Holy Smoke: how would you sell Christianity? with Rory Sutherland
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.3 • 826 Ratings
🗓️ 5 April 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Advertising guru – and the Spectator's Wiki Man – Rory Sutherland joins Damian Thompson to try and tackle the question 'how would you sell Christianity – today?' If religions have previously thrived by providing a form of social network and an 'elevated trust mechanism', perhaps there ways in which they can adapt for modern society – especially as many people appear to be turning away from conspicuous consumption and searching for meaning.
In this Easter special they ponder: are religious people less likely to be alcoholics? Does driving make you a better person? And are Churches today akin to the carrier pigeon of yesteryear?
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The British right is up for grabs. As May's local elections approach, the Conservatives face strong competition from Reform UK. |
| 0:07.9 | Join the Spectator's assistant editor, Isabel Hardman, for the spectator debate, the fight for the right, on Wednesday, the 29th of April in London. |
| 0:15.5 | We will pit the Conservatives represented by Matthew Saeed and Dominic Johnson against Reform UK, represented by Matt Goodwin and Danny Kruger. |
| 0:23.6 | To see which party truly represents the future of the right, |
| 0:27.2 | book your tickets at spectator.com forward slash fight. Welcome to Holy Smoke, the Spectator's Religion podcast. |
| 0:47.4 | I'm Damien Thompson. |
| 0:49.5 | This Easter will be an important one for the Church of England, |
| 0:56.0 | because it will, of course, be the first Easter for its new primate, Archbishop Sarah Malalley, the first female Archbishop of Canterbury. |
| 1:04.2 | Her recent enthronement was something of a public relations triumph for the C of E, not least because |
| 1:09.6 | there in the congregation was the Prince of Wales. |
| 1:13.1 | Prince William, who a few days earlier had announced that he wanted to reset his relationship with the Church of England |
| 1:19.4 | and expressed a quiet faith in the institution. |
| 1:24.7 | However, at the same time, the much talked about quiet revival of Christianity |
| 1:30.8 | in this country was questioned after the Bible Society admitted that the survey on which the |
| 1:36.7 | claims were based was rooted in dodgy statistics. So questions about how Christianity can be re-established in this country |
| 1:48.4 | are more relevant than ever. And who better to answer them than the great advertising guru |
| 1:56.1 | Rory Sutherland, who in addition to being vice chairman of the Ogilvian Mayther group, is a very popular |
| 2:03.8 | columnist for the spectator. I'm delighted that Rory joins me today. Rory, all churches in the |
| 2:11.1 | modern era have heads of communications, and speaking as quite a veteran religious affairs |
| 2:16.6 | correspondent, I can tell you that almost without |
| 2:18.9 | exception, they are useless and they speak in jargon. And one of the problems, I'm sorry to say with |
| 2:25.7 | the new Archbishop of Canterbury, who's a very nice lady and was a lovely nurse by all accounts, |
... |
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