I’m no stranger to insomnia. In the late 90s and early 2000s, I routinely woke up between 2 and 3 am.
At the time, I watched whatever was on television. If I woke early enough, I caught reruns of Farscape on what was then the SciFi network. After that, I channel surfed to whatever infomercial seemed to be entertaining. One of the infomercials making the rounds at the time was P90X (get ripped in 90 days). My thought at the time was I could get ripped in half an hour, except I had to get up and work.
A good deal of that time, I didn’t feel good about myself. There’s something about not being able to sleep like the rest of the damn world that makes you doubt yourseld a little.
The insomnia finally passed and, for the most part, I get between 6 and 7 hours of sleep a night these days.
This morning I woke up at about 3–and quickly realized I was done for the night.
I checked my email, the socials, saw that the Mets won, checked a few websites, and then…there was nothing to do.
So I did what I didn’t do back in the late 90s and early 2000s: I got up and exercised. For me, that was a six-mile run. After a flare the last couple weeks, I’ve been working back to that length over the past few days. This morning, everything fell into place and I got it done. I even walked an extra mile as a cool down.
I recognize that most people can’t get up and run a long way in the middle of the night if the can’t sleep. But they can do better than watching Tony Horton and coming up with excuses about why they can’t do this, that, or the other. The time I don’t sleep will be time I don’t sleep no matter what I do, so I might as well do something useful.
I’ll probably have a long afternoon today, and that’s okay. I’ve done it before and survived.
But for this morning, I got an opportunity to start early and do something far more useful than kick myself.
Gwen Berry is a remarkable athlete, having placed third in the US trials for the hammer throw. As a result of her accomplishment, she’ll be part of the US Olympic team in the Tokyo Olympics next month.
Berry, who is black, says that “competing, going overseas, going to competitions, getting prize money, and then ultimately making the Olympic team” help her, her family, and her community. When she stood on the metal stand after her finish, the National Anthem played. While the first and second-place winners put their hand over their heart, Berry turned away from the flag and eventually put a t-shirt over her head.
Berry with a t-shirt on her head as the National Anthem was played
“I was thinking about what should I do. Eventually, I just stayed there and just swayed. I put my shirt over my head. It was real disrespectful. I know they did that on purpose, but it’ll be alright. I see what’s up,” she said, asserting that the anthem was played while she was on the podium just to show her up.
Unlike the Olympics, the anthem is played once a day at the trials, and not every time results are rewarded. Officials say they didn’t play the anthem while Berry was on the stand to show her up. She disagrees.
In 2019, Berry was placed on probation and lost many of her sponsors after she raised a fist on the podium at the Pam Am Games, something she said was meant to highlight social injustice in America.
Constitutionally, Berry has the absolute right to raise her fist, ignore the anthem, or put a t-shirt on her head. She can’t and shouldn’t be removed from the team for those actions (though the t-shirt thing seems juvenile). She won’t have the same right in Tokyo, as International Olympic Committee Rule 50 say no demonstration or political, religious, or racial propaganda is permitted.
Cheering for Jessie Owen to show up Hitler was political. Tommy Smith’s and John Carlos’ raised fists were political. The execution of 11 Israeli athletes was political, as were the dueling boycotts by the US and USSR in 1980 and 1984. The US is considering skipping the next Olympics in China as a political move.
The Olympics is a chance to cheer for countries you like and against the ones you don’t like. It’s ridiculous to pretend it’s not political.
But her protest, seemed more like the petulant tantrum of an overtired pre-schooler than an athlete trying to make a statement about injustice. She was showing the same disrespect for the country that she said event organizers showed her.
When Colin Kaepernick (who was benched for Blaine Gabbert) started his protest, he sat for the anthem. After a veteran chastised him, he talked with the veteran and came up with kneeling as an alternative. For the record, when Catholics do it, kneeling is seen as a sign of profound respect.
In contrast, at an NFL game in Mexico City, running back Marshawn Lynch sat on the bench for the US national anthem, but stood for the Mexican anthem. He played through the 2019 season and didn’t become a lightning rod.
Berry would’ve done well to take a page out of Kaepernick’s book to display her feelings. If you divorce his approach from politics, it was still respectful and got the point across.
