ANZAC DAY BOOK REVIEW

Australians and New Zealanders are today “celebrating” Anzac Day. I put ‘celebrating’ in quotes because it’s a very sombre affair, remembering the massive loss of life in WW1. This year, I wanted to read something relevant in the lead up to Anzac Day so here is my review of “IN GREAT SPIRITS - The WW1 Diary of Archie Barwick”.

This is a truly extraordinary book. Archie Barwick enlisted at the first soundings of war in 1914 and experienced first-hand the horrors of Gallipoli. As if that were not enough, he spent a further three years fighting the Germans in France, injured badly on a couple of occasions but otherwise surviving miraculously. Through the whole ordeal, he kept a colourfully detailed diary. As the title of this book suggests, his diary highlights the positive attitude of the Australian troops and he glowingly reports their achievements and the esteem in which they were held by the French and English, yes and even the Germans. He graphically describes the terrible mud-soaked conditions in the Somme campaign, the ravages of "trench-foot", and the frightful artillery battles, with huge shells whistling around his ears or over his head. Yet, when the weather cleared up and opportunity arose, he relished the scenery and hospitality of the war-torn France.

The following entry from 19th May, 1916, conveys something of the tragic, yet whimsical style of Archie's writing. "Today is the first anniversary of the great Turkish attack on us at Anzac. This day last year we were getting a bit of our own back, by nightfall we had slaughtered no less than 7000 Turks and taught them a very severe lesson. I wonder where I shall be this time next year; daisy pushing perhaps, or if my luck still sticks to me, home in Australia, for I don't think the war will last another year at any rate."

Wisely, the editors of this volume have left Archie's idiosyncrasies in tact. He always used the ampersand & instead of the actual word. Good things were "bonzer", the Germans were "Old Fritz", and British soldiers were "Tommies".

Some things, in the end, really did get to Archie; the long wait to be cleared of the flu when the war was over, the homesickness, the mud and snow, the thousands of dead bodies. It truly is hard to believe that anyone could survive all these things but, apparently, Archie did.

This is an unforgettable diary of a very forgettable time in history.

TIME FOR CHRISTIAN CULTURE TO BE MORE VISIBLE

In my book “Our Culture in Christ” I wrote the following about Christian subculture. “It means living a Christian lifestyle in full view of a fallen world. It’s not about the clothes we wear as Christians, or the food we eat (although even these things can be important) but it’s about showing love and mercy, kindness and gentleness, faithfulness, hope, joy, peace. It’s not about bumper stickers and Christianese slogans, but it’s genuine righteousness, courage, inspiration and integrity.” (p22)

I am currently in the process of establishing a bookshop in the town where I live and people who know me might assume that it would be a specifically Christian bookshop.

But that’s not the case.

Bookshops in Australia have tended to stock a very poor range of Christian books, partly because it’s a market they haven’t bothered to understand but also because that market was covered by church-run Christian bookshops anyway.

But times are changing. It is no longer financially viable to run an exclusively Christian bookshop in anything less than the major cities. And I think this presents an opportunity.

It’s an opportunity for Christian books to be marketed right alongside a range of other books. If customers come in to browse the shelves, why shouldn’t they see Christian fiction on the same shelf as general fiction? Why shouldn’t they see Christian biographies in the biography section? If they are looking for lifestyle/ self-help books, why shouldn’t they get some Christian options on the same shelves?

This is not about compromise, this is about getting Christianity into the marketplace where every other –ism and –ology has been openly displayed for a long time. If we are not ashamed of our Christian culture, isn’t it time that we stopped segregating it away?

When the apostle Paul went to Athens, he went to the marketplaces and to the Areopagus. He met with the philosophers and Gentiles on their own turf and he was able to reason with them because he knew something about their ideas.

(By the way, I don’t agree with the Bible teachers who say that Paul’s ministry in Athens was a dismal failure. There were some significant conversions there – see Acts 17:34.)

My point is that, while Christian bookshops, Christian radio, Christian TV and Christian everything are helpful to Christians (very helpful, I’m sure), it’s a tragedy if that means that Christianity disappears from the worldly marketplaces.

 

I believe we are living in critical times and it’s critical that genuine Christian culture (rather than the sinfully distorted version that makes the nightly news programs) becomes more visible.