An Obadiah Slope column
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Funny bun: Archbishop Jeremy of Brisbane commits pun-ishment… and Obadiah notes the names of two other Bishops at least gave him a like. Giggling, no doubt!
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Tradition for sale: Spotted in the “preloved uniform shop of PLC (Presbyterian Ladies College) Sydney.
Dorcas Squares are knitted squares that Obadiah has been told that PLC students for generations have been required to knit. Dorcas, from Acts 9, lived in Joppa (now part of Tel Aviv) and sewed clothes from the poor.
One more knowledgeable than Obadiah in Presbyterian ways expressed mild outrage. What’s happened so that the grandmothers and mothers, even aunts, are no longer surreptitiously knitting the squares PLC students?
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Colonialisation: A spectre haunting Christianity. A reader sent Obadiah this quote from William booth the founder of the Salvation Army. Sadly, Booth certainly was not the only one convinced that seizing land was a Christian project.
In Darkest England and the Way Out page 101, ‘The Over Sea Colony’, “All who have given attention to the subject are agreed that in our Colonies in South Africa, Canada, Western Australia and elsewhere that there are millions of acres of useful land to be obtained almost for the asking, capable of supporting our surplus population in health and comfort, were it a thousand times greater than it is. We propose to secure a tract of land in one of these countries, prepare it for settlement, establish in it authority, govern it by equitable laws, assist it in times of necessity, settling it gradually with a prepared people, and so create a home for these destitute multitudes.”
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Gaza: In a small way the passions raised by the war in Gaza played out on The Other Cheek’s Facebook threads following a report that surveyed what some Christians attending the march thought. Obadiah notes that some of the split in the Christian community over Covid seemed to return. Recall for a moment the protests over churches closing physical meetings for a while, and while most of us went online, some really thought we whould continue to meet together physically as whoever wrote Hebrews tells us to.
But Obadiah got the distinct impression (and he could be wrong) that there was a tendency for those who really wanted to have churches open during Covid, to not support the harbour Bridge march.
Some of that was simply not wanting to give the other side a big win. But alongside the principle of fee speech which Obadiah defends rather more strongly (but not absolutely) than some more progressive people might (think of the Israel Folau or Jereth Kok cases), is the parallel right of Freedom of Assembly.
The argument against Churches being open and against the weekend’s Gaza demonstrations are similar – community detriment whether through risk of more Covid or traffic snarls.
That’s rather inconvenient for anyone like Obadiah who was happy for Churches to close for a time., but felt the sheer numbers on the march was an argument for letting them go over the Bridge. And many of us would prefer one of these rights to assemby be allowed but not the other. we just disagree on which ones.
Both are judgment calls and in fact the question of whther the march could go over the Harbour Bridge was decided by a Supreme Court judge. If Freedom of Assembly is available to all then one must – at least in principle give the right to assemble to those one disagrees with.
Gee, its just as complicated as the free speech debate.