Sometimes, it applies to me. For example, my inability to keep out of internet debates with atheists. When surfing the various forums I belong to, I really do try not to click on any thread with any remotely theological or political sounding title.
But like the moth, drawn to the proverbial flame, I cannot always keep away. Sometimes I am drawn in by the amusing haughtiness of twenty-something atheists, so smug and certain, with such a great faith in science and in their own intellects.
But no matter how I get ensnared in the debate, it never ends well. Most often, I let the atheist(s) have the last word:
Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.
But, of course, that makes him think that his argument is unanswerable:
Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.
In the lastest case, my opponent was railing against God for one of the usual reasons: How could an all-loving God create a hell and send people there for eternity? If that God does exist, he is a sicko!!
Being a predestinarian, most of the usual Christian answers are off-limits to me. I won't go through them here, but please consult your nearest Chick tract to learn about them.
This exchange took place on a bodybuilding forum, where strength, violence, the use of force, and domination over others are praised as ultimate virtues. There is a large sub-forum for the various modern gladiatorial fighting "games" in which the goal is to physically destroy ones opponent in a brutal fashion. On some such boards there are "Pit" sub-forums, where the goal is to verbally eviscerate all other forum participants.
It suddenly struck me that the exact same things that are always praised in this forum as virtues for men to hold sacred, suddenly became vices when God took hold of them.
This was my eventual reply to him:
The more I think about this, given the current love of whatever is strong, forceful, and violent, modern people should view this as a feature, not a bug.
I would think that this "badass God", taking names and kicking asses into the Lake of Fire, would have a certain appeal to modern men. I would predict this picture of God would be more attractive to many than the fading "Jesus meek and mild" paradigm.
So, while you wouldn't wish hell upon anyone, God would. Why? Because He is much more of a badass than you.
I had been an Anglican for only about two years, when I moved to Detroit, Michigan and became a parishioner at Mariners' Church of Detroit. And I had not been at Mariners' for even two weeks when Bishop (then Father) Richard W. Ingalls drew me aside and told me in a confidential tone: We have a lot of "odd birds" here at Mariners' ...
It turns out to have been a definite understatement. The collection of "odd birds" we met there, and at subsequent Anglican parishes, ranged from the mildly odd to the truly eccentric. In nearly all cases, the eccentricities were charming and endearing. Sometimes, they were quite comical. And they made me feel, too, that in Anglicanism, someone as odd as myself might even fit in.
This effect is probably natural for the Via Media church ... as Anglicans, we are "neither fish nor fowl". Were it not for the freight with which modernity has loaded the word, I would be tempted to say that we are "queer".
St. Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologica, opined that each angel constitutes his own unique species.
And this brings me to my hypothesis, which is purely speculative, and which I offer without proof:
Every Anglican constitutes his own species.
As I said, I offer no proof. But you must admit, it explains a lot!
Since at least the First Grade, I have noted in myself the fierce desire to be different from my fellow man. I have not always thought of this desire as completely beneficial or justifiable, but I have never stopped being influenced by it. It explains so many of the decisions I have made throughout my life and continue to make each day.
Lately, I have noticed variants of the "Be Different" principle stated by various people, especially in the bodybuiding community.
An example is one of the characters, "Mad Dog", in the steroid documentary Bigger, Stronger, Faster. His dream was to become a professional wrestling star. At one point in the film, he is quoted as saying: "The biggest fear I ever had in my life is being an average Joe."
In this book, Fussell not only outlines his own reasons for pursuing bodybuilding, but also interviews others about their motivations. One such bodybuilder, Nimrod, answered this way:
"I want to look like something you've never seen before ... More than anything else in the world, whatever it takes, I don't want to be like you. I don't want to look like you, I don't want to talk like you, I don't want to be you."
And I must say, right or wrong, this has been a guiding principle in my life: to be different from other people. My wife tells me I have overachieved in this regard, and that it is now safe for me to quit trying so hard.
Maybe the Kinks said it best, in their song "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" ...
I won't take all that they hand me down,
And make out I smile, though I wear a frown,
And I won't take it all lying down,
'Cause once I get started I go to town.
'Cause I'm not like everybody else,
I'm not like everybody else,
I'm not like everybody else,
I'm not like everybody else.
And I don't want to ball about like everybody else,
And I don't want to live my life like everybody else,
And I won't say that I feel fine like everybody else,
'Cause I'm not like everybody else,
I'm not like everybody else.
But darling, you know that I love you true,
Do anything that you want me to,
Confess all my sins like you want me to,
There's one thing that I will say to you,
I'm not like everybody else,
I'm not like everybody else.
Of course, some may prefer this version by the Chocolate Watch Band:
At its worst, this fierce desire to Be Different from others may be mere misanthropy. But at its best, it can be simply an unwillingness to settle for less than the fullness of the unique vocation with which God has called each of us.
Everything That Rises Must Diverge
In The Future of Mankind, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said this:
Take the two extremes confronting us at this moment, the Marxist and the Christian, each a convinced believer in his own particular doctrine, but each, we must suppose, fundamentally inspired with an equal faith in Man. Is it not incontestable, a matter of everyday experience, that each of these, to the extent that he believes (and sees the other believe) in the future of the world, feels a basic human sympathy for the other -- not for any sentimental reason, but arising out of the obscure recognition that both are going the same way, and that despite all ideological differences they will eventually, in some manner, come together on the same summit? No doubt each in his own fashion, following his separate path, believes that he has once and for all solved the riddle of the world’s future. But the divergence between them is in reality neither complete nor final, unless we suppose that by some inconceivable and even contradictory feat of exclusion (contradictory because nothing would remain of his faith) the Marxist, for example, were to eliminate from his materialistic doctrine every upward surge towards the spirit. Followed to their conclusion the two paths must certainly end by coming together: for in the nature of things everything that is faith must rise, and everything that rises must converge.
Now leaving aside the dubious propositions (a) that Marxists are on any sort of rising trajectory; and (b) that the Christian has faith in Man ... let us focus instead on his most famous statement here, that "everything that rises must converge".
Granted, we must and do share some things in common, and these are precious, the things that pertain to our common humanity. But my contention is that, as people grow and mature, they become more and more uniquely themselves, unlike all others. One baby, to the disinterested eye, is like another. But one old man is quite different from another. They have grown apart.
If you all want me to settle down,
Slow up and stop all my running 'round,
Do everything like you want me to,
There's one thing that I will say to you,
I'm not like everybody else,
I'm not like everybody else.
The knowledge that there are people out there doing, essentially, the things in this video and calling it Worship ... makes me exceedingly glad for the privilege of worshipping according to the Book of Common Prayer!
