Say it isn't so...

If you know me well, and have any inkling of my views on religion, which are only slightly more measured and nonviolent than those of my English cousin Christopher, then this posting will surprise you indeed.  Sit down and get yourself a drink.

On 3 May, Christopher Cleisthenes Thomas Paine Hingston and Margaret Athena Boudica Nausikaa Hingston are to be baptised.  Shock horror -- I told you to sit down.

There are two reasons for this obvious contradiction -- fortunately, neither of them has to do with hypocrisy.  One reason is that the kids will be baptised into the Church of England.  Of course, the Church of England is no closer to the "truth" than the Church of Rome, but it is less totalitarian and therefore inherently more questioning, pluralistic and humanistic.  Furthermore, baptism into the Church of England has both tactical and strategic significance, in that it will greatly lessen the chance of the Church of Rome ever laying claim to them.

In a country such as Poland, where Roman Catholicism is the default position, and everyone is assumed to be Catholic unless proven otherwise, that is important.  If there are some whacko cults I regard with more heebie-jeebies than others, our friends in Rome deserve an especially high rating.  If you wonder why, just look at any recent photograph of that madman Benedict XVI and you will know.  Polynesian Cargo Cults deserve as much if not more respect.  Of course, I must admit that the current head of the Church of England looks like a character out of The Hobbit, but at least he never headed The Inquisition.  He seems, in fact, a very gentle and human man by comparison with his counterpart in Rome.

Rev Robert Gamble

The second reason is more difficult for me to explain, though I will try.  The man who is conducting the baptism, Robert Gamble, is a friend whom I met not long after moving to Poznań in late 2003.  Robert, a Bostonian and Harvard graduate, about ten years older than I am, came here shortly after the fall of Communism.  He has a publishing company in Poland named Media Rodzina, which means Family Media.  It publishes family psychology books, books about dealing with addiction other unsocial behaviours, the better sorts of self-help books, as well as books for children and young adults.  He has (or had, I am no longer sure which) interests in a radio station and in a television production company, all pretty much devoted to the same sorts of things.  He lives in the same sort of 1970s Socialist Workers' housing that Ola and I live in.  If he has any pretensions, they are not clear to me.

His skin is so fair that even in Poland he appears to suffer a constant case of intense sunburn.  A big man, with a roundish head, there's not much white or pale blond hair on top (said the man with the shaved head).  He's dresses like a beloved professor at a New England liberal arts college, which is to say very sturdy walking shoes with rounded toes and thick soles, khaki trousers, Harris tweed jacket, rather rumpled shirt of no particular colour and, almost always, a woven woollen necktie of Gamble tartan (of which there are many versions, most of which seemingly including coffee and food stain motifs within their patterns).

Bob is an ordained Anglican priest and a man who believes truly and deeply that Jesus of Nazareth was the son of God, died to redeem mankind from sin, and was resurrected and united with God the Father in heaven.  He doesn't try to prove it.  He doesn't force it upon anyone.  He believes it.  For him that belief is the essence and the sine qua non of Christianity.  No belief, no Christianity.  He is, in fact, the head of the Anglican Church in Poland, but it's a part-time, unpaid position.  I suspect one can count the number of active Anglicans on all one's fingers and toes.  Given that when we first met Bob asked if he could count me as an Anglican, and given that I explained that I am about as Anglican as Richard Dawkins and he still went ahead and counted me (with my approval), one has to regard the Anglicans in Poland as a very rare if not endangered species.  Perfect for my present purposes.

For Bob the essence of Christianity is faith in Jesus as the son of God.  For me, however, how one behaves is more important than what one believes.  My impression of Bob, from many years of knowing him, and based entirely on how he behaves in life and the example he sets for others, is that he is the most Christian person I have ever known.  He thinks of others almost to the exclusion of himself (he thinks of himself only to keep himself mentally and physically healthy).  He is generous but not flamboyant or splashy about it.  He listens without judging.  He teaches by example, and explains patiently and without bombast.  He is kind, truly the essence of kindness.  He has very few prejudices that I know of -- the one I do know of is, I would argue, more the result of an incorrect presumption than a deeply rooted character flaw.  He is always in good humour, but not superficially so.  In sum, What's not to like?

Should either or both of my children grow up to be much like Bob, I would think it miraculous and wonderful, and be extremely proud of them for showing such wisdom.  So I thought it wouldn't hurt a bit to let him have some contact with them and splash them with as much holy water as he thinks appropriate.  And if it helps to keep the Pope and his ilk (the obedience fiends) at bay, well then, I shall think that a kind of bonus.

Rabbi Herschel Gluck

Since I first thought of this, I have thought of another person who sets a very high example of human goodness.  He, too, is a religious person -- an independent Lubovitcher Rabbi in Stoke Newington, in London.  His name is Herschel Gluck, the perfect name for a man with eight children who smiles his way through life.

Since Ola and I are planning to take the kids to England shortly after their baptism, I though I might ask the Rav, as he is known to many, to give my children a blessing.  Can one ever have enough blessings?  Again, the real purpose is not religious, but humanitarian.  Both Bob Gamble and Herschel Gluck are singularly good men -- examples for us all.  I overlook their religiosity because their religiosity doesn't matter to me.  Their humanity is unimpeachable.   Good people come in all shapes and sizes, and in all religions.  It's the good people we should hope for our children to emulate.  There is an important implication in what I have just written.  Ultimately, we should hope that our children emulate us -- and do so because they have seen and understood that we are good enough to be worthy of their emulation.

I wrote to the Rav and the Rav said yes.  Of course, he would; that is the sort of a man he is.