The Religious Bent

This book asks a simple question: was Elvis the Messiah? Plainly, he wasn't but the authors do their best to find evidence pointing in the opposite direction. Unsurprisingly, they don't really find any: what they do instead is supply a number of anecdotes relating to Elvis's "spiritual qualities" which depict him as just about qualified to run a gift shop in Glastonbury.

Animal-lovers who are also Christians often find the Church doctrine that life after death is reserved for human beings an uncomfortable one. Surely in any Heaven worthy of the name little Snookums will be there, licking his celestial testicles in his transcendental basket?

Such is the central idea of A Carr's little book; a heartfelt, though not altogether coherent, plea for the recognition of the rights of animals in this world as well as that beyond. While his or her argument may sometimes lack logic, who could fail to be swayed by the sentiment of lines such as these?

I remember as a small boy attending the family service at our local church and seeing the vicar illustrate his sermon with a box of washing powder; the image has clearly stuck with me, but nothing of the message he was attempting to convey. That this rather desperate style of Biblical analogy is part of a venerable tradition is evidenced by this century-old little book, which is intended to provide useful material for the beleaguered Sunday School teacher, to help to impart the gospel to his or her restless charges. In this case, by waving coloured flags at them.

Sidney Tapp, who wrote this curious book, was a lawyer. Having read it, I assume his principal weapon of the courtroom was the interminable repetitive monologue, by which means he would bore his listeners into submission.