Religious comics pray to find joy in living
By David Briggs
The Associated Press
Take 60 dour-faced Presbyterians,
then have them touch their knees and
toes together, stick their tongues out
and sway back and forth, all the while
warbling “Singing in the Rain.”
It’s all in a day’s fun—er, work—
for Sister Mary Christellc McAluso,
who earl icr this month inducted 4,000
people into the so-called Order of the
Fun Nun at a national conference of
religious educators.
Their initiation was to recite “Mary
Had A Little Lamb” with their right
index fingers on the nose of the person
to their right and their left index fin
gers on the nose of the person on the
other side.
As you might guess from her tac
tics, religious comics like McAluso,
who bills herself as “The Fun Nun,”
arc a different breed. They eschew the
staples of some contemporary come
dians — cruelty, profanity and cyni
cism — in favor of a brand of humor
that encourages people to find joy in
the human condition, laughing with,
and not at, each other.
Religious comedy is not theirjob: It
is a vocation.
In McAluso’s theological world
view, God is unfathomable love. When
she helps another person feel better,
she says, she receives zyoy beyond
human understanding.
It doesn’t matter if it’s 60 people at
a small church or 4,000 people at the
national conference in Anaheim, Ca
lif., says Me Aluso, a Sister of Mercy at
the College of St. Mary in Omaha.
“If I’ve been able to make one other
human being smile,” she says, “my
life on this Earth has been well-re
warded.”
***
Liz Curtis Higgs slept with more
men than she could count, and used
alcohol and drugs with abandon dur
ing her “lost decade,” starting at age
17, before she made a commitment to
Christianity.
Since that day in 1982, coffee has
been her strongest stimulant, and she
is happily married with two children.
That she changed her life around
wasn’t the surprising part. What she
didn’t realize, she says, is that being
religious could be so much fun.
“1 think the Lord gave me a sense
of joy again and a purpose, and that
helped me laugh more,” says Higgs, a
comic writer and speaker based in
Louisville, Ky. “When you clean out a
lot of areas of your life, your laughter
can be a lot more genuine, and not a
cover-up.”
In her frank book, “One Size Fits
All and Other Fables.” Higgs holds
little back as she talks about the diet
ing roller coaster she climbed onto at
age 10 and the related problems of
self-esteem that led her to seek affir
mation in casual sex and alcohol abuse.
“I really felt like I lost my sense of
humor. Life wasn’t fun forme. I really
began to get depressed,” she says.
Today, the comedian from the
Christian Church (DisciplesofChrist)
is an unapologctic size 22 who bills
herself as “a big, beautiful woman in
a narrow, nervous world.”
With her belief in the resurrection
of Jesus, Higgs says she takes her
attitude toward life from the 31 st chap
ter of the Book of Proverbs: “Strength
and dignity arc her clothing, and she
laughs at the time to come.”
***
A sense of humor has never been
more critical for clergy, says the Rev.
Ronald Wcinclt, pastor of St. John’s
Lutheran Church in Rincon, Ga.
Low pay and long hours arc two
traditions churches have clung to when
other barriers fell. There are also the
added indignities of being broadly
tarred with the brush of sex-abuse
scandals and being placed under great
er pressure to attract new members in
a weak economy.
Add the natural tendency of clergy
to sacrifice their 1 i ves for others and of
congregations and denominational
leaders to encourage workaholism,
and being a minister has turned into a
“brutal occupation,” Wcinelt says.
“Instead of getting strokes,” he says,
“we’re getting kicked in the you-know
what for trying so hard.!’
The son of an alcoholic, Weinclt
says he had to make a choice whether
to rage in self-pity at the extraordinary
demands placed on clergy or “look at
myself and say how silly and funny it
is.”
His response was to form the Asso
ciation of Battered Clergy, a support
group that offers broad doses of humor
to help the healers help themselves.
