Collectively, they put up little-to-no resistance to the State-ordered closure of their sanctuaries.
Technically, their congregations or denominations own the space, not them. They are merely the shepherds of those who sit in pews, entrusted with leadership over the lambs, in religious matters.
The urban dictionary defines “folded like a cheap suit” to mean: “To give in on something you felt so strongly about only a moment ago”.
Most clergy folded like cheap suits when their state government gave them the order to shut down worship
Most clergy folded like cheap suits when their state government gave them the order to shut down worship.
Now, as many re-open, it will be time to do a damage assessment.
What was the impact of closure on church finances? How many of those who could not come, will now come back? While the bricks and mortar churches were closed, how many parishioners found meaning in voyeuristic participation in remote worship on live TV, or in YouTube streaming? Or via radio broadcasts, that flood the airwaves on Sunday mornings?
Meanwhile, some advantages will have come to those who adjusted to remote worship.
No travel time to church. No worries about social distancing. No passing the collection plate. No dress codes. Attendance permitted in P.J.’s, even underwear. Breakfast during the sermon on a TV tray, or a coffee table while watching a Joel Osteen wannabee. Or, in larger churches, the regular preacher addressing a near empty room, may be perceived as only pretending to be speaking to a live audience.
More than a few who once sat in the pews will have, during their months away, grown accustomed to distance worship as equivalent in value to live participation in a large room with friends, in spaces where, in small rural congregations, now deceased parents, aunts and uncles once sat.
Distance worship through a screen, with preachers in the company of working stage hands, deletes congregational singing. But, then, in several of the old dying denominations, many have already found the liturgy redundant, and the hymns unsingable.
There was scant resistance from the shepherds when their flocks were divided and sequestered at home
Those legacy congregations that now offer “contemporary” worship as an option to the “traditional” format are logistically out-classed by large non-denominational churches that pioneered the contemporary motif decades long ago. They often hire stage talent. Because it’s partly show-business.
By and large, America’s clergypersons didn’t challenge the government logic of keeping Walmart, Lowe’s Home Improvement, Home Depot, Target, Kroger Grocery Stores, et.al. open and well-stocked with shoppers who move around the aisles often within a foot of each other, while church sanctuaries, like that pictured above, were closed, to all but the church mouse.
There was scant resistance from the shepherds when their flocks were divided and sequestered at home—except for essential trips. Church not being essential.
How hard would it have been to social distance in a sanctuary capable of seating, say, 400-600 with parishioners sitting six feet apart? And masked. Only a minority sing anyway, and often not all that well. But it’s the effort that counts.
All those seats usually filled on Easter Sunday, could have been spread out over multiple assigned shifts of attendance. As many as necessary. Those with last names beginning with A-H come at X time. Those I-O at Y time. Etc. It wasn’t impossible. But it wasn’t at all, because the shepherds complied when the Government ordered.
Support Canada Free Press
The shepherds surrendered their flocks. Because they were told to by the State
Except at the Temple Baptist Church in Greenville, Mississippi. There worshippers had been attending church while seated in their vehicles in the church parking lot, listening to their preacher’s sermons on radios. But then Mayor Erick Simmons issued an executive order—it’s what executives do to feel important—in mid-April, that closed Temple Baptist for both in-person and drive-in church services. Those who defied the order were fined $500.
The 2020 shutdown of worship in America’s churches should end, once and for all, the notion of separation of Church & State—however you define it.
The shepherds surrendered their flocks. Because they were told to by the State.
It was a milestone event in American history. Though it’s hardly been noticed.
Arguably, the best textbook on “A History of Christianity” written in the 20th Century was by Kenneth Scott Latourette (1884-1968). He wrote this about the early church (pp. 261-262):
“The various churches, including the Catholic Church, creations of Christianity, and the visible vehicles by which it was transmitted, were clearly institutions. Even before Christianity was accorded toleration by the state, and while it was still subject to chronic or intermittent persecutions, not a few of its bishops were accused of striving for prestige and were entering into intrigues and exerting the kind of power which was akin to that of the dignitaries of the state. Indeed, it is a question whether any visible institution, especially if it becomes large, can avoid falling victim in part to trends in the direction of the power which crucified Jesus.
The danger to Christianity was augmented when the state made its peace with the Church. Until then, Christians tended to keep aloof from government and many, perhaps the majority of the Christians, believed that loyalty to Christ was inconsistent with holding civil or military office or serving in the army. Beginning with Constantine, that attitude was weakened…Christian officials had to make choices for the state among courses none of which was in full conformity with Christian principles, and to take action which entailed the use of the kind of force on which the state was built. Emperors exercised their power to interfere in the affairs of the Church.”
So it went for months in America. As the Shepherds surrendered the Church to the State.
Lee Cary——Bio and Archives
Since November 2007, Lee Cary has written hundreds of articles for several websites including the American Thinker, and Breitbart’s Big Journalism and Big Government (as “Archy Cary”). and the Canada Free Press. Cary’s work was quoted on national television (Sean Hannity) and on nationally syndicated radio (Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin). His articles have posted on the aggregate sites Drudge Report, Whatfinger, Lucianne, Free Republic, and Real Clear Politics. He holds a Doctorate in Theology from Garrett Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL, is a veteran of the US Army Military Intelligence in Vietnam assigned to the [strong]Phoenix Program[/strong]. He lives in Texas.
Collectively, they put up little-to-no resistance to the State-ordered closure of their sanctuaries.
Technically, their congregations or denominations own the space, not them. They are merely the shepherds of those who sit in pews, entrusted with leadership over the lambs, in religious matters.
The urban dictionary defines “folded like a cheap suit” to mean: “To give in on something you felt so strongly about only a moment ago”.
