Fame at last: Obadiah Slope has made it to the Australian Literary canon – but not in a very nice way. This column is named after Obadiah Slope, the “odious evangelical” from the series of novels by Anthony Trollope that satirised church politics. But “Obadiah Slope” has popped up used as an insult in, “The Lady with the Gun asks the Questions,” a new book in the Phrynne Fisher crime stories by Kerry Greenwood.
Miss Fisher is describing a fictional dean of St Pauls: “Well, I have met the dean and I agree he’s something of an Obadiah Slope. The sort of man who makes you wash your hand every three minutes.”
This Obadiah is torn between pride that his namesake has made into a real Aussie book and despair that yet another good judge of character has dissed him. Such is fame.
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A Bishop explaineth: “Slightly alarmed that some of our coaches to Lambeth tomorrow are bring designated as “masks only”. For the avoidance of doubt, I intend to travel fully clothed.” The Bishop of Manchester, David Walker, tweets to reassure everyone as he attends the Anglicans’ Lambeth conference.
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Lit up: To the Tate museum, which quite conveniently has come to Melbourne. The exhibition is called “light” which is an odd subject for the Brits to send to Australia – we have heaps of light. But they value it more, perhaps? There is a real treasure in artworks from JMW Turner, the masterful painter of light. Several of his paintings pick up Christian themes. He certainly comes through with his “The Angel Standing on the Sun,” which depicts light in a rapturous joyful way. But the light from Turner’s angel is too much light for the other people in the picture. They turn away dazzled. Where are the Christians? Obadiah wonders.
Not in the picture next door where Turner shows he mastered dark as well as light in “The Deluge” – a depiction of those not in the ark as the Noahic flood’s swirling capture of those left behind is pictured as the Sun dips below the horizon. The light extinguished, indeed.
And then two more paintings in which Turner playfully depicts the morning after with light bathing the waves. Beauty found in terror.
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Gratuitous: Further inside the ACMI gallery in which the Tate exhibition is nesting, Obadiah comes across a display of old-fashioned magic lanterns used as projectors during Victorian times. The caption catches his eye: ‘Early magic lantern projection depicted cautionary religious and supernatural scenes, like sinners roasting in Purgatory (sic) and death wielding a scythe. Luckily magic lanterns weren’t used only by clergymne but also by a wide variety of entertainers and educators in homes, theatres and universities …” Nice use of “luckily”, eh?
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The street lights come on: As I write about magic lanterns and museum caption-writers jeering at Christians, the voice of a street preacher’s heavily amplified stentorian tone near Southern Cross station (where Obadiah is staying) falls silent. Rush hour is over, and the sun has gone down. Was anyone listening? Obadiah would love to hear from anyone with a positive story to tell about present-day street preaching.
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Strange joy: A wise person leaning across the pew said to Obadiah, “One of the joys of being older is knowing how God has led you into places that you would not have chosen to be but has used you in them.” Obadiah is not good at uncertainty in life (the same as with many other adopted people), but he is finding there’s a strange enjoyment in being adrift in the moment.
For the last thirteen years, Obadiah has been a journalist reporting on the Christian world. But I have discovered through an unexpected departure from Eternity (the news site I founded thirteen long years ago) that I don’t have to be defined by that role.
It is a strange but welcome liberation. God does not need me to be defined by that role. In fact, he would rather I wasn’t.
And at present, I have alternatives, all of which I am at peace about. “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” (St Julian of Norwich.)
Neither left nor right but both: Do you feel stuck in the middle about the issues swirling around? Obadiah does. Some Christians appear to be taking a stance against the Uluru Statement from the Heart, for example. This is their right in a free society, although if Obadiah can venture into punditry, they will be a minority, a small minority among Christians.
And that’s Obadiah’s point. Whether scepticism about vaccinations, Uluru or some progressive cause, we should not be welding our faith to a cause, making it appears that the Christian faith forces us to that position. This is not true of positions readily backed by the Bible, but on issues like whether the state can require nurses or police to be vaccinated.
By all means, have strong views. But please don’t portray them as views that other Christians should be ashamed of not holding.