The prelude to Bill Wilson’s recorded sermons used to say something like, “His life is the story of a man who walks a fine line between two worlds: the world of conventional Christianity and the other, a nether world of violence & drugs – but not quite fitting into either realm”.
I’m not quite sure my life has been lived in such a contrasting dichotomy as Bill Wilson’s, but I currently find myself empathising with the sense of being caught between two contrasting realms: a life in limbo. On one side polite, conservative Anglicanism and on the other despotic, ‘liberal’ secularism. Stuck in the middle, me – non-conformist, libertarian, activist.
Which reminded me of this incident in my life almost 7 years ago when I found myself literally walking between 2 diametrically opposed groups of people and fitting in with neither. [I make my brief appearance around 2:45]. The police refused to let me wear my beard (which rather ruined the whole alter-ego I was going for!) and they later confiscated my sign for being provocative. At least Jesus’ radical message is still recognised as being provocative by the police!
[Incidentally, the whole event that day was no where near as bad as it was (a) billed as being beforehand by the media (b) portrayed as being afterwards by the media.]