We Interrupt This Religion To Recognize….All The Ugl….Unattra…..Uh, “Ordinary” Christians

I don’t really care for Susan Boyle’s voice. But I’m very interested in her looks.

I’ve always had a thing about ugly rock stars. Tom Petty. Bob Dylan. That guy in The Cars. The drummer in Cheap Trick. Willie Nelson. Ugly men. Seriously ugly.

Do you remember Dave Roever, the preacher who had most of his face blown off in Vietnam? I loved watching that guy work an audience.

One of my fellow staff members had a horrific gun accident years ago, and is seriously damaged. Watching students and staff encounter him for the first time is always interesting. He has a great sense of humor about it all that cracks me up, and I truly am in awe of his contentment in Jesus.

And let me get in here. I’m an ugly guy. You have to put a pork chop around my neck for the dog to come to me. I look like Johnny Bench if he’s spent his entire life in a buffet.

I can’t use the “u” word about women, but if I could, Susan Boyle would be a candidate, especially in her original, pre-makeover condition. (Courtney Love. Madonna. You know.)

Appalachia has a lot of ugly people. We produce a bumper crop of them, and you’ll find plenty of them in church, in Gospel singing groups and on local Christian TV. They’re ugly and unashamed. They aren’t here to sell their looks, but to testify about their Lord.

Southeastern Kentucky hasn’t yet heard the axiom that most of evangelicalism lives by: Keep the beautiful people up front and the ugly people out of sight.

Good looking hunky preacher boys. Gorgeous- and nicely presented- babe-ettes on those worship teams. Authors, speakers, teachers: good lookin’ and keep ’em looking better all the time. (Thank God for modern enhancements of the human body. Amen?)

Every see an ad for an evangelical church? Any Tom Pettys or Susan Boyles on that commercial?

Church web site? Oh my. Don’t use your own people. Use professional models. I want my senior adults to look like the happy consumers of various enhancement products. Smile Bob! Your hair may be gray, but the rest of you is 25.

Get us some cute kids. And Hollywood idol youth groupies. Get that worship leader who looks like Ryan Seacrest, and make sure the pastor’s wife is as hot as Victoria Osteen.

And Contemporary Christian Music? Susan Boyle types….your phone is NOT ringing.

No, evangelicalism may not come out and say it, but God really does seem to prefer his people looking good. I’m sure someone in Tulsa has a DVD series about this.

Fat people- you’re gluttons and in rebellion. You’re a bad witness because your sins are hanging over your belt.

Old and worn out. Get thee to a nursing home service.

Just ugly. Homely? Not much to look at? In need of several makeovers? Poorly dressed? Hair not good? Unkempt and a bit scuffed up? We’re glad for you to have a seat, tithe and applaud. Otherwise, stay out of range of the television camera.

I like churches with ugly people. I may not like much about Appalachian religion, but I like the fact that if Susan Boyle showed up, she could march to the front and sing, testify and even go on TV to tell what the Lord had done for her. If the Lord left her homely, it wouldn’t descredit her a bit.

We’re pathetic on this score. We’ve got Jesus building a church of the buff and the buffed; the tanned (at what an hourly rate?) and the fit; the slim, the well dressed, the vain, the hot, the sexy and the extremely attractive.

The ugly people are down at the inner city Pentecostal church. You might want to go there.

Yes, you might.

60 thoughts on “We Interrupt This Religion To Recognize….All The Ugl….Unattra…..Uh, “Ordinary” Christians

  1. that worship leader guy just underscored how sick our North American Christian worldview is. lay off the donuts and you can play in the worship band? oh please.
    Worship leader — “hey Jesus, aren’t you proud of me for weeding out the fat people in the P&W band!”
    Jesus — “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
    Are you kidding me?
    And the dude that said there’s no difference between worship music and CCM? (the latter is “just” business).. I can only imagine how pi$$ed off Keith Green must be…

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  2. Great post and comments by everyone. As a 44-year old whose youthful looks are fading a bit later than they perhaps should have (I still get pegged for early 30’s and when tanned, shaved and rested even younger), I’m currently in a bit of crisis– for that which I took for granted and essentially was meaningless can no longer be a refuge. How many times did I drag myself to the gym, afraid what might happen if I lost my physique and how many times did I fantasize about dragging a blade across my face, thinking that my looks were more of a curse than a blessing. So now I move closer to looking average— and realize there always was only One Refuge and it wasn’t in my public personal, intellect or accomplishments. It was the Rose of Sharon, the One whose Beauty was in the pain He experienced, the rejection He endured and in the glory He gives to us all, beauty queen or otherwise.