She’s got every right to react any way she wants. The country whose anthem she detests recognizes that right. But the US Olympic Committee, sponsors, and fans also have a right to react. It’s reasonable to speak out against someone who petulantly acts out against the imperfect country that she’s representing.
Berry’s concerns are valid, but her approach shows that there’s such a thing as being dead right*.
* — It’s 2021, so I should also indicate that “being dead right” is not intended to be a threat against her or anyone else, nor an enticement for anyone to harm her. Given the ones of people who read this blog, it’s probably not a big threat.
The most important insights in life often come from a confluence of important ideas, taken together, that change your view of the world.
As I consider five streams of thought, I come to a single conclusion: I want to surrender.
Let me explain.
The first stream is from a book called The Midnight Library, a novel by a guy named Matt Haig. In it, a woman whose life has come apart and wants to die is given the opportunity to live other versions of her life and choose one in which to continue. It’s hard to go beyond that without giving away key elements, but for those who read it (or will), I would do things like blame myself for the cat dying–something the protagonist did. For those who didn’t read it–that’s a bad thing to do.
The life we have is the life we have. It’s not practice or a prelude to the next thing. It’s the product of our decisions and reactions. And while that can be weighty, it also gives us great power. We can change those decisions and reactions and produce a different outcome. The concept isn’t rocket science, but it’s presented in a thought-provoking way.
The second stream is this week’s message at church. I typically take notes on my phone at church and this week, my thumbs got tired. It centered around Mark 4:21-25, where Jesus told his followers that they are the light of the world and that you don’t hide a light under a bushel basket. Until today, I’d been concentrating on the part that says the light will illuminate everything and expose every secret–which means that God’s light already shines on those dark spots and he accepts me with all of them there. That’s grace.
The message moved away from that, concentrating on Jesus saying that we, his followers, are the light of the world–and that we shouldn’t put a basket over a light because that’s stupid. In other words, the light of God has to flow through us. We’re charged to carry that light to others.
We get help doing that. Romans 12:2 says we should let God transform us by changing the way we think. In other words, we’re supposed to be the light, but the weight isn’t solely on us. God will help us by changing our thought patterns.
The third stream is a set of videos we’re doing in my men’s small group. It’s from the Knights of Columbus (Yeah, I’m Methodist right now, but I attend a Catholic small group. Go figure.). The most recent is about the family being under attack. A fairly long portion of the video we watched this week talks about vasectomies–which I’ve had one of for reasons I consider valid. I disagree with that part.
The entire video series challenges men to step up–to take their faith and their role as a man of God more seriously. But if I could do it over with my wife and my kids, I don’t need more. I need less. Instead of constantly blaming myself for stuff like that cat dying, it would’ve be so much better if I’d just taken the time to enjoy everything–the kids, my wife, the fact that one or the other of the children had activities 168 hours a week (I only exaggerate a little), even the struggles. I was already a decent enough person. I should’ve let the self-criticism go and just enjoyed every moment.
The fourth stream of thought was an article from something called the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) called Can Religion Be a Healing Force in Society? The answer, as you might expect, is yes. More accurately, it’s yes, but. It says we need to show that we’re all made in the image and likeness of God, even that guy over there, the harmful political idiot. We need to listen better, model what it means to debate and disagree well. We need to model humility and model grace.
Where I get all my ethics and public policy info. Doesn’t everyone?
Like the thing with the family, it’s not a matter of bringing more to the table, but less. Remove our fears and concerns, our sense of belonging to this tribe, the best tribe. Get past our need to be right and our fears about what happens if we’re wrong. That last thing is key. If we really belong to a grace-filled omnipotent God who loves us, then what is there to worry about? Why do we need to be right? Why can’t we let go of things and reach out to them, the people who have it all wrong?
The last stream is my own thought and writing. Humor’s a part of my life. Often it’s sarcastic and a little biting–calling former President Trump “Captain People Skills” or former President Obama “Barry Hussein.” The EPPC pieces says that we need to be devoted to speaking the truth. Though the didn’t reference it, 1 Peter says to be ready to explain our hope in a gentle and respectful way. I’d extend this to explaining our truth in the same manner.
If you’re a Trump supporter, you could reasonably say I’ve failed in that regard. I’ll never support the man as our nation’s leader, and while I believe in the truths I’ve put forward, the way I’ve done it hasn’t met the definition of debating and disagreeing well. It’s something I’m working on.
All of which brings me back to my original point: I want to surrender.
