(My daughter Amanda had to take the contra side in a debate in her church – raw deal! Here are the notes from her brief speech. Rowland).

“Does God have a Sense of Humour?”

Debate Ringwood Salvation Army, 12/11/06

NEGATIVE – First Speaker (Amanda Southwell)

The Collins dictionary defines Sense of Humour as being “the ability to appreciate or express that which is humorous”. The Macquarie dictionary states that it is the “faculty of perceiving what is amusing or comical”. So, in trying to figure out whether God has a sense of humour or not, I naturally took these words and headed for the Bible. The problem is that my concordance lists no mention of the words humour, amusing or comical as being in the bible at all. There’s not even the word funny. There are, admittedly, a few biblical references to God’s laughter, but it is to the laughter of scorn, rather than amusement, or a reminder that we need to change our laughter to mourning and our joy to gloom.

As a book of humour, therefore, the Bible isn’t exactly inspirational. In fact, when it comes to comedy in general, the God of the Old Testament comes up a bit thin. Where’s the humour in the Old Testament heroes marching through unsuspecting lands, plundering and pillaging? What about judgements on nations that don’t even know him? How can Noah, and a flood wiping out an entire planet be amusing? What about plagues on Egypt, and stoning of women committing adultery but not men? Job had everything stripped away, then God made him also deal with boils, a nagging wife, and some downright annoying friends. God turned Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt when she looked back. I mean, come on, we all know what women are like – naturally curious. Then there’s Moses, Jonah…the list goes on and on.

So, we head to the New Testament. God’s big entrance into the world through Jesus, the Incarnation, certainly allowed no element of comic routine. He killed him. There’s no room for the jocular in that! In the New Testament, the only hint of humour I can conjure is a vision of two thousand demon-filled pigs rushing down a steep bank and drowning in a lake. But that’s a pretty nasty form of humour if you ask me, and animal activists would have a field day with that one.

It would appear that there is a prevalent ban on humour in the Bible. Where is there one joke? While the prophets were big on sackcloth and ashes, they weren’t really renowned for their one-liners. God could have at least done the “why did Jesus cross the lake?” line, just to keep people interested. And not only do we see no evidence of God’s humour in the bible, it would seem He doesn’t even understand it. Adam was obviously joking when he told God Eve did it, but God just didn’t get it, and kicked them both out of Eden instead (on top of giving Eve periods, childbirth, and subservience). What kind of lousy humour is that?

Then there are God’s people. God is not exactly known for his quick wit, and this is certainly reflected in his workers on earth. There is next to nothing about comedy or humour in the thousands of books of Christian theology written through the centuries. All the grim leaders of the faith, it would appear, have been “perpetually scowling”. Christian theology, also, is a somber matter.

Furthermore, if God does have a small semblance of humour, it is pretty warped. Look at us? He created alcohol, but the Salvation Army can’t even drink it! God’s humour means having a laugh at our expense. There is no irony, no comedy, no amusement. The joke is on us, and it’s not funny.

We must conclude, then, that while the Church’s faith, hope and charity prevail, throughout the Bible and Christian history we see a God who is vengeful, angry, creative in devising punishments, and basically devoid of any humour. Altogether, He is not a fun guy to have around.