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  3. I’m seconding iMonk that gluttony as a sin should be handled extremely lightly, if at all.

    St.Thomas Aquinas defines gluttony as excessive indulgence in food and drink and gives five ways such excess may occur: “too soon, too expensively, too much, too eagerly, too daintily.” CS Lewis says much the same thing in his Mere Christianity.

    St.John of the Cross also talks about a spiritual glutton, someone who is constantly seeking new religious experiences and more intense sensations. How many “praise bands” are guilty of this?

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  4. Patrick:

    1) Why do you assume obese people are gluttons? I’m overweight, and I’m not a glutton. I’m not active enough. Many overweight people eat too much. Others have complex metabolical and nutritional issues. Women have different weight issues than men.

    2) In The Screwtape Letters, CS Lewis makes the point that gluttony is the insistence on gratifying the senses and has little to do with excess. It can be just as much a manifestation of control, so the skinny person who insists their salad be perfect and terrorizes the restaurant staff is a glutton by Lewis’s measurement.

    3) What’s the break point for being too big? I have girls at my school who weigh 120 and believe they are overwieight. Where does the “too thin” component of this come in?

    4) Where is the weight issue per se addressed in scripture?

    5) If you are on the right track, you’ve just emptied the pulpits of 90% of the Baptist Churches I know!

    6) Can a compulsive concern for personal appearance be a sin?

    peace

    ms

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  5. “I am a worship leader and I try my best to make sure that the people on stage are not living in sin in any way”

    Patrick, this sentence bothers me profoundly. My initial response is, “Have you excused yourself, then?” The judgment and control evident in it are troubling. As the Man Himself said, only the sick need a doctor.

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  6. I had several thoughts on this matter. But the main thing that caught my attention was your comment about obese people. I am a worship leader and I try my best to make sure that the people on stage are not living in sin in any way, we are in front of the congregation and an example to them. If gluttony is a sin (which I think the Bible is clear on), then should I not treat that like the other sins that keep people out of the praise band? Or should I ignore the sin, and the obese people that it effects and start letting any person living in sin into the praise band.

    As a praise band we have not kicked anyone out because of their weight (we have 2 people that would fit into this category, and possibly 3 if I fit into the category), and I do not have any plans to do so. But as I think about this issue, as well as the church disciple issues you have written about recently, I wonder if we should be doing more to help these people get out of this life of sin, rather than praising them because they don’t fit a specific stereotype that we are getting tired of.

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  7. I, too, thank God for small Appalachian churches and inner-city ministries that look beyond the surface. We have one member with spina bifida (born with a hole at the base of her spine) who is wheelchair bound; her legs are very stunted. And we have a young couple whose first child has Pfeiffer’s syndrome, a cranio-facial disorder. Her little skull grows into a tower shape and her eye sockets are very shallow; the doctors have stitched her eyelids partially shut to keep her eyeballs from protruding; she has already undergone two major reconstructive surgeries and is facing a third. She also has a tracheotemy, which must be suctioned frequently–and this little girl is the joy of our church. None of our members are going to win any beauty contests, especially me, but we are beautiful in each other’s eyes.

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  8. I attend church in Hollywood, California.(The center of the universe for vanity, if you will.) Ironically, I attend, probably the only church in all of LA where there are no “babes”. But I’ll tell you the truth, I couldn’t walk away from my church if I tried becuase the love of God is there. It’s the only church I’ve ever been to, where I feel like I am part of the family.
    If I ever get married to someone from my church, you can be rest assured that it will be because of love not looks, and I consider myself a 7 on a scale of one-to-ten.

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  9. I feel we must make a distinction here between two different genres –

    Church Worship is about enhancing the worship experience with God – what you look like should not matter because it matters not to the one who is getting the attention – (i.e God) – for that matter, skill should weigh a little less then devotion to the task but I digress.

