Playing the Wilde Card!

17 June 2018

Watching this clip has left me asking the question as to who might receive the accolade for being the most popular person among that small-minded coterie.

I had been stupidly wrong about Andrew Marr, who I thought was such a jolly good fellow! But it isn’t the first time that the BBC has mocked Christians, and I am sure there is more to come! I should have known better!

Childish naivety, of course, is better than old-age cynicism, if I may excuse myself for being trapped in the wrong body with apologies to Peter Pan! We all know that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but Marr just wants to be, well, plain Marr! Thankfully, his Feuerbachian god is not my God! 

Oscar Wilde is dead, and one would not wish to speak ill of the living who seem spiritually dead (not that I am tarring all hypocrites – a well-known Greek synonym for ‘actors’ - with the same brush), or those who are no longer with us in body. 

Comparing Wilde to a “gay Christ” (so A Marr, though hardly original!) or viewing him as “better than Christ” (so Rupert Everett) is sheer fantasy (Christ was not a demi-god and the New Testament portrays Him as sinless), and most certainly a touch ridiculous, to put it mildly! At least Wilde was not linked to Muhammad, or it might have … okay, I’ll stop right here! And never mind the Beatles – who certainly were more popular than, well, Oscar, or Andrew Marr, or Everett rolled together into one! Not sure where that leaves this humble writer!

Oscar Wilde was wild by nature, but I do not for a moment think that he would have elevated himself above the Saviour of the world, judging by his (however misguided) admiration as vividly depicted in his ‘De Profundis.’ He was a fallen creature, and he fell mightily – very sadly!   

I care little for all the pretentiously sophisticated mockery one sees on the BBC these days. They tell me that little things amuse little minds. All the scorning has helped in strengthening my faith in the most hated man that has ever lived. And we are not talking about uncle Oscar now! We are talking about the importance of being earnest!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it well, if I may be allowed to quote him out of context: “Those of us who have learned to discern the power and nature of the world and of our own particular evil in the cross of Jesus Christ and who, in that same cross, deeply trust in the unending love of God for this world will surely not be so very surprised and shocked by certain expressions of this worldliness.”

The whole sorry saga has left me neither shocked nor surprised, but rather somewhat bored! Now why did I have to watch that clip in the first place?! Well, my BP is up again! I am alive! At least it’s out of my system! I am sure that Oscar would have liked some straight talking!

My vision of Christ has not been marred, and I have not gone wild.

Perhaps it’s time to read and study the Gospel accounts again, just as Oscar Wilde did in his Oxford days! All of us may be in for a nasty shock or a pleasant surprise! Anyone who wishes to be compared to Jesus needs their head sorted and remember that he is ‘wholly other’, ‘the man for others.’ He is no Oscar Wilde, but superior in every respect! Dangerously so!