It’s a U2 double-header Monday
I’m not great at the surrendering, because it means giving up control. Competent people don’t like doing that. The most devout among us probably isn’t great at it, either.
But that surrender is required if we really want to trust God. Because God will change the way we think. That means we have to let go of every preconception, every rock-solid viewpoint. For me, it means viewing both Donald Trump and Andrew Cuomo as beloved children of God, even while I disagree with their actions. It means that pain in the ass problem at work–the one that will surely be a career changer if it doesn’t go right–will pass and I can just do my best and trust because someone’s helping me.
It means I don’t have to solve every problem laid at my feet. I don’t need to check every box thrust in front of me (even the ones I thrust there myself). It means I don’t have to be right, super-productive, or perfect, but I do have to be present. And the best way to do that is to relax and surrender everything.
This isn’t a prelude to passivity–quite the opposite. It’s a desire to let God change the way I think so that I can imagine and pursue things I never considered.
One of the messages our pastor harps on is that God could do all this stuff Himself, but he wants us to help and to have a great adventure together. It’s hard to have an adventure if you’re too busy trying to direct every aspect of that adventure. Especially if you’re not the guide.
That job’s taken.
I can relax, then, and enjoy the ride, wherever it goes.
PS — I probably won’t manage this, totally, but it’s an important goal to pursue.
When the building collapsed in Miami, I thought about the people in the building. Unlike the Murrah Building and the World Trade Center towers, this building was a residence. It was the middle of the night. People were sleeping, which means for surviving family members, everything’s gone.
It made me think of Nora Durst, in the book and television show, The Leftovers. The premise is that 2% of the world population just disappeared with no explanation. For Nora Durst, it meant being at the sink in the kitchen on a hectic family morning, then turning around and having her husband, daughter, and son disappear.
Nora Durst (as in “cursed”)
Gone.
Forever.
The television show spends a lot of time on Nora, much more than the book. It’s first great episode, Guest, dives into Nora’s grief.
If you watched only that scene, you’d see Nora as a self-absorbed bitch–and she was. A lot. She was selfish and angry, at times shallow and deeply uncaring. It’s really hard to truly care about other people when your soul feels like it’s been impaled on a stick and packed in salt.
Above all, she was hurt. And she wanted more than anything to move past that hurt. To move past the nothing.
Nora’s fictional, and some of the lengths she went to are probably more dramatic than what others in similar positions go through. The guilt, the feeling of being out of control, the struggle to do something–anything–to stop spinning. It’s probably something you feel after that big a loss.
Good fiction helps you step outside your life and look at other lives. It helps you imagine other lives. It helps you understand, at least a little bit, what other people are going through. Though no one who hasn’t lost an entire family can really understand what that’s like, work like The Leftovers might help you imagine it.
The Leftovers is a dark show, with great character development. It’s not for everyone. It was written in response to September 11–to the seemingly random loss of so many people. It explores that kind of loss. For some people in the New York City area, no one in their life was lost. For some, a huge percentage vanished.
My losses in life are nothing like what happened in New York and Washington on September 11. It’s nothing like what a lot of people will go through because of the building collapse in Miami. Or like the next awful thing, whatever that’ll be.
I hang with other writers when I can. Most of them are better at it than I am. But all of them seek to create that window into other lives. The window may seem small and meaningless. Or it may seem grand. But even the tiniest window in the right place, under the right circumstances, can trigger a thought that wouldn’t have otherwise been thought.
In the world we live in, any window outside our current lives is a valuable thing.
The statistic is shocking. Among young adults (20-24), nearly a fifth are neither working nor studying. They’re disengaged from the economic engine that makes the economy run.
More seriously, given that they aren’t contributing to society, it’s easy enough for them to feel disconnected from that society. The story in the link buries this, but when large numbers of young people–young men in particular–that aren’t participating in society, that’s a recipe for instability. It’s been cited frequently as one of the factors in the rise of Islamist terror in parts of the Middle East.
Certainly, the Covid is a factor and the overall health of the economy has been a driving factor. Non-participation rates were high during and after the Great Recession and fell steadily from there. It’s starting to fall again, down from over 20% late last year to just over 18% in the most recent report covering the first quarter of this year.
Since 2005, though, it’s never dropped below 15%. When one in every seven young people isn’t participating, that’s a huge problem.