    CCM is a business – it is marketed, targeted, and prepackaged for human consumption, and in that regard, you are going to see it and the participants treated as a commodity where looks are important. It’s in Nashville, and that’s the way the town is, and the labels that generally own the CCM labels are usually owned be Secular record companies who see the music as a niche like Americana, Hip-hop, and Top 40.

    I used to play in CCM bands and work at CCM radio stations – that’s just business, folks – and it never changes, whether secular or Christian. That is how business operates.

    RB

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  10. iMonk:

    I live on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in what I would describe as an urban area, although the city itself is only about 26,000 or so.

    I grew up in a major city in the middle of South Louisiana Cajun country.

    Taking stats about the acceptance of facially deformed people in churches? :O)

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  11. I’m facially deformed and sing on my church’s worship team. And it’s televised. If anyone ever made a fuss about it (doubt it), I’ve never found out.

    I guess I’m one of the lucky ones.

    Although, when I was a child, I had the exact opposite experience of C. Holland. Growing up, I would occasionally sing a song on stage during worship service at the small Southern Baptist church I attended. One Sunday after such a service, an older woman walked up to me (my mom wasn’t around) and said that she “didn’t expect such a pretty little voice to come from an ugly little face like yours.”

    I was about 8 years old. I just stared at the lady, not having any idea how to respond…

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  12. My husband was in a Christian rock band for a while…until they started to get too popular. He was asked to leave before the group flew down to Nashville to meet with a label rep, because even though he’s a super solid musician and songwriter, he doesn’t look like a rock star.

    While in Nashville, another member was booted out by the label (I believe they told him he added TOO MUCH charisma to the group), and the other three guys were treated to head-to-toe makeovers…new hair, new wardrobes, new PIERCINGS…

    My husand’s pal — another “not good looking enough” reject from CCM — started a label that doesn’t evaluate looks. It’s called Tremulant Records. Some good stuff over there…and a few pretty people, but it’s not their fault.

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  13. Why is it perfectly okay to label other men with the “u” word but not women?

    Boyle is being exploited BECAUSE of her extreme ugliness. She’s being judged and profiting from her appearance just like the “beautiful people”.

    The show used a similar tactic a while back with a rather oafish looking Paul Potts.

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  14. Church does a pretty terrible job of freeing people to get over each others’ appearances – I bet an even half of this thread was at least mildly traumatized for being awkward-looking by their youth groups.

    Is it me, or does that bespeak a dead faith more than anything else we could name?

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  15. surfnetter, no joke. I’ve been on the EWTN set in Irondale, AL myself. One of the things I love about traditional Catholicism: the Choir/Schola is up in the choir loft behind you. They can sing; who cares what they look like.

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  16. Any church that uses models for its web site photos should be deemed heretical and excommunicated. I’m only half-kidding.

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  17. On 25 Apr 2009 at 6:54 pm, Brendt Waters wrote:

    >I don’t see what you’re saying at all.
    >After all, CCM is filled with overweight,
    >middle-aged, divorced guys with thriving
    >careers. Just ask Bob Bennett.

    I did ask him. Other than the “thriving” part, you’re quite correct.

    All of the formerly attractive, slim, airbrushed-to-perfection artists of CCM past are now the ones who have some explaining to do. Me? I’m just an older version of the same physical profile I had when I was in my 20’s!

    🙂

    If you’re tempted to be hard on Brendt with his description of me, don’t. He was smart enough to actually lift that from … uh … me …

    Click to access 1996ccm.pdf

    … and he’s had some nice words in the past …

    http://csaproductions.com/blog/?p=301

    Happy to “weigh in”.
    Best regards, Bob Bennett
    Costa Mesa, CA

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  18. I don’t know how to say this without sounding like I am full of myself but I had the weirdest experience as a newcomer to the church I am attending now. I am what you would probably consider an attractive woman. After a service another woman came up and introduced herself to me and said she had noticed me from across the church and how nice I looked and wanted to come and say hello. Like she wouldn’t have introduced herself to an ugly newcomer? Very strange.

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  19. Michael,

    You’ve hit it out of the park again. I first ran into this in college a couple of decades back when it was clear that the college minister at my church was trying to fill the leadership slots with as many good looking and athletic people as he could. (By those standards, I was not exactly “leadership material.”) And I have been running into this thing over and over again ever since.

