Early on, when my Dad was acquainting my brothers and I to golf, we would play at Lincoln Park Golf Course in Milwaukee--which still exists, largely unfettered from that time in the 1960s. The course wasn't a long one, which suited us fine, since we weren't grown yet and weren't quite capable of unleashing big drives. We were literally growing into the game.
Sunday morning seemed a good time to go, especially for Dad, in those early days. But Mom insisted that we go to church anyhow. We were Catholic, and she was a converted Catholic, so marriage to Dad had fewer speed bumps. There's no Catholic like a converted Catholic; I've been fond of saying she was more Catholic than the Pope.
So how to pull this off, with at least two hours on the golf course? Dad had the solution: We would sign up for a later tee time, go off to church--usually at St. Eugene's in Fox Point, not terribly far away--and that would be take care of. Then we could get back to the course in time for the tee-off. All bases touched, we could enjoy the rest of the day, guilt- and sin-free, at least about that.
The Catholic Church insists that its members attend every Sunday, which is one reason I soured on it and stopped going as soon as I was on my own. It defied logic, which religion sometimes does, but also insists you indulge in it despite that. It's religion. It's supposed to be beyond logic. The very idea of it implies that there are answers to our existence that are beyond us. Don't ask questions, just show up and try not to fall asleep, especially when the offerings basket gets passed around.
Does someone have to go to church once a week to prove they're sufficiently attentive to spiritual needs? Can't you do that some other way, like reading the Bible, which people say they live by but almost no one has completely read? Or are people just lazy? If they were lazy about going to church but not going to work, where their rewards would be noticeable and more easily utilized, was that a comment about why they needed to go to church? Or was required church attendance a way to try to guarantee that the church would get enough money to remain open? Or do you care whether you don't show up and everybody talks about you?
As I grew, I asked myself those questions and couldn't come up with reasonable answers. But the Supreme Court just did. At least, it came up with an answer, the reasonableness of which is clearly up for question.
New York's governor, Andrew Cuomo, has tried to reduce attendance for religious services to keep people apart from each other because, you know, we have this pandemic thing still going around (in fact, worse than ever). Depending upon the size of the congregation and church, he has limited attendance to 10 or 25 people at at time.
But the Catholic Church and strict Jewish congregations sued, saying that it was hypocritical for liquor stores (heaven forfend!) didn't have limits of customers, so why should the thing that people might turn to to defeat demon liquor? Answer me that, Batman!
Timing is sometimes everything in the law, and this time it was, too. Ruth Bader Ginsberg joined with four other justices to rule against the churches a few months ago, but a few months ago, she was alive. Amy Coney Barrett, who replaced her upon her death, she a member of a sidelong cult inside Catholicism (therefore potentially more Catholic than my mother), who's just joined this august group, tipped the scales in favor of the suing churches and said that the attendance limitations were unconstitutional.
Chief Justice John Roberts, who sided with three other justices who ruled the way they originally did, but who are this time in the minority, told the governor to redo (read: loosen a little) his regulations and the Court would see about it in a hurry, seeing as how the pandemic was busier killing people than ever, a fact lost on the three justices appointed by 45. He seemed to think that at least one member of the majority might change his or her mind if the limit might be increased, an accommodation that sounds reasonable. We will see.
Neil Gorsuch, who also sided with Barrett, pointed out the liquor store irregularity in his separate opinion. Except if you get 25 people inside a liquor store at once, that will happen only the day before Thanksgiving (the day the opinions came out, so maybe more noticeable), Christmas Eve (last-minute gifts), the Saturday before the Super Bowl, or days before fishing trips. You know, a few days like that.
But this way, all churches can now fill up their pews as they wish, pandemic be damned (too) yet ignored. Look, I have no problem with going to church, getting sick and dying, if that's the way you want to play it. But don't get in my way when you do it. Can there be any guarantee that the faithfully, fatally religious won't cross paths with mine on the other six days of the week? Hmmmm?
When the hell do their 'rights' to attend church--not worship, which is not the same because you can do that anywhere; attend church--get placed in front of mine to avoid getting sick from a disease from which I could easily die? When does their so-called 'right' to worship God in the eyes of others who would otherwise gossip about them become more important than my right to forestall, as long as I can (just like most people who don't believe in End Times), my opportunity to see God in person, if in fact I get one?
You are not reading an atheist here. I go to a church in Milwaukee, and in fact have served as a deacon in it. It's observing a strict quarantine on attendance at services at the present time, though a live Sunday service is being streamed. The session voted to observe science--yes, science--and to delay attendance at live services as long as the pandemic raged on. I'm confident that, since that was voted upon before the Supreme Court made any determination on the above topic, it will be maintained.
But Catholics and Orthodox Jews are better, of course. They have to go to church. They have to do that to be saved. As if they know. As if that will do it. As if that guarantees attendance.
Am I anti-Catholic or Orthodox Jewish? Well, no. Not really. But that is just one hypocrisy, at least in Catholicism, to which it clings. Don't get me started on the rest. Watch the movie "Spotlight" instead. It's on Netflix. And if I play golf on Sunday, I'll be skipping church. I'll take my chances.
In the meantime, we will have to put up with a new, twisted, Supreme Court that clearly will rule, or at least it looks like it now, in favor of maintaining religion regardless of the damage it does to, well, damn near everybody. Looks like I'll have to ask whether people are Catholic or orthodox Jewish, at least for now, in order for me to determine whether or not I'll have anything to do with them.
It wasn't supposed to matter. But now it does. Should I form a club now that excludes Catholics and Orthodox Jews because they're health threats? Hmmmm?
Be well. Be careful. Wear a mask. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
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