“I was a teenage fundamentalist”, and more on hoodie man

25466_410424353551_70437_n (2)COMMENT  |  OBADIAH SLOPE

Obadiah has a habit (possibly a bad habit) of reading communist memoirs of party members who lost their faith. He’s devouring Party Animals: My family and other communists by Times writer David Aaronovitch. His account of not going to scouts, not reading the same comics as the other kids and not understanding pop culture as a “red diaper” child of party members resonates with Obadiah. Growing up as a fundamentalist Christian (or very close to fundamentalist) meant the same things happened to him. Being out of step with society, like commos used to be, may be where Christians are heading to. Obadiah knows what it’s like. Uncomfortable but doable.

Can’t use the r-word: “I was brought up by my mother not to talk about money, politics and Um, something else.” A voter in the swing seat of Eden Monaro on why she won’t predict the election result.

Like to have a beer with Duncan? The young man in a hoodie who answered back to cabinet Minister Kelly O’Dwyer and the Business rep Innes Willox on Q&A this week stirred up a lot of interesting reactions. “Why is he complaining? If he has been working for the minimum wage his whole life, why not retrain and get skilled? Instead of feeling sorry for oneself, why not try and better his life? God helps those who help themselves,” was how one Facebook commentator put it on the Eternity page.

Obadiah is unhappy with the “God helps those who helps themselves” line. God saves the unworthy, NOT those who help themselves. The point is not making hoodie wearer Duncan Storrar into some sort of a saint (because he’s not) and his son was dragged out by The Australian to prove he is not. As the week went on Storrar was 1) revealed as less and less of a saint, with The Australian uncovering a grimy rap-sheet and 2) more and more money was raised for him on the gofundme.com website. There’s some sort of reverse prodigal son thing going on here. Duncan Storrar’s son has left home and has become a hard worker supporting himself, kicking a drug habit. The father, who is on government benefits and never made more than the minimum wage, has a disability and it seems some self-induced problems: violence, drugs and broken relationships. So do we welcome the prodigal dad speaking on TV? The youngest son in Jesus’ story seems to have had issues too.