    You get so tired of how “the world” disses you. You figure maybe you can go to church where you figure someone might value you for what’s on “the inside.” And then you get told, “No, actually, ‘the world’ pretty much has it right. You people with bad teeth should go sit in the back between the heavy folks and the ones with the big noses. But, remember, we love you anyway.”

    This is one area where the seeker sensitives fail over and over again, and actually believe their failure to be a success. But I’m just saying what you did, only less eloquently.

    THanks for the post. And some great comments, too, guys.

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  20. I hate to differ with you, Michael, but saying (as you did), “I don’t really care for Susan Boyle’s voice” is rather like saying (to put it in a way even you may understand) “I don’t really care for Jesus’ dying for me on the cross.”

    I mean, it really is that uninformed. Susan’s voice is pure and clear and strong, like a waterfall.

    Just so we’ll know, what type of singing do you prefer? Nasal? Off-key?

    I’ll stop now. I guess I won’t be winning your “commenter of the year” award.

    I love ya, my brother.

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  21. Beth,

    Your story about your friend is sad. Terribly sad. Then again, if the CCM industry is going to be that shallow, it doesn’t deserve her.

    I have Cerebral Palsy, use a wheelchair for most of my getting around, and am physically unable to drive. I will never be considered “attractive” by many people. Do I care? Honestly, sometimes, yes. It can hurt.

    When I consider that God chose me before the foundations of the world though (not due to anything in me but solely out of His mercy), rejection (or indifference) from people doesn’t hurt quite so much. One day, it won’t hurt at all.

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  22. This is kind of poignant considering the amount of praise heaped on a beautiful California girl by the Christian community for her stance on Gay Marriage during a beauty pageant.

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  23. I never noticed it until I saw the phrase on this blog, but my church has a good number of “worship babes.” Most are 50 something, very impressive.

    DSY

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  24. Good looking hunky preacher boys. Gorgeous- and nicely presented- babe-ettes on those worship teams. Authors, speakers, teachers: good lookin’ and keep ‘em looking better all the time. (Thank God for modern enhancements of the human body. Amen?)

    Evangelical Edward Cullens (*sparkle* *sparkle* *sparkle*)…

    Every see an ad for an evangelical church? Any Tom Pettys or Susan Boyles on that commercial?

    Or any D&D geeks?

    Church web site? Oh my. Don’t use your own people. Use professional models. I want my senior adults to look like the happy consumers of various enhancement products. Smile Bob!

    Are we talking Bob the Tetanus Boy from those “Enzyte Natural Male Enhancement (TM)” commercials?

    (Just like Bob the Tetanus Boy, Except CHRISTIAN (TM)!!!)

    Get that worship leader who looks like Ryan Seacrest, and make sure the pastor’s wife is as hot as Victoria Osteen.

    “Hello, Stepford? I’d like to order a Model 42DD with a Bible instead of the outboard motor…”

    (Just like Trophy Wives, Except CHRISTIAN (TM)!!!!)

    I once belonged to a church that put singers on the “worship team” because they were attractive – and then put them onstage with dead mics because they couldn’t carry a tune if it had a handle. — Tanegeel

    Two words, Tanegeel: MILLI. VANILLI.

    Uh…you might want to watch a few Gaither videos, or anything on TBN, or, for that matter, any “Christian” TV network. Somehow, the beauty-challenged have found a few venues. What’s really funny is that most of them think they look great! — Chaplain Mike

    Three more words: TAMMY. FAYE. BAKKER.

    (What is it with all those TBN “preacher’s wife” mannequins? They look like CARTOONS of themselves!)

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  25. Oddly enough, when I first saw Miss Boyle on U-tube, my first thought was “what a nice looking person she is.” I am repelled by today’s fake and immodest celebrity presentations- too much make up, fake hair, in short, too much trying to look like a floozy- and thought “Hey! A real person! I think I can see the image of God in this one!” So I never thought Miss Boyle was ugly. Rather, I tend to find many of today’s celebrities looking quite ugly in their ridiculous outfits.

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  26. This post hit home with me because I am embarrassed by my church’s newly revamped website which features
    stock photography and professional models. The only photos of real people are the pastors – all of them are attractive of course.
    Photos of our own people might prevent someone from “being saved”. Overall our new website has the look and the warmth of stainless steel. Not so Jesus shaped I’m afraid.

