{"id":16288,"date":"2012-04-22T15:27:52","date_gmt":"2012-04-22T19:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/?p=16288"},"modified":"2012-04-22T15:27:52","modified_gmt":"2012-04-22T19:27:52","slug":"an-exercise-in-contrasts-remembering-an-atheist-and-a-christian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/an-exercise-in-contrasts-remembering-an-atheist-and-a-christian\/","title":{"rendered":"An exercise in contrasts: remembering an atheist and a Christian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christopher Hitchens remembered<\/a> for how clever he was and, by association, how clever his friends are; a homage to ego:<\/p>\n

They came to mourn Christopher Hitchens in the Great Hall of New York\u2019s Cooper Union, where Abraham Lincoln gave the speech that launched his campaign for president in 1860.<\/p>\n

The hall was filled with family, friends and readers; intimates of 40 years\u2019 standing, and those who knew him only from the printed page and stage appearance; all still wounded by a loss that remains fresh at four months\u2019 distance.<\/p>\n

Most of the memorial took the form of readings from Christopher\u2019s own works, occasionally enlivened by editorial comment. The biggest laugh was claimed by the writer, actor and gay-rights exponent, Stephen Fry.<\/p>\n

Christopher, he said, had condemned as more trouble than they were worth: champagne, lobster, anal sex and picnics. \u201cThree out of four, Christopher,\u201d said Fry.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chuck Colson remembered<\/a> for the positive influence he had on others \u2013 a homage to redemption:<\/p>\n

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called Colson “a fine man whose life proved that there is such a thing as redemption.”<\/p>\n

Evangelist Billy Graham acknowledged Colson’s “tremendous ministry reaching into prisons and jails with the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ” for three and a half decades. “When I get to Heaven and see Chuck again, I believe I will also see many, many people there whose lives have been transformed because of the message he shared with them,” Graham said in a statement, adding, “I count it a privilege to have called him friend.”<\/p>\n

One Andrew Mullins from Georgia tweeted to testify of Colson’s ministry. “The man changed my life in High School. His prison ministry changed other lives, as well,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christopher Hitchens remembered for how clever he was and, by association, how clever his friends are; a homage to ego: They came to mourn Christopher Hitchens in the Great Hall of New York\u2019s Cooper Union, where Abraham Lincoln gave the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[2085,600],"class_list":["post-16288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","tag-christopher-hitchens","tag-chuck-colson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16288\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}