An Obadiah Slope column
Obadiah finds reading letters to the editor more misses than hits, but thought this was a great letter to the NY Times that did not waste a single word.
“I do not agree with a lot of Charlie Kirk’s views.
“However, if you can’t say ‘Charlie Kirk should not have been murdered for his opinions’ without then adding ‘But…’ you may not be as fair-minded as you think.”
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Murdered sleep: “Charlie Kirk was sssassinated for the same opinions I hold,” Australian Christian writer Kurt Malhburg wrote on Facebook this week. “This is an observation I cannot escape, and one that robbed me of sleep last night.”
Malhburg might be a rare Australian Christian to perfectly or almost align with Kirk’s political as well as Christian views. Obadiah hopes he is not misrepresenting Malhburg by saying that. The amount of reverberation Kirk’s assassination has had in Australian Christian circles is considerable, both by people who, like Mahlburg, largely agree with Kirk’s politics and theology and those who have been emphasising how different they are from him.
But Mahlburg and the most politically conservative patch among the Australian Christians won’t be the only ones experiencing a sudden sadness. Because Charlie Kirk, taking what he said at face value, was clearly a Christian in Obadiah’s view. And that explains the feeling of loss.
And so he was united with Christ. “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” (Romans 6:3–8)
And so united with all fellow believers. And yes, as the Romans 6 passage implies, with his old self crucified, but on earth, that transformation was incompletely manifested.
But united with us as a fellow believer. We don’t get to choose who we are united with as Christians; that is God’s business. From time to time, we will have someone we either enjoy being a fellow believer with or feel that we are inconveniently yoked. We will be in heaven with people we have campaigned alongside and those with whom we have tussled.
And this verse will apply to both sorts
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants.” (Psalm 116:15)
The point is, there will be people we disagree with on important things that we can’t deny are fellow believers. And that should suggest being humble when talking about each other.
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A question: Is the Charlie Kirk assassination worse than the savage murder of Iryna Zarutska, the Ukrainian refugee killed on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina? Or what about the death of Corporal Bader Saad Mohammed al-Humaidi al-Dosari, a Qatari security guard, who died in the Israeli raid on Hamas leaders in Doha? We know that Kirk spoke about Zarutska’s murder, but Obadiah does not know if he ever heard of al-Dosari.
Obadiah’s answer is “Surely not. Each of these deaths is terrible.’
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The right place to learn something: This week, Obadiah had a special sort of senior moment in the classroom where he does voluntary scripture teaching. It was a genuine shock to see that the year twos who have this demountable as their home room are learning how to use Excel spreadsheets. Obadiah’s second thought was, “Well, why not?” And his third thought was how very ancient he felt at that moment.
These year two students, they also learn how to parse a sentence – and that Obadiah thoroughly applauds.