We can spend time wailing about it–and I don’t understand how you don’t participate. If you don’t buy in, how do you pay your bills? What do you do with your time? I can’t put myself in that mindset.
Wailing about kids these days won’t fix the problem. For the last 16 years, a large segment of society hasn’t participated. They haven’t built the skills required to feel enough hope to buy in and work for a better future. Kicking their self-entitled little asses down to the jobs center may feel good, but it won’t fix the problem.
Paying huge amounts of money won’t fix is either. We can argue about the fight for fifteen all we want, but the question about whether higher minimum wages fix the problem is guesswork right now, until there’s data to back it up.
If we look back in a couple years and see a marked decrease, we would have to consider that possibility. But in the meantime, a large percentage of young people aren’t working at a time when a large number of entry-level jobs aren’t being filled.
Those disconnected twentysomethings will become thirtysomething and fortysomethings and won’t have the foundation to succeed.
It’s time to stop using every statistic and calamity as a political bludgeon to beat the other side into oblivion. That won’t help this issue. What’s needed is the liberal desire to make these people feel more like they belong and the conservative drive to get them into the workforce so they can build a future for themselves.
When Britney Spears publicly self-destructed in 2007, I joined in the jokes. After all, it’s not every day a celebrity goes horribly, visibly insane. When pictures of Katie Hill sitting naked and brushing an aide’s hair surfaced as part of the scandal that ended her Congressional career, I looked at them. I joked about naked hairbrush time as a team building exercise.
Brittney Spears
And yet, ever time I see video of former NFL quarterback Ryan Leaf yelling at a writer, I blanche inside. In some ways, I was that guy at certain points in my life.
Ryan Leaf melting down
All three of those people are public. Leaf and Spears were very well-paid for what they did. Together with Hill, they all had the world at their feet and blew it spectacularly.
And for the most part, the world joined me in mocking their downfall.
We shouldn’t have done that.
To be clear, Spears and Leaf both clearly have mental health issues. If Hill’s accusations against her ex-husband are true–that he killed her pet, abused her, and choked her to the point of unconsciousness–mental health issues aren’t out of the question–and that would be reasonable.
To some degree, their public personas give us a right to more information than you’d get from that guy down the street. In Hill’s case, her affair with underlings is directly relevant to her job. The people of her district have a right to know. And people have the right to say what they will.
Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
People like me, who’ve struggled with mental health, should be the last people to do it, even if they are public.
I got in an argument with someone over masks on Facebook the other day. It was stupid. There was no reason for it. Considering I’ve been vaccinated, it’s really not material to me what anyone does about masks. If you’re vaccinated, you’re good to go. If you aren’t, that’s your choice and whatever happens, you’re the one it’s happening to.
Another person posted a meme you typically see with the left–the ones that are quick, pithy, and feel good to post because of the burn factor. Those memes also completely ignore the fact that most issues are too complicated to solve in the space you can fit on a graphic on social media.
The internet believes the dead cat has a point
It struck me that I keep posting that, as long as others aren’t hurt, people should be able to do whatever they want.
In other words, if you want to say that patriotism is defined by willingness to pay more taxes, more power to you. If you want to say Donald Trump got screwed, it’s free country.
In short, there’s no requirement for content to agree with my view of the world, brilliant though it may be.
With everything that’s happened in the sixteen years since last March, we’ve become brittle in our ability to tolerate different viewpoints. We call out the other side as being stupid and intolerant, then pummel the hell out of the next idiot who dares to post an opinion we find aberrant.
I’m not talking about factual differences, but about viewpoints. The fact of the matter is, we’ve all becomes snowflakes to one degree or another. I had to rewrite my first response to Eric Deggans four times because I was angered by what he said. And then I thought I’d actually deleted it because I knew I wasn’t handling it as well as I wanted.
Why did I do all that? It’s stupid. He’s entitled to his opinion, which didn’t harm me in any way.
I read posts every day about people living in a state of suspended hell because of the Fibro. I have a Facebook friend I’ve never met who’s trying to keep it together while her mother’s in Hospice because that time comes for everyone. That stuff matters.
What you think about mask-wearing and whether all restaurant owners are greedy schmucks if they have trouble attracting help matters, too. But not as much.
So go ahead. Post your opinion. Say what you want. I’ll say what I want. And maybe we’ll get angry at each other.
