Religious Interlopers
For those of your mostly north-side readers who walk to church on Sunday and don’t know what a commuter church is, it’s a church, usually in the inner city on the south and west sides, whose parishioners don’t live anywhere near the church, if they ever did. Thus, they come in from outlying areas in cars. Thousands of cars.
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The more parking lots these churches provide, the more people drive in. They double-park. They park in front of “no parking” zones, handicapped zones, permit parking areas, private driveways, fire hydrants. They park on any level surface that will support their car’s weight, if it means that they can get to church late and bolt for the door as soon as the benediction is over. They don’t feel that they should be ticketed for these parking violations because they’re “going to church.” If the church has guards, these violations always seem to happen “when their backs are turned.”
It seems to me that the only thing people are learning in some of these commuter churches is how to drop money in the collection plate. Obeying the parking laws, even on Sunday? Consideration for other people and their rights? Don’t make me laugh. I pick up as much litter from the streets on any given Monday morning after “services” as I do the other six days of the week combined.
