrow’s society, and tomorrow’s society needs a little help: it needs to have some kind of moral and ethical value to it. And that can only come if people have read it . . . so not to open it up is criminal.”
He picked out the Bible story of Joseph and his brothers as his favourite. And he compared the task of choosing the 50 stories to drawing up a set list from his hundreds of songs for his forthcoming tour.
When asked about current disagreements in the Church of England and the Anglican Communion, Sir Cliff talked about his simple approach to his faith, and suggested the Church should keep it simple.
“It seems to me that greater brains than mine have to come to terms with it. . . The Church is going to have to start seeing people as people, and let God be the judge; don’t start saying this person’s gay and this person’s whatever: it just has to happen at some point that people are recognised for what they are as people. There has to be moving on . . . Jesus is constantly relevant; the Church isn’t always.”
50 Favourite Bible Stories, selected and narrated by Sir Cliff Richard, written by Brian Sibley (Lion Children’s Books, £14.99 (CT Bookshop £13.50); 978-0-7459 6061-6). Cliff Richard: The bachelor boy by Steve Turner (Carlton Books, £19.99 (£18); 978-1-84442-037-7) Sir Cliff Richard’s 50th anniversary Time Machine Tour takes place in arenas around the UK in November and December. www.cliffrichard.orgTo place an order for either of these books, email details to CT Bookshop |
