An Obadiah Slope column
Britain is truly in decline: The Guardian sums up a crisis “When Liverpool’s Spellow Hub library was torched in this summer’s far-right riots, an appeal quickly raised more than £250,000 to restore the facility. That was testament to the community’s deep attachment, but also to the broader appreciation of the value that libraries bring to society.
“Yet they are in crisis – again. Thirteen have closed in Merseyside. The UK has lost one in 20 since 2016, with 180 closed in that time, a BBC investigation has revealed. The most deprived areas are around four times more likely to lose a library than the richest. Overall, library spending has halved since 2010-11.
“’I owe my whole life to books and libraries,’ Zadie Smith said of her local library in Kensal Rise, London, after campaigning in vain against council plans to close it. The thriller writer Lee Child, creator of Jack Reacher, has said that the library in Birmingham where he spent hours as a boy did nothing less than save his life. But a young Child today might not be so lucky: Birmingham could lose 10 of its 35 libraries.”
As Obadiah’s much better half just said to him as we discussed it: “What nobody is saying, it’s predjudice against poor people.”
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News from the right: Sometimes, the best debunker of Trump is a conservative radio commenter. Erick Erickson is a forthright (and Obadiah means right) broadcaster but determined to be independent. He probably is going to vote for Trump but he provided a really good debunking of the “Haitians eating cats in Springfield Ohio” story, which featured in former President Trump’s debate appearance.
There is a video of a woman who has eaten a cat. But she’s not from Springfield, Ohio, a town that has a lot of Haitians, but another Ohio town, Canton. Here’s what Erickson said: “By the way, today, I’m continuing to get from people that, ‘no, no, I’ve seen the video. This was a Haitian woman who ate a cat.’
“It was actually an American citizen, a woman in Canton, Ohio, who ate someone’s cat. There’s a video of it, and the police released the records. She’s an American.
“She is not Haitian. She is clearly insane and having psychological issues, and she ate someone’s cat. Canton, Ohio, not Springfield, Ohio.
“There is no evidence anywhere that people are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. By the way, there is evidence they’re eating the geese or the ducks. Not only have I had callers to this program, by the way, I’m the big talk show in Springfield, Ohio.
“People call in. They say, yeah, they’re eating the ducks. They’re eating the geese.
“This is well known. There’s now 911 audio of people calling to say, hey, the Haitians are at it again. They’re eating the geese out of the park.
“We got 911 audio. The Federalists released it yesterday, but it’s the geese. No one’s eating the puppies.
No one’s eating the cats. And Donald Trump decided to go off on they’re eating the pets[…]”
(From The Erick Erickson Show: Now, A Clean Up Operation, 12 Sep 2024
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/now-a-clean-up-operation/id415779787?i=1000669193037)
And the memes have flowed…
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Prophet watch: Lance Wallnau, who claims to be a prophet, says it was “Witchcraft” that influenced the Trmp/Harris debate. Obadiah thinks analysis suggesting the moderators might have favoured Harris has some credibility, but Wallnau probably thinks that’s unworldly and unspiritual.
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Two big challenges: as a Christian keen to see other people become Christians, Obadiah got an insight into two great challenges on the weekend. The first was a 24-hour prayer meeting for his local church as they plan a church plant. 24 hours of calling on God to guide and help – and because Obadiah now lives just down the hill from the church, he and his more significant other volunteered for the 3 am slot.
The time flowed really fast. As a more experienced 24-hour pray-er said to Obadiah afterwards, 3 am is a great timeslot. Because someone else who was going to be there mixed up their timeslot, we stayed the extra hour until 5 am and had a great time. In the stillness, Obadiah was taken by surprise by how close he felt to God.
And later that day, Obadiah went out along Sydney’s new metro line to Rouse Hill for “Synod (church parliament) in the Greenfields.” As Sydney grows, the proportion of people in church – certainly his denomination, the Anglicans – shrinks. It should be that the most controversial discussion at the Synod will be a report on attendance that says, “Over the period 2013-2023, total Sydney Anglican adult attendance declined 7%, or 14% against the population.” This is a great challenge for anyone who lives in a growing region, whichever church we belong to, and whichever network of Christians we are part of. Do Christians just shrink as a proportion of the population? Or, with God’s help, can we grow? We’ll never know unless we try.