When I was a kid growing up, I was jealous of my Catholic friends. Rumor was, they got to drink wine and eat crackers in church, every Sunday.
My parents preferred to sleep in late on Sundays, and didn’t have a special fondness for fish on Fridays, so — even though I dropped regular hints about wanting to convert to Catholicism — my family rarely set foot in a church, of any type, unless someone we knew was getting married.
It was my understanding that, in order to drink wine and eat crackers in church, my Catholic friends had to confess their sins. That seemed to me a small price to pay, especially if the sin were something relatively mild like, “I got mad and told my sister she was ugly.” I mean, who didn’t do that, once in a while?
And your reward… for being honest… was a sip of wine?
My friends who were Methodist also got to eat crackers in church, but the ‘wine’ was actually grape juice. Or so I was told.
We are now hearing that, even if you are Catholic, you might not be allowed to drink wine in church.
If, for example, you are President Biden.
Last week, a group of American bishops voted to develop an official policy, limiting Communion for Catholic politicians who support abortion rights. The policy will reportedly be considered at their next conference.
Apparently, President Biden is both Catholic and a supporter of abortion rights. My own advice to the President — in case he’s listening — is to consider becoming a Methodist. Grape juice is not such a terrible choice. You still get the crackers. And really, isn’t one religion just as good as the other?
I suppose a lot of people don’t understand why this would be such an important matter, so as to be covered in detail by the mainstream media. You can read about it in The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal.
We will mention that the Chinese News Service did not cover the Biden story… although they did publish a photo of a new ‘drone taxi’ that was test-flown in Moscow for the edification of a small, socially-distanced audience.
The drone taxi does not require the construction of special runways, as it can land on an ordinary parking lot.
Presumably, this flying autonomous taxi would allow the passenger to drink wine and eat crackers while, for example, heading to a religious conference. You would not want to ride in this taxi during rainy weather, however.
But now, look, I have been distracted once again by the Chinese and their Russian friends, from the topic at hand, which is religious intolerance and the separation of Church and State. (Something the Chinese and Russians don’t have to worry about, being themselves atheists.)
I studied US History in 12th grade, not because I wanted to, but because it was a requirement to graduate. Apparently, the first Europeans to build colonies along the east coast were either Protestants, or people acting like Protestants for their own safety. But they liked the Communion tradition that the Catholics had perfected over the previous 1600 years. And who can blame them?
Many of these Protestants were escaping from persecution imposed by various state religions. (The Church of England comes to mind.) So, when it came time to cobble together a democratic republic for these semi-criminals, one of the ideas was to prohibit the government from imposing a state religion. This idea became known as “the separation of Church and State”, which, once adopted, proved right away to be problematic, because now the government couldn’t tax the churches.
But the churches didn’t always embrace the concept of “separation” fully. Certain church leaders sometimes acted as if it was perfectly okay to get involved in politics, and, for example, prevent the US President from getting his wine and crackers on Sunday morning.
Maybe President Biden needs to jog their memory, concerning their little tax advantages?
Not in a threatening way, of course. But just as a gentle reminder?
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.