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  27. You want to see some — ummmmm — ordinary folks, watch a homily being preached on EWTN. Not only will you see that, but when the camera pans the pews you will see what I call the old “RCA Victor dog” look — vis a vis “His mouth is making strange, amazing sounds …”

    Obviously no orchestration of the “focus group” there ….

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  28. At the church where I currently attend after just two weeks I was approached twice by people who asked if I might be a singer. I wonder if it had anything do with my looks or is that something that all newcomers are asked.

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  29. My brother and I have muscular dystrophy and are musicians. We’ve written songs together for nearly 30 years. We’ve released CDs; traveled around the country performing; always got great reviews. But it is amazing how often people would hear that we sang, and respond with a patronizing, “Well, good for you.” Then, after actually seeing us perform, they’d come rushing up excitedly exclaiming, “Oh, my god! You really DO sing!!”

    It’s amazing, the things people assume if you’re physically or aesthetically challenged (crippled or ugly, if you will).

    On the other hand, have you ever seen the lengths they go to, to make some stars look and sound good (or what passes for good)? Sheesh!

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  30. Love this post Michael. I’m a slightly pudgy but stocky 5′ 10″ Asian guy who isn’t a pretty boy by any means. But I’ve walked into some of the big churches here in Brisbane and quite frankly, I was alienated when I arrived (despite the army of “welcomers” that met me at the entrance).

    And while I’ve had countless people (at church or otherwise) tell me I should try out on some singing contests (in CCM or otherwise), just by the way I look (coupled with my race) means that Hell will freeze over sooner than I will begin a music career.

    Guess I’ll just go back to praying the office and studying theology and philosophy in my spare time here in my own version of Quasimodo’s belltower of Notre Dame… *time to ring the bells*

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  31. Ray A., your work with your wife is the sure proof that love well-spoken takes a certain special genius, and I’m heartened to read that you so helped convince your wife to find herself beautiful. I pray that we all learn how to do what you’ve done, selflessly and without patronizing. That’s Christian love you’ve shown.

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  32. I remember an interview you had with some Canadian guy – the quote I took from it was “You can tell how much a church loves Jesus by the number of ugly people in it”.

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  33. We raised our kids on the Praise Kids Video series( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnm3VRUuhhk ). I’ve some regrets now (a little issue with reality). But the thing I noticed was that all their kid actors looked like they had just stepped out of the Sear’s Catalog. Not a pimple, certainly no excessive weight . . . hey, just like another TV-Christian family, the Camdens. Wasn’t Mary voted the sexiest woman on earth? (I know Seventh Heaven was not a Christian production).

    BTW: If you wonder what ever happened to Psalty, here’s an update. :>)

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  34. My first thought – perhaps a little James for everyone on all sides:

    If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,”[a] you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.

    Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!

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  35. On a more serious note, my wife’s uncle had some disfigurement in his arm because of polio, and wore a leg brace. Even though he was a wonderful man and a terrific Bible teacher, I know at least one church that would not call him as their pastor because of their discomfort with his appearance and disabilities.

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  36. Uh…you might want to watch a few Gaither videos, or anything on TBN, or, for that matter, any “Christian” TV network. Somehow, the beauty-challenged have found a few venues. What’s really funny is that most of them think they look great!

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  37. I’m on the worship team, but only my honey would call me a “babe.” Luckily, I get to hide behind my electric guitar. 😉

    A friend of a friend, a singer-songwriter, was on the brink of a Christian music career about 15 years ago. They told her she first needed to lose 20 pounds (she had absolutely no need). She told them no. She didn’t get that career.

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  38. I once belonged to a church that put singers on the “worship team” because they were attractive – and then put them onstage with dead mics because they couldn’t carry a tune if it had a handle.
    I think Drew Marshall has a saying about this: You can tell a good church by how many ugly people they have.

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  39. I love the Susan Boyle story, strickly from a post-modern, cynical perspective on our never-ending fascination with shiny things.

    But I wonder if the popularity to this story has to do with our desire for someone to see value and true potential in us under our less than perfect exteriors.

