Don't let them sleep

In my occasional series on 'naffities', I regale you with the bizarre things that Christians have done: to me, in my presence, to my friends or family.

These are things that are usually so odd or merely impolite that they would surprise the village atheist.

The other day I was sorting through my old papers and came across an attainment certificate from the (then) Bush Fire Council of NSW for my attendance at a 5 day residential school on bushfire fighting command. This was in the mid 1970s (I also found a Certificate of Merit  from the Wine Society for a course I completed on the manufacture, serving and appreciation of wine. The practical segments were great!)

At the Bush Fire course, held at Camp McKay (now the Merroo Christian Centre) there was a large dormitory in which about 20 of us bunked. Amongst the 20 of us were a few party boys: they had a strong interest in alcohol, (which made them comically merry), and a couple of Christians. I was one.

The other was a man in his 50s or 60s who was part of a Churches of Christ group on the NSW far north coast.

He liked to read his Bible at bedtime, come what may. He probably thought it was his 'witness'.

But his witness inconvenienced all of us. He refused to turn out the lights, which brightly illuminated the whole dorm. We all had to suspend sleep, after a long tiring day of lectures and field work, while he read his Bible, his Scripture Union notes and meditated on the prayer prompts therein.

The rest of us were astonished at his moronic lack of insight into the needs of the rest of us.

It was an anti-witness. It also made him out to be an insensitive dope.