But at the end of the day, if I still don’t want to have a beer with you, I’m missing the mark.
Defensive end Carl Nassib of the Las Vegas Raiders is the first active player in the NFL to come out as gay, and I would like very much not to care about this.
Las Vegas Rams defensive end Carl Nassib
In terms of his being a professional football player, it doesn’t matter who Carl Nassib sleeps with, as long as that person is a consenting adult. It doesn’t matter if God made him that way or if he just prefers dudes to women. He is entitled to the same treatment and respect as any other member of the National Football League. As any other human being.
For me, as a Mets fan, if every single member of the team came out tomorrow, I would still be a Mets fan–exactly as I am today. And if every single member of the New York Yankees came out tomorrow, I would still hate them–because they’re the Yankees.
Gay or straight, they better start hitting
This doesn’t mean that part of gay athletes is any less distinctive. In a free society, people should be, well, free to be who and what they are as long as that doesn’t harm other people. Like skin color, race, and religion, sexual orientation doesn’t harm other people.
If Carl Nassib wants to love a dude and the dude is okay with it, it’s none of your business. If Megan Rapinoe wants to love a woman and the woman’s okay with it, it’s none of your business. If Ellen Page wants to become a guy and go by Elliot Page, it’s none of your business.
Megan Rapinoe likes women. Get over it. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
We’re too busy getting into other peoples’ business.
All of this said, if I were a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, I’d think Carl Nassib is heroic for coming out.
Football hasn’t been the friendliest culture for gay men. It’s always had gay players–and the other players have probably known about it. If the locker room accepts it, the fandom won’t. By coming out, Nassib is certain to hear it from fans at every stop he makes. Some will be bigots and homophobes. Some will be assholes looking for any advantage over a foe, even if it is over the line.
If I were gay, that would make him a hero to me. And that’s before he gave me someone like me to root for.
I don’t care what Leviticus says. I don’t care what whichever letter to Paul says. I don’t care what your tough-as-nails uncle says.
For me, the key is what Jesus said, when he said that all the prophets and the law are summed up in two commands. Love the Lord and love your neighbor.
To quote the great theologian Frank Barone, I’ve read a plenty of damn bibles.
Not a single one of them had an asterisk next to the love your neighbor command.
Even if they’re a guy who sleeps with another consenting guy.
Okay, so as I write this, everything aches. Even the bottom of my feet hurt. The pain is marbled through my body like a Ghostbusters demon sent ahead to prepare we pitiful earthlings for the coming reign of Gozer the Destroyer.
But the pain’s not too great. It’s small enough to feel good enough to work but just big enough to make the day seem like it’s sixteen years long.
Every time I write about Fibro, I mention how lucky I am. Blessed might actually be a better word. I’m having a day like that, but it’s one of just a handful of such days since I started keeping track in February. For a lot of afflicted people, this is a daily fact of life.
It’s a state of limbo that extends out to the horizon. If they felt truly awful, they could take a sick day. Or maybe they could better define what’s wrong with them so the doctors could try something different. Or maybe they’d get a little more sympathy from co-workers, friends, and loved ones.
But when they get to the weekend, they take the sick days. They stay in bed or on the couch. Maybe fulfill an obligation they’d put off or feel compelled to honor. Mostly, they try to figure out how to build up a meager reserve of energy to at least help themselves out on Monday.
When that was me, I watched every available episode of Castle on TNT. And I…actually, that’s about all I did.
Castle and Beckett, before they hated each other
It’s a hell of an existence–literally (and my literally, I mean literally and not figuratively, but that’s a different blog post).
The people who live this life, whether from Fibro or some other condition are often viewed as being somehow less-than. Sometimes you gotta play hurt in life, you know. Rise above. Put aside your discomfort for yourself and the team–that kind of thing.
As I write this, I feel like I have a bad flu in every way except actually being sick. I did that for a day. It wasn’t fun, but it was a day.
I blanche at the thought of doing that for a month or a year. Or a decade or more. It’s not just physical discomfort at that point. To have that level of pain day after day would wear on you. It would make you doubt yourself–is it really in my head? Do all people feel like this? It would fatigue you and male you gradually sink into a mental and emotional mud pit.
