Local council proves Jesus got it right.

An Obadiah Slope column

Not counting the cost: This is a story about a special hole in the ground in the Sydney northside suburb of Ryde. This large council used to have a town hall. It looked like this.

image credit Paulscf /Wikimedia

Obadiah went there once – to a graduation ceremony for Sydney Missionary and Bible College. It was like a journey into the sixties, but quite functional as a meeting hall.

Now it is a wasteland. The Sydney Morning Herald reported “More than $20 million has been spent since 2019 on demolition work, project management and consultants at the site that previously housed Ryde’s council chambers, but it remains a hole in the ground.

“The council referred itself to the Independent Commission Against Corruption in May after receiving legal advice that paying for a new council house and public facilities, including an auditorium, on the site with restricted developer funds was potentially illegal.

“The report, released on Thursday, gives councillors few options but to sell the site because of the major outlays it had already committed to, including a $96 million revamp of Eastwood shopping precinct and the $30 million purchase of TG Milner sports field in Marsfield.”

What message might Jesus have for Ryde Council?

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’” (Luke 14:28–30 NIV)

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Revival reported: Possibly the most shared article in evangelical circles this week is “A Christian revival is under way in Britain” in the Spectator magazine’s Easter edition. Justin Brierley, a well known Christian writer who ran the Unbelievable show on Premier Christian radio does a good round-up of a group of intellectuals becoming Christian.

“Influencers such as Joe Rogan and Douglas Murray are increasingly talking about the value of Christian faith and the dangers of casting it off,” reports Brierley. “The former new atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been praising the virtues of our Judaeo-Christian heritage, after becoming convinced that secular humanism cannot save the West.”

Jordan Peterson, Jonathan Haidt and John Vervaeke, all secular psychologists, are among those Brierley lists as those “regarding religion as a ‘useful fiction’ for making sense of life.”

Brierley is on to something – it is notable that public intellectuals including the influential historian Tom Holland are speaking out about the value of faith. It is striking that Brierley begins his Spectator piece with Holland inviting him to the liturgical church Holland attends regularly. But Holland remains an agnostic, trying out religion. A piece by him Why I was Wrong about Christianity deserves to be read carefully.

Holland concludes “In my morals and ethics, I have learned to accept that I am not Greek or Roman at all, but thoroughly and proudly Christian.” Not quite.

So while Brierley has captured a shift in the vibe, it is not a revival – yet. The story does not fit the headline – but it is still a worthy read.

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Aussie Easter awards: there was a good crop of Christian writing in the media this Easter. Three cheers for Michael Jensen in the Financial Review and Stan Grant in the Saturday Paper. Obadiah urges people to read them sympathetically. It is not easy to get into mainstream media. For example Obadiah has seen comment on Jensen’s piece criticising him for mentioning Independent School shame –and the critics ISTM would want a detailed depiction rather than Jensen alluding to something. Well, print is tougher on word limits.

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Christian marketing says so much: The words of the prophet are written on the school bus. If that were true maybe we have a false prophet here:

MLC School, a local campus, challenges us – or rather the parents of girls to have their offspring to “Dare to be more”. How does this chime with the words of John the Baptist who dared to state that he needed to become less not more? “He must become greater; I must become less.” (John 3:30 NIV)

John was unique, one might argue. But “I must be more” is not a Christian message. Perhaps a better, though longer message for MLC – the Methodist Ladies College – would look to its Methodist roots and develop something along the lines of John Wesley’s “Gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can”. Source.

Or his “do good: as we have time, and opportunity, to do good in every possible kind, and in every possible degree to all men.” Source.

Correction: Bible reference to Luke 14