On Tuesday evening, we attended a talk at a local church by Dave Tomlinson, author of The Post-Evangelical and How to Be a Bad Christian. It’s hard to believe the latter was published 14 years ago already, while the former is over 30 years old and coincided with a growing social shift away from conservative Christianity-as-usual in the UK and USA. Other authors who have been particularly influential on my thinking such as Brian McLaren and Peter Rollins were allied with this movement, which was sometimes called “the emerging church.”
What is a ‘bad’ Christian? One who’s not fussed about dogma. Tomlinson is an Anglican priest and believes the Church still has value for people at times of joy or sorrow – a bereavement, a wedding, a baptism – moments of epiphany that might encourage them to stop skating on the surface of life and go deeper in a search for spirituality and meaning. However, he stressed how easy it is to find people who are following the way of Jesus outside of churches: anyone working toward peace, justice, or environmental restoration, for instance. He’d rather people focus on ethical lifestyles rather than beliefs. This resonated with me as I don’t believe a line of the creed literally and most of the time don’t think the supernatural exists, yet keep attending church and reading theology. But I know I’ll get more spiritual uplift from the Queer Folk Festival at the end of the month than I often do at a Sunday service, and my secular community volunteering sometimes seems to be of more practical use.
Photo by Rev. Gary Collins
Yesterday (13 May) was World Cocktail Day – the second year I’ve known of its existence and planned to ‘celebrate’ it. Often, I can’t make appealing cocktails because I don’t have the right ingredients, and leaving them out or substituting is frustrating. So, in preparation, I picked up a modest click-and-collect order from Sainsbury’s on Tuesday of dry vermouth, fino sherry, and Angostura orange bitters to take my cocktail-making to the next level.
It may surprise you given that I’m such a gin lover, but I’d never actually had a martini. I’m not sure how authentic my version, the “England” dry martini from the hilarious 1976 handbook above, was, but it was tasty! (I’ve always thought a Noilly Prat would be a good thing to call a Tory.) Then I tried a “London Calling” (recipe from the book Equal Parts Cocktails by Fred Siggins – I have a habit of downloading any cocktail cookbooks I find on Edelweiss and browsing them on screen to find one or two recipes to save as screenshots) combining navy-strength gin and fino sherry. It was a strong, complex and satisfying drink.
After C got home from band practice, I made him his first whisky old fashioned. The orange bitters went in all three of those so were a good purchase. I wasn’t feeling great yesterday, so had a few sips of each of my two cocktails and then used a funnel to store them in miniature bottles in the fridge for another night. I capped off the evening with a thimbleful of what I’m calling a Chocolate Cherry Truffle: chocolate rum and Portuguese sour cherry liqueur in a 4:1 ratio.
Bookish Beck = Rebecca Foster. American transplant to England. Freelance proofreader and book reviewer.
Bookish Beck 
I’ve never tried an Old Fashioned by I love whiskey so must give it a go!
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It’s my sister and brother-in-law’s go-to drink. I’m not a whisky fan myself, so I’m not tempted to try it, but my husband enjoyed it!
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Somehow I’ve never got into cocktails. Maybe you will be the one to change my mind.
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What a sweet thing to say! I’m sure the perfect cocktail for you is out there somewhere. It depends what liquors and other flavours (fruit, citrus, ginger, etc.) you’re partial to…
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Somehow they seem so faffy when a glass of red is so simple. Silly when I don’t mind spnding ages cooking up something interesting in the kitchen!
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Eleanor said the same (below), but I guess I’m in good practice now and have most of the necessary kit, so mixing a drink doesn’t seem to take me too long. I always leave it too late before having to set off for book club, though, and have to frantically throw one together in a thermos flask.
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We love to try new cocktails, thank you for the inspiring tips!
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Enjoy!
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Noilly Prat is a very good name for a Tory!
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Hee hee 🙂
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An Old Fashioned is my (and M’s) go-to cocktail order! It’s an absolute classic. I’ve always found cocktails too fiddly to make at home, though – a bit like salads, for me they’re a going-out treat.
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I like doing the measuring out with my little shot glass and shaking everything in my cobbler shaker (£3 from a charity shop) — it feels strangely like going back to high school chemistry class! My problem has always been not having just the right ingredients. Now I’m a little better prepared. There’s not enough room in the cupboard for all I’d need for more advanced drinks prep, though.
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That’s the other thing! Getting hold of bitters and vermouth and the like.
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That London Calling sounds great–I’m also a gin person. Though the older I get the less I drink, which makes it really special when I do. I’ve been so grateful (or one could but I probably wouldn’t say “blessed”) to have been involved with the Jesuit Media Lab and other offerings from the Jesuit Conference–their headquarters are in Dupont Circle–including going on a field trip to a special collections library at Georgetown, where I got to touch (and later write about) a 1548 first edition of St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises and other cool rare books. The Jesuits’ mission of peace and justice and finding God in everyday things really helps me integrate my spiritual life with my life-life. But I totally know what you mean about other service and community life having more meaning than church-sanctioned attempts. More folks would go to church, I think, if we felt like it directly fed into our–and our neighbors’–everyday life. And the current conservative evangelical movement here in the States is so distasteful to so many of us because it seems to be trying to remove all attempts at service and love of neighbor from doctrine. Ugh.
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Alcohol seems to affect me more these days, so all such drinks will be enjoyed in moderation (and sometimes over several sittings!).
There are too many out there giving Christians a bad name, or not truly deserving of the name “Christian” themselves. I do admire Ignatian spirituality. I remember my husband once went on a casual retreat they led through the university chaplaincy that involved keeping track of one work week and all the things he did because he had to do them versus what he did because he wanted to. Some of the kindest and most peaceful people I’ve met have been spiritual practitioners (of various faiths).
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I had a giggle at your decision to include these two topics under one (post) umbrella! I remember being relieved to hear an older relative, a weekly church goer, express to me as a young adult, that she only went for the community and found it rewarding in some of the same ways you’ve described. Either someone had told her not to say this to me when I was younger, or she herself was unsure whether she should say so, but it would have been a great consolation to me if I had better understood the fluidity of opinions/approaches about church attendance and affiliations years before.
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In some people’s eyes we would be ‘Bad Christians’ simply for enjoying cocktails 😉
Ah, but that’s one of our biggest bugbears: the church as a social club (for upper-middle-class octogenarians, as seems to be the case with most Anglican churches). We often leave a service saying to each other, if church isn’t challenging people to live out their values and make a difference in their community — through protest or voting or how they spend their money or how they think of nature or treat the environment or just how they speak to other people — then what’s the point of it? Comforting the comfortable doesn’t seem worthwhile. At least we’re asking the questions, I guess.
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Martinis are my favourite cocktails, but I also enjoy an old fashioned 🙂 Yours look great.
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I can’t believe I’d never had a martini before! I think next time I’ll try it with less vermouth in.
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I like to swish the vermouth around the ice cubes in the shaker so it coats them, then tip it all out so you get the bare minimum!
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A purist 😉 I made a half-size martini yesterday evening and changed the ratio to 5/6 (of a higher-quality, stronger gin!) and 1/6 vermouth. That was delish.
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I’m
Not a whiskey fan but I love an Old Fashioned.
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I guess I’ll have to try it sometime! It’s my husband’s strategy for using up a lower-quality bottle he has in the cupboard.
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