Archbishop Outpointed

It was as though Elvis Presley at his prime had challenged Cardinal Spellman to a theology debate on NBC. For in England, mop-haired Adam Faith, 21, is the current king of rock, and last week he argued religion for half an hour on BBC-TV with the Most Rev. Frederick Donald Coggan, 52, Anglican Archbishop of York. Faith proved rather more than the archbishop had bargained for.

Born plain Terence Nelham, Singer Faith earns $140,000 a year and gets 300 letters a day from doting clutches of his Faithful--to the great distress of Dr. Coggan. "Adam Faith tells youngsters that the meaning of life is sex," he complained in a speech a fortnight ago. "Adam Faith tells us nothing about life hereafter or why we are here." Faith was like shocked. "Teenagers think a lot less about sex than adults do," he said. "I'd like to meet the archbishop and tell him what I think about things." The BBC brought Coggan and crooner together.

"We Don't Go." Adam denied that he had ever equated life and sex--perhaps he had been quoted out of context? "That happens to me, too," Dr. Coggan murmured. Faith went on: "In a teen-ager's life," he said, "love is the most important thing, and this is what most of my songs are about--teen-age love, and it is a very beautiful and delicate and harmless thing. Now the church calls us wicked because we don't go to church, and I think this is all wrong. Church doesn't get across to us, but that doesn't mean we are not religious."

Well, yes. Dr. Coggan agreed, religion was personal--but it was also a family affair. "I should take a dim view of it if I never saw my kids at the family table," he said. Retorted Faith: "But the atmosphere when the family does meet together is friendly and loving. You don't get that feeling in church. Anyway, teen-agers don't understand language that was written 2,000 years ago. They understand modern pop because it was written in words they can communicate with." The archbishop proffered the thought that the New English Bible is easier to read.

"We Are Divided." Faith plunged on: the church does not understand the working class or the world's social problems. "The church 2,000 years ago understood social problems because it started then," but "what does it think about atomic warfare?" Admitted the archbishop: "We are divided."

Divisions bothered Faith. "I'm a member of the Church of England and I believe in God," he said, "but all these divisions between all the religions--Catholics, Jews and things--all contradict God's basic law, don't they?--love thy neighbor?" Coggan swallowed hard, and at last made so bold as to disagree: "But it does matter if you believe Jesus Christ was God's supreme revelation to man. Truth does matter."

The encounter between cocky, yet questing youth and churchly authority caught unawares did much to explain why, among more than 27 million Englishmen baptized as Anglicans, fewer than 3,000,000 are registered as active churchgoers.

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