The thing about mud is that it’s buoyant. You’ll never sink out of sight. You’ll just get stuck and the harder you work to get yourself out, the more you’ll be covered in the stuff. And you’ll get far more tired from the struggle than the people standing on firm ground.
The people who do that every day are tougher than most people can imagine.
If you know someone like that, throw the a complement. Tell them you can’t imagine how they do it, that it must be hard, but they’re bearing up with grace and dignity. They’ll probably redirect the grace and dignity part, but they’ll appreciate it.
A recent poll shows that most Catholics in the US think that people should be allowed to receive the Eucharist–that is, communion–regardless of their stance on abortion or the death penalty. The poll was run because of a report approved by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which has widely been interpreted as laying the groundwork to deny the Eucharist to President Joe Biden, who supports abortion rights.
President and Dr. Biden at Mass
The report passed 168 to 55, with six abstentions. Its focus will be reverence for the Eucharist and it will be developed over the summer and presented for amendments and approvals in the fall. After that, it would have to be approved by The Vatican. It’s unclear at this point whether that approval would come, considering the stances and policies of Pope Francis.
It’s also unclear whether the report would ultimately result in Biden (and others whose stances violate the church’s teaching on the sanctity of life) being denied. Although it’s not the focus of the report, it could have the same impact on death-penalty supporters.
This issue’s come up before. In 2019, Biden was denied the Eucharist in South Carolina over abortion. In this case at least one bishop (the Albany, NY diocese) has said he would not deny the Eucharist.
In practice, a number of people, such as divorcees, aren’t supposed to receive the Eucharist. Back in my Catholic days, when I was a Eucharistic minister, I was told not to deny anyone.
To understand the importance of this to Catholics, you have to understand the importance of the Eucharist. While most Christian church services revolve primarily around the word of God–the Bible, Catholic Mass builds toward receiving communion. According to Catholic theology, when the wafers and wine are consecrated, they become the body and blood of Jesus through a process called transubstantiation. At that point, they’re called the precious body and blood. It’s a literal meaning.
As a result, devout Catholics take this very seriously. It’s so important that sinks used to wash anything associated with the Eucharist drain directly into the ground so Jesus’ body isn’t dumped into the sewer. That sink is only used for washing those vessels.
From a theological viewpoint, Jesus came to be with us. His statements in the Bible say he took the bread and wine and said “this is my body” and “this is my blood.” He didn’t say, “this is a representation of my body and blood.” So in Catholic theology, receiving the Eucharist is the biggest thing you can do. It’s something you’re supposed to do with forethought. You’re supposed to examine your conscience before receiving.
President Biden has said that he believes life begins at conception, but doesn’t think it’s appropriate to force that view on others. Hence, the battle.
For the record, I, too, believe that life begins at conception, but that you’ll never end abortion with laws. You’ll just drive it underground and make it worse. From a pragmatic viewpoint, it won’t accomplish what you want. I also believe you can be a serious Catholic and take President Biden’s position. I would not deny President Biden.
But polling of US Catholics doesn’t matter in terms of what Church doctrine should be. Catholicism isn’t and shouldn’t be a democracy. Theology isn’t developed based on a poll of what the churchgoers think at a point in time. Lest you think that’s backwards, that’s how you get churches that see no problem giving out guns and exhorting congregants to support Donald Trump as a function of God’s will.
As a non-practicing Catholic, my opinion doesn’t matter much, either.
But whatever happens, it must be understood that Catholic teaching, particularly about the Eucharist, isn’t a political contest. Polls and focus groups don’t matter. The Eucharist is what it is and that won’t change. While I would disagree with any decision to deny President Biden, I also recognize the Church’s authority to govern in this area.
But I would wonder what Jesus thinks about all this. He seemed to be more concerned about building bridges than building walls. He probably wouldn’t be a fan of abortion or capital punishment (especially after having been executed). He held his Father and his Godhood as something to be valued and respected. And while he dined with sinners (thankfully for us), he didn’t see sin as something to be condoned or encouraged.
I have no idea what his stance would be, outside the idea that we should pray about it. We should pray not just to end abortion and capital punishment, but to end the conditions that cause both.
If the church is trying to use the Eucharist as a lever to change Biden’s positions, it’s clearly in the wrong. If it prayerfully considers this and decides it has to draw a line, I can’t argue with that.
But the stance will discourage people from seeking Jesus through the Church, and I’m not sure that’s the right thing to do.
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