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Showing posts from May, 2010

They Condemn in God What They Praise in Men!

I like the phrase, You can't fix stupid! 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...

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...

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...

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 .