Peter CostelloThe Bad Christian’s Manifesto
In his lifetime, Jesus habitually consorted with outcasts, sinners and other riff raff in the eyes of the respectable Pharisees, those hypocritical persons whom he scornfully referred to as “white sepulchres”.
The early Christians too seem to have found their converts among such riff raff and not among the upper class. But when Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire, it took on another tone. Status and hence respectability became more important and, for many professed Christians, respectability remains a touchstone.
It is a concept that lies uneasily with what we read in the Gospels. And over the centuries, those like St Francis, who took the Gospels seriously rather than piously, often dismayed the society of their day. Troublesome priests have always been a problem, and examples will spring readily to mind today in Ireland.
Notorious
The Rev. David Tomlinson is one such clergyman. He is the Anglican vicar of St Luke’s Holloway, a church not far from the notorious prison in London. A couple of years ago he was the author of How to be a Bad Christian, and this new book provocatively takes up and expands on themes found there.
His views have made him a media figure in a small way. He buried Ronnie Biggs of the ‘Great Train Robbery’ and also Bruce Reynolds, a more vicious character in the eyes of many. He was called, perhaps inevitably, by the Daily Mail a “trendy vicar”. But cheap sneers aside, David Tomlinson, like his master, has a serious purpose in life.
Tomlinson takes a very wide view, and some of his opinions may indeed distress or even anger some. Though he writes in a very popular and approachable style, what he says is based on long, thorough and wide reading, and is theologically based.
This book is bound to stir up more than mere Daily Mail readers, but his views have a refreshing air which is very welcome, and very readable. He extends his loving compassion to both the abused and the outcast.
Shocking
Catholics who find his views surprising, even shocking in places, might think of re-reading some of the passages in the Gospels, such as the woman taken in adultery, the woman by the well and the rich young man who was told how hard it was for the rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
The common theme of this book and the Gospels is caritas and compassion. But just think: Dave Tomlinson must be doing something right, for while other churches echo in their emptiness, St Luke’s is packed to the doors every Sunday.
What he says reaches people, and resonates with their own experiences of life, and that counts for a lot these days.