Not so barmy: Paul Roe, who goes by the excellent moniker the Outback Historian, posted a thoughtful comment about the Barmy Army, who faithfully barracked for England in the Ashes tests.
“It probably slipped by most cricket followers that at least two or three times a day, the Barmy choir also belted out the words of the hymn ‘Jerusalem’ as an English sporting anthem. William Blake, a famous Christian mystic, wrote the poem two centuries ago, possibly based on an ancient myth that Jesus had once blessed England with a personal visit. But to fans packed into the stands in vast sports cathedrals, it’s morphed into a beery expectation that the team from their ‘green and pleasant land’ will, with God’s help, rise again to glory!
‘Two things struck me about this curious phenomenon of Jesus and a restored Jerusalem being celebrated at an international cricket match. First, somehow, even our secular stadiums had to acknowledge this critical link in our spiritual root system. British historian Tom Holland could have been speaking of the cheerfully pagan Barmy Army when he wrote;
“’Even in Europe …the trace elements of Christianity continue to infuse people’s morals and presumptions so utterly that many fail to detect their presence. Like dust particles so fine as to be invisible to the naked eye, they were breathed in equally by everyone: believers, atheists, and those who never paused so much as to think about religion.’”
###
Vale Melbourne Anglican: as the news that “TMA” has been shut down reverberates from Geelong to Glen Iris and Syndal to Sunshine, Obadiah was reminded of a curious incident when in the Melbourne Synod a motion was moved to defund TMA because the newspaper and website Eternity, which Obadiah ran, was doing a good job – and for free. Onbadiah only heard about it afterwards, and kinda appreciated the compliment, but thinks any perceived problems with church media should be solved by doing it better. He mourns TMA because, like Eternity, it ran heaps of copy with the balance of words and pictures firmly tilted towards text.
###
Handy:
Note to the confused: This is Tim Hawkins, a US Comedian, not the other Tim Hawkins, Aussie pastor in South Africa.
###
In memory of Renee Nicole Good, shot in a US immigration raid.
