Hot Rod Anglicans Invade Illini Union - July, 2007

To understand this post, you need to realize that quite a few of us at the HRA family reunion (7 or 8 out of 20) were wearing these Hot Rod Anglican T-shirts during the events chronicled below. The brightly-coloured shirts made it harder to get lost from one another, but also harder to deny that we knew each other!

This is what we looked like later in the evening at the Champaign County Fair:


We were in the basement food court of the Illini Union, finishing up pizza and Chinese fast food. We were contemplating rental of several lanes of the bowling alley, also located in the basement. A woman sitting with her husband (I presume) kept staring at us. I assumed that it because several members of our clan were loaning pairs of socks to each other, exchanging shoes and socks right there in the food court.

As it turned out, we could simply have bought socks at the bowling alley, which looked like this:



Confronted by a Food Court Patron

I turned several shades of red as the woman continued to stare at our table. Finally she approached our table. She asked my lovely wife, What IS a Hot Rod Anglican?? My wife pointed to me and said, Ask him!

I was flustered and realized that I had never prepared for this eventuality. I had no 90-second "elevator speech" prepared. So, this is how the dialog ran:

Me: A Hot Rod Anglican is a part of the worldwide Anglican Communion who also likes hot rods.

She: So, are you homophobic?

Me: Well, if by "phobia" you mean fear, then no.

She: Well do you think it (homosexual intercourse) is a sin?

Me: Sure. What I might better have said is: The management at Anglican Beach Party has taken no official stance on human sexuality, ma'am. We are merely humble T-shirt vendors.

She: DARN!!! It just bothers me when people are so SURE about the issue.

Me: Well, really, the whole reason I am interested in religion is to be sure about things ...

She: And you picked Anglicanism? You can be an Anglican and believe anything!

Me: Touché!

After this, she trundled back to her husband, to let him know the bad news about our HRA army, and we went off to bowl. Later, though, we saw this carefully ethnically- and otherwise-balanced mural in the Illini Union, which contained a Mission Statement which I am sure that the Food Court Woman felt we violated:

The Mural:



The Mission Statement:



However, we did live up to the part of the Mission Statement about having fun!