    The truth is, my ugliness penetrates to my very core. From the cross, Christ peers into my utter-depths of sin and ugliness and declares, “you are forgiven. All things are made new”.

    I think the challenge for the church is not seeking inner-potential in “sinners”, but loving and accepting them in spite of who they are – inside and out. I don’t know how else the lost will be reached without the temptation to clean them up first before bringing them to Jesus, who only can make them “born again”. It is no wonder we freak out when the shiny-happy preacher is discovered to have a dark side.

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  40. It’s all perspective, I suppose. My wife has Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a genetic condition whose main feature is the progressive degeneration of the nerve endings in her extremities. One of the symptoms of her type of CMT (Type 2A, for you neurologists) is a metabolism that is permanently stuck in overdrive — she’s 5’9″ and weighs about 95 lbs. So for years, she had to endure “Ethiopian jokes” and accusations of anorexia. Me, I started referring to her as the Supermodel, telling her how beautiful she is, buying her nice outfits … not buttering her up, just speaking the truth as I see it and acting accordingly.

    And after a decade or so, she’s starting to accept that what THEY said just isn’t worth a tinker’s you-know-what. Especially after we took an anniversary trip where one night she wore this red dress … and every guy in the restaurant started doing double-takes. ;-D

    As for me, I’m 5’10”, 240, with thick glasses, a trim but scruffy beard and a prominent middle. I think I’m just going to start saying I look like Michael Spencer — he’s a pretty handsome fella, right?

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  41. I have not destroyed the Lord’s temple. I have simply built a mega church. I still have faith there will be enough room for my enormous spirit in His kingdom. Amen!

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  42. Ain’t it the truth. I keep hoping “Cleanliness is next to Godliness” is all wrong too, along with Christianity having some vague connection to the liberal use of hairspray.

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  43. Imonk,

    I agree, as a fellow minister in the same region. But have you noticed that some of these same homely, down trodden, uneducated folks also wear their “ugliness, out of tuness, or ignorance” as badge.

    These folks sometimes look down on folks who might be attractive, or educated, or talented, as being upity and not spiritual.

    I’m sure you have encountered it. Some folks lost all confidence in me once I got a college degree.

    I swear, some of our folks will amen more the worse the singing, and they really like it when a person forgets the words or tune. You hear a lot of “bless em Lord” They actually attribute their bad memory and their no lack of talent to the devil.

    Austin

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  44. It’s funny–I’m really far more drawn to the people of the world who don’t fit the “Barbie and Ken” mold. Although I know it’s not an absolute, I find more beautiful souls amongst those whose outward beauty would never land them on the cover of, well, any magazine that I can think of. Maybe it’s because I’m an artist, and I see things a bit differently (some might even say “weirdly”). Maybe it’s because when I was younger I was “pretty”, but now I’m waiting for my resurrection body since I’ve pretty well stretched this one out. 🙂 All those scars, lines, wrinkles, and rolls testify to a life lived. Those who spend all their time trying to hide or erase them may well be trying to erase more than we think…

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  45. I believe one of the news stories mentioned Susan Boyle regularly had previously sung only in her church. Hopefully she will keep doing so.

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  46. I don’t see what you’re saying at all. After all, CCM is filled with overweight, middle-aged, divorced guys with thriving careers. Just ask Bob Bennett.

    Oh, never mind.

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  47. As an unattractive (ugly?) man myself, I’ve always taken comfort that according to Isaiah, the Lord Jesus was an ugly man (“no comeliness that we might desire Him”). He was not the beautiful guy with the flowing hair that we see in the pictures. He was probably very ordinary and unattractive.

    One pastor I know has a very strange face. I went to his church one time and fell in love with it. Some artist in the congregation drew a caricature of the pastor, exaggerating all his weird facial features, and they projected it onto the front of the church. Everyone laughed including the pastor. It’s good that some people don’t take themselves so seriously.

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  48. As further proof that this is true, I’ll never forget the woman who approached me after church who said, “You look like you can sing well.”

    Look like. Not sound like.

    I was in the congregation area, not up front or on stage. She came from the other side of the heavily-populated room. There was no way she could have humanly heard me singing, even if I could bellow, which I can’t.

    I honestly cannot carry a tune, and her remark offended me because she had bought into the lie that good singers must look a certain way.

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