ABSTRACT

Ever since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister of Great Britain in 2007, there has been renewed interest in the experience of those raised as children of the clergy. In the early months of his premiership, Brown made repeated reference to his father’s status as a Church of Scotland minister and to how it was his upbringing as a ‘child of the manse’ that furnished him with the ‘moral compass’ that continues to inform his politics and social values. Brown is not alone among public figures in being the child of an ordained Christian minister: journalist and TV presenter Jon Snow is the son of an Anglican bishop, as are comedian Hugh Dennis and radio DJ Tim Westwood; the father of well-known TV personality David Frost was a minister in the Methodist Church; actor Denzel Washington’s father was a Pentecostal minister; and former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is the daughter of John Wesley Rice, a minister in the Presbyterian Church, whose experience of racial discrimination in Alabama shaped his daughter’s emerging political stance. Such observations invite reflection on the significance that being a clergy child might have for one’s values, particularly in relation to ideals of public service. The cultural stereotype of the clergy child – as either saint or sinner – is implicitly called into question and, as I demonstrate in this chapter, the evidence demands a more complex understanding.