The association’s newsletter. The
Parish Chute, dispenses advice on top
ics ranging from the politically cor
rect way to refer to a eunuch —
“gonadically impared person” — to
ecclesiastical oxymorons such as
“yuppie pastor.”
If some of the humor has a hard
edge ... well, that’s life, he says. And
it helps relieve the stress.
“There’s no way I would be able to
survive it,” Wcinelt says, “if I wasn’t
able to laugh at what happens.”
Indoor skating rink may be constructed in south Lincoln
By Melanie Branded
Staff Reporter
The newly formed UNL Hockey
Club may be able to practice closer to
home if a proposed indoor ice rink in
south Lincoln becomes a reality.
Brad Ellis, vice president of the
UnivcrsityofNcbraska-Lincoln Hock
ey Club, said club members had to
travel to Omaha to play hockey be
cause there were no facilities in Lin
coln.
A new rink in Lincoln would cut
down on the time spent commuting,
Ellis said. It also would generate more
interest in the club because members
could skate year-round.
Brian Knutson, secretary of the
UNL Hockey Club, said he had talked
to people who had attended and en
joyed Omaha Lancers hockey games
and were interested in seeing hockey
in Lincoln.
Hockey players and fans aren’t the
only ones hoping to get an indoor ice
rink in Lincoln.
Penny Rinehart, a junior Spanish
major, said she just started to skate
this winter and skated at cither Holmes
Lake or Oak Lake if it was cold enough.
“It would definitely be used by a lot
of people that I know of — hockey
players and ice skaters,” she said.
“I’d be there all the time.”
Mark Claydon, a real estate broker,
has made a proposal for an indoor ice
rink that would cover about 35,000
square feet and contain a X5-foot-by
200-foot ice surface with hockey
boards. The proposed rink would be
constructed in the west portion of
Peterson Park at Highway 2 and
South wood Drive.
Claydon said he realized Lincoln
needed and could support an ice rink
because of the massive growth of in
door ice sports brought about by the
-44
We may have Dan
Jansens and Bonnie
Blairs in Lincoln and
not know it until we
get this rink built.
—Claydon
Real estate broker
-»t -
Olympics. He also said the facilities in
Omaha were filled to capacity, and he
reasoned that the demand there would
overflow to Lincoln.
He has ordered a feasibility study
and a business plan.
Claydon said the rink would be
open and accessible to people of all
ages. He anticipated scheduled ice
times would be available for those
who want to book the ice for hockey or
ice skating. Figure skating lessons,
lcarn-to-skate programs and open
publ ic skating also could be available.
“It’s a high-quality, pleasing envi
ronment where the community could
assemble and enjoy athletic recreation
al activities at no cost to the taxpayers
of Lincoln,” he said.
Rales for reserving the ice have not
yet been set, Claydon said, but would
be kept as low possible. The rink’s
hours also have not been determined,
but he said he would like it to be open
from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m.
He said the construction of the rink
would improve the variety of recre
ation in Lincoln by making ice sports
available year-round. The sports won’t
be at the mercy of ihc weather, he said.
Claydon also said it would be a
high-quality place where figure skat
ers and speed skaters could train.
“We may have Dan Jansens and
Bonnie Blairs in Lincoln and not know
it until we get this rink built, he said.
Claydon has not yet met with the
City Council about the proposal. How
ever, he met with Lincoln Mayor Mike
Johanns and presented the prelimi
nary results of the study.
He said the mayor gave his full
support for the rink.
Claydon said Johanns did not find
any fault with the preliminary results
of the feasibility study and thought it
was thorough and accurate.
He said the mayor was impressed
with the effort put into the project over
the past 12 to IX months. He said
Johanns made positive comments that
the city of Lincoln would have a nice
rink.
The next step for Claydon is to find
investors and owners for the rink.
“We’ve laid the groundwork and
the legwork for Lincoln to have this
rink,” he said. “The next step is to find
investors and talk to potential own
ers.”
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