Victory from Defeat, by David Warren

By David Warren, The Catholic Thing, Oct. 23, 2020

David Warren is a former editor of the Idler magazine and columnist in Canadian newspapers. He has extensive experience in the Near and Far East. His blog, Essays in Idleness, is now to be found at: davidwarrenonline.com.

The crowd scenes in the Bible make me flinch. When it truly counts, they call for Barabbas, and always will. Pilate may keep Jesus. Asked for their opinion, on what to do with Him, the crowd shouts, “Crucify Him!”

My own experience, from nature as it were, confirms this. It is true I don’t like mobs. My dislike of them became more or less settled at the age of six, when I had to be rescued from a crowd in Lahore, demanding the massacre of captive Indian nationals. The crowd did not get its way, on that occasion. Meanwhile, in their enthusiasm, they butchered one another.

That, in retrospect, was when I became a Tory. Years would pass before “Christian” came into it. But I noticed that Christians weren’t into crowd scenes either, except when they were liturgical, and tame.  …