Every Anglican, His Own Species?

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!

My Fierce Desire to be Different.

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."

And right around the same time, I read the bodybuilding autobiography, Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder.

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.
 

Why I Am So Thankful to Be an Anglican!

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!

"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

A Lame Excuse for Abandoning Christianity

I recently saw this comment on FaceBook:

It is safe to say that I do not buy into the Christian faith. Growing up in the bible belt I saw to much prejudice coming from people who called themselves Christians.

Of course, we've all heard these excuses many times over from folks who have decided to abandon the Christian faith.  But when I read this, I saw for the first time how invalid this type of thinking truly is.

Think about it.  We do not apply this test to any other decision we make in life!  When have we ever heard someone say any of the following?

*  I'd really like to have a meal at that restaurant, but too many hypocrites eat there.

*  I'd love to drive that car, but last week I saw someone run a red light in one just like it!

*  I would really like to believe Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation, but just this morning, a person who also believes it was very rude to me!

Deciding the truth or falsehood of a set of beliefs based on the misbehavior of a subset of its adherents seems foolhardy.  For one thing, why would anyone want to cede this much control to other people, people he has already identified as ethically flawed?  In the end, such a person, were he to be consistent, would end up believing nothing, because "prejudiced" people can be found among the adherents of every belief system.

In the final analysis, this charge against Christians may be nothing more than an excuse, invented after the fact by someone who is not willing to accept the rigors of Christian life, or who is unwilling to turn loose of some pet sin.

Interview with Bodybuilder Janet Kaufman.

It is my pleasure to interview national level bodybuilding competitor Janet Kaufman.  Thanks, Janet for agreeing to be interviewed!

You have been bodybuilding for nearly as long as I have been following the sport, which in itself is an incredible achievement.  I believe your first contest was in 1987.  Can you tell us how that came about?

I was going to college out of town and came home to see my parents and brother. Keep in mind that I wasn’t athletic in high school.  I tried track and tennis but just never seemed to do any good at it.  When I left to go to college I fell into the usual scene of eating and partying like most college students but if one isn't active, well we all know what happens, I was about 140 pounds of flab.  So when I came home for that visit 23 years ago my brother, who is brutally honest, told me my butt was getting really big.  Well no girl wants to be told her butt is big especially from her brother.  I was pretty mad.  The same weekend my brother asked if I wanted to attend my first bodybuilding show.  As I watched, still fuming from what he had said I told myself I was going to be competing on stage.

Obviously, bodybuilding has become a large part of your life.  What keeps you motivated to keep at it?

It’s weird that I have to think about what keeps me motivated. I have been doing it so long that I just do it. It’s like going to work every day. But my goal is to someday get my pro card. So that drives me to go the gym every day.  I also told myself that I want to be active into my 80’s and bodybuilding keeps me healthy.

That's great!!  Do you work in the fitness industry (e.g., training clients)?  If not, what sort of work do you do?

I do train clients at Gold’s Gym in Lewiston  part time to help pay for contest expenses. But my main profession is purchasing clerk at the Lewiston school district.

Over the years, how has your level of muscularity been viewed by the general public?  Is there more acceptance now, and more awareness of the sport of bodybuilding than, say, twenty years ago?

I have always had good support here in my home town.  But I am sure that there were negative comments as well.  Everyone has their opinion on what is pleasing to the eye.  I do believe that the bodybuilding is better understood now than it was twenty years ago.

What sort of workout philosophy do you follow (e.g., volume training, high-intensity, low rep training)?  Has that changed over the years?

My workout philosophy is base on muscle confusion.  I mixed it up from workout to work out so I am never doing the same exact workout.  I feel I get better growth out of this.  I may not be big but I feel the muscle I do have is good quality muscle.  When I first started training, I trained with my brother who did the typical heavy weight training workouts.  It got me a good base but not the detail that I have now.

What is your favorite body part to train?

I love to train legs.  I like the feeling of total exhaustion when I am done.

I’m interested in your off-season diet.  Do you allow yourself greater freedom in terms of what you eat, or do you continue to eat according to a strict plan?

I loosen my diet up a little . I eat more carbs off-season but the food is still pretty clean.  I do have a scheduled cheat meal once or twice a week.  Off-season I don’t get heavier than 15 lbs above contest weight.

I’ve been impressed by your back development.  Any secret to how you built up your back?

Lots of weighted pull ups and doing a variety of exercises  to get the detail.

What advice would you give to a young woman just starting out in bodybuilding?  

Eat!  and persistence ...

When I first started I didn’t eat enough so the first  5 or 6 years I didn’t put on the size I could have had I been eating the way I do now. Also be persistent gains don’t happen over night.

I read that you were a judge at the very recent Emerald Cup.  Can you tell us about that experience?

The Emerald Cup is a huge show and I was honored that Brad and Elaine Craig asked my husband and I to judge.  All the competitors looked great and it was tough to judge.  Some classes were very close.

