BucketMan
Posts: 624
Joined: 8/18/2003
From: Orange County, CA
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ANTHONY CLARK "I just wanted to get away. I just didn’t want to live anymore, because it wasn't worth it, it wasn't worth getting rejected and getting beaten all the time."
DAVID KITHCART: The holder of the title World’s Strongest Man once lived with the reality of verbal and physical abuse. Anthony Clark was born to a Filipino mother and a Black American father. Family life was fine until they moved from the Philippines to the United States.
(To Anthony): Anthony, what is it in your childhood that made you feel like you didn’t measure up, like you were inferior?
ANTHONY CLARK: Basically, I would say low self esteem, my father, wanting love from my father, just not getting the kind of love I had once gotten.
It was really a big void because I didn't understand what was going on. Why didn't he give me the kind of love that he did when I was back in the Philippines? I didn't understand that.
DAVID KITHCART: Life at school wasn’t any better for Anthony.
ANTHONY CLARK: Peer pressure was really hard for me, because nobody was accepting me for who I was. I didn't understand that either, because, I mean, to me I didn't see any colors, but maybe it was a color thing.
I just wanted my father’s love, but I thought, What can I do to fit in at school just to feel good about myself?
DAVID KITHCART: Anthony began lifting weights and playing football. Suddenly, he found the acceptance at school he was looking for. But, there was really only one person he wanted to impress.
ANTHONY CLARK: I thought, Wow! My father is going to be really proud of me, because when he sees me play, he’ll say, 'Man, you had a great game' and pat me on the back and tell me, 'Way to go, son,' you know, some form of approval. We had the game and everything and we had won. I made, like, four touchdowns that game and I did pretty good. I looked up in the stands. I didn't see my mom or my dad there. I thought, They said they were going to be there. I go up in the stands like everybody else. I watch their moms and dads hug them and everything.
I went home, going home with enthusiasm. [I thought] maybe my dad would say, 'I’m sorry I couldn't make it to the game, son, but I know you did well. Tell me how you did.' As I walked in the door, all I could hear was 'Get in this house!' -- a rage. I didn't understand. Why was he so angry with me?
Then he said, 'Put your hands behind your back.' And I said, 'What did I do wrong?' He says, 'Put your hands behind your back and just shut up.' I was always obedient to my father. Whatever he said I just did, and so I put my hands behind my back. Then he got this rope and tied my hands up behind my back and threw the other rope over the rafters and started pulling me up. Here I was, tears streaming down my face. Next thing you know, I look below and he’s getting this extension cord, like about three inches thick. All of a sudden, with an angry fury, he starts lashing me with it until I passed out.
I woke up the next morning and I could hear my mom crying over me. I said, 'Mom, why does my father have to do that to me? What did I do wrong? What’s wrong with me?' She said, 'Son, I don’t know. I really don’t know.'
I was so low that I didn’t want to live anymore, so before the age of 14, I tried to take my own life three times. The first time I tried to hang myself from the very own rafters my father beat me from. The second time I tried to jump from the 19th floor of a hospital building. The third time I tried to overdose on my own asthma medicine. For some reason, I didn’t understand why, I couldn’t escape this reality that I was living with.
DAVID KITHCART: It was during this time that the school sponsored an assembly. There was something about the speaker that touched Anthony.
ANTHONY CLARK: [The speaker] talked about making the right choice, being the best you can be, hanging around the right people, and he says, 'Come back and I’ll tell you about some deeper choices.' It was a pizza party. I thought, maybe I should go back there because there was something that he had. He had this compassion that I never felt before. He was talking about an unconditional love that night. Everybody was going for the pizza, but I was going for the message, and I knew something was going to happen that night. But I didn't know what he was talking about, an unconditional, a father can love you unconditionally.
Here I was looking for that love and he talked about this girl named Susan that had taken her life because no one said: 'Hey, I love you.' I thought, he’s talking to me. Then that night he was talking about if you make Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior, you shall have eternal life. He said, 'John 3:16: "For god so loved the world that He gave His only Son." I thought, how can a father do that? That night I gave my life to the Lord and everything had changed for me.
DAVID KITHCART: The beatings ended when his parents divorced. Anthony began setting goals for himself in weight lifting.
ANTHONY CLARK: At the age of 18 I was the first teen to bench press 600 pounds. At 19 I did 612. At 22 I had squatted 1,025 pounds. Today I’m 30 years old. I hold all the world records accept for one, and that’s the dead lift.
The world’s strongest man title, that’s not what I want to be known for. I want to be known for the spirit, the light. You know what I mean?
DAVID KITHCART: Anthony now uses his success to touch young people with the same message that saved him and changed his life forever.
ANTHONY CLARK: Well, it makes me cry, because I didn’t know that I could be used for that purpose. It’s awesome. I’ve done a lot, but it doesn’t mean anything to me. It’s the love that people are really looking for.
DAVID KITHCART: Anthony says that Father God is filling that void left by his biological father.
(To Anthony): Is he really your Father? Is God really taking the place that the father didn’t take?
ANTHONY CLARK: Yes, yes. He is showing me how to be patient when I need to be patient. He shows me if I need a hug, He’s gonna hug me. When I’m lonely, He says just hang on. There’s not a time that I know I've needed Him that He hasn't been there for me. He’s been there.
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Where I walk I walk alone, where I fight I fight alone. You step into my world you step out a loser, I guarantee it.
Pain is only temporary, No matter how long it lasts
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