Telemachus

Back in Ancient Rome the gladiators were a major source of public entertainment. They were often required to fight to their very last breath.

There were professional gladiators who were idolised as much as any professional athlete today. Sometimes slaves were forced to fight. At other times they might be required to fight wild beasts such as bears or lions.

People were not fussed as long as there was lots of blood.

In 404 B.C. a lowly monk from the East of the Empire walked into the Coliseum, and onto the arena. He shouted, “In the name of God, stop this!” The details of what followed are murky. In some accounts the spectators were enraged and stoned Telemachus to death. Others say it was the gladiators who killed him. Some accounts say that after the death of Telemachus, the spectators filed out silently, ashamed of what had happened.

The Emperor was Honorius who was a Christian. He ordered that the killing games of Rome be stopped forever.

Having observed the fall out of the murder of Charlie Kirk last week, I feel that we are at a Telemachus moment. People at the political centre, on both sides of the divide, are asking “What have we become that a man is killed for debating ideas in a university?” Thousands of people have announced they are going back to church after decades, or reading their Bible for the first time since childhood.

To a lesser extent, this is happening in the UK and Australia also. We see the trends, and we might be a few years behind the US but we are heading down a similar path.

There has never been a more critical time than this. We stand at a crossroads where we allow our civilisation to crumble, or we turn and return to the Lord.