I love watching the fitness competitors.  Something that I would love to do but don’t have the coordination, flexibility, or strength to do that and I could go on and on.  Those girls rock!

What would you consider one of the high points of your bodybuilding career thus far?

I have won my weight class twice at Masters Nationals which was pretty exciting.  But I think the high point for me was placing 2^nd at this year’s Nationals and getting a phone call from Steve Wennerstrom telling me he hopes I  stick with it and thinks I am close to getting my pro card.   To me that was big.

Did you have anyone who mentored you during your early years in the sport, or did you figure things out all on your own?

When I first started, my brother helped me with the working out part of it all and then I had a gal that ended up being my workout partner for a few years that taught me contest prep.  But contest prep is an evolving process.  I find that my body adapts quickly and sometimes doesn’t respond to the same things every time  I do a show.

Are you planning on competing at Masters Nationals in July? 

I am planning on competing at Masters

Thanks, very much for agreeing to be interviewed!

Thank you for the opportunity.

The Beauty of Holiness vs The Holiness of Beauty

Scripture (the Proverbs in particular) are full of a particular type of comparison between two things, behind which lies an implied 2 by 2 matrix.
Let me illustrate this using Proverbs 15:17:

Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred.

Two situations are compared, but since there are two binary indices (love/hate and calf/vegetables), there are actually 4 possible combinations:

1)  Vegetables with hatred;
2)  Vegetables with love;
3)  Fattened calf with hatred; and
4)  Fattened calf with love.

This can conveniently be displayed in the aforementiones 2 x 2 matrix, as follows:

Clearly, the best of all worlds would be Beef with Love, and the worst would be Vegetables with Hatred.  Because these are obvious, the Scriptural verses which have this structure compare only the two situations in which you get one good option and one bad option.  These are the two boxes highlighted in yellow.  Proverbs 15:17 indicates that, should you find yourself in this dilemma, you should give up beef before giving up love.

And now, finally, on to the topic of this post.  The phrase "beauty of holiness" occurs not only in the Book of Common Prayer, but originally in the following places in Scripture:

1 Chronicles 16:29

2 Chronicles 20:21

Psalm 29:2

Psalm 96:9

O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.  - Psalm 96:9

For several years, I have thought about the trade-off between the Beauty of Holiness and what I have come to call the Holiness of Beauty.  For beauty, being a rare, fine thing created by God, is in many ways a holy thing.  The ability to appreciate beauty is part of God's gift of Common Grace, meaning that even full-tilt pagans can appreciate beauty when they see it.  In fact, the suspicion with which some sorts of Christians have viewed beauty has led some to wonder if only pagans can appreciate the holiness of beauty.

This, too, can be displayed as a 2 x 2 matrix:

Obviously, if you can manage it, you'd like to have both beauty and holiness (the green box).  And of course, the worst situation is when you have ugliness and unholiness together the red box).  But my mind is drawn to the two yellow boxes, and I am tempted to try to draft my own amateur proverb regarding the two.

This question has been in my mind lately as I ponder all of the many godly folks who have fled the Episcopal church due to its blatant unholiness.  In many instances, they fled from places of great beauty:  architectural beauty, musical beauty, and liturgical beauty.  Often, they have found refuge in holy little Anglican parishes where these sorts of beauty are, relatively speaking, lacking.  While this is sad, their action is in congruity with the proverb I would draft:

Better holiness where beauty is lacking than beauty where holiness is lacking.

or ...

Better the beauty of holiness than merely the holiness of beauty.

Will Barbie Save The Episcopal Church?

This essay from Walter Russell Mead is well worth reading.

Here are a couple of paragraphs that resonated with me:

On the other hand, we did successfully vet the lyrics of the 700-plus hymns in our hymnbook for ’sexist’ lyrics. We have repeatedly made certain that the world understands that we think that poverty, injustice and war are wrong. There is no fashionable virtue that we don’t praise, no unrealistic aspiration of the foundation left that we don’t sprinkle with holy water. Our procedures and our canons are among the most complex and recondite in Christendom. We tithe mint and dill and cumin while the house is burning down.

I hate to say this, guys, but I think God mocks us and holds us in derision. I think the disasters we have already experienced and the much greater ones that are coming closer every day are signs of his wrath. I think he is giving us the taste of wormwood and gall: he’s letting us face the full consequences of our own silly deeds. He waited patiently for decades as we frittered away the inestimable riches and advantages accrued over centuries. He bore our hypocrisy — incompetent busybodies and Mrs. Jellybys lecturing the rest of the world on how to manage its affairs as our own household fell progressively into deeper disarray — and our general inconsequential messing around with low priority issues like ’sexist’ hymn lyrics as our seminaries edged steadily closer to bankruptcy. But we’ve exhausted God’s patience and spent down our endowments. The Bailiff of Heaven is knocking at our door; the notice of eviction is in his hands.