Thief

The thief does not come except to steal..

John 10:10

At Durrington High back in the early 80s I was in Fagin's gang as part of a school production of Oliver!, the musical version of a Dickensian classic. But in the news today kids in California almost the same age were taken out of merely watching the same show, mid-production, for fear such gin drinking etc would corrupt them. Sigh. I don't think Dickens glamorizes alcoholism. If they'd stayed till the end they'd see Sykes gets his comeuppance. It's actually one of my favorite musicals to this day. Crazy what is & isn't censored for kids these days. Drag shows ok, Dickens not ok? Bloody 'ell, gov'nor.  Somehow, probably through God's wonderful grace, I managed to avoid the life of a hardened criminal despite ACTING as one when I was 12. Did Dickens (or at least Bart's version of Dickens) corrupt me? Maybe. But Dickens is still regarded as a great London writer because he portrays London life warts & all. As a Londoner he is part of my heritage. Is he a Christian writer? Yes and no. He can be extremely harsh on what he sees as cant and fake religiosity, yet in A Christmas Carol he probably nails a true Christmas Spirit better than just about any writer bar St Luke, before or since, hence the popularity of the work in many formats. He is probably a Broad Anglican, a liberal Christian if you like rather than an evangelical or Catholic, but I suspect if he is looking down from heaven at the liberal Anglican church today he might have some pretty harsh things to say about it. Liberalism in 1840 was radically different from the 2022 version. In college I was writing about Dickens & Marx (born within 6 years of each other) both working in London at the same time, seeing the same social problems, to very different ends. Dickens is more of an optimist than Gissing, who despaired of both Christianity & socialism.