All churches are not created equal

I decided to break out of my normal Sunday routine, which involves going to 7 p.m. Mass at a church that's near where I work. Originally, when I was working Sundays, I would just go to church over my break, and I found it actually very refreshing and rewarding. But today, I knew I wasn't going to make it to 7 p.m. Mass, so I decided to go at 11 to a church that's closer to my apartment. I had doubts about it, because I had been there once before and it seemed way conservative, but I shrugged it off.

So you can imagine my shock and dismay when the first thing that they did at this church, even before the Mass started, was have the entire congregation recite a prayer asking God to ensure the passage of Referred Law 6. And yes, the prayer actually contained the words "Referred Law 6, otherwise known as House Bill 1215." Or, for those of you who don't live in South Dakota, the extremist ban on abortion.

This prayer was taped on the inside cover of every hymnal at the church. When the entire congregation began reciting this prayer, my instinct was to get up and walk out. But I thought it would attract too much attention to do so, and I would surely be given the label of "baby-killer." So I decided to protest by not reciting the prayer and telling myself, it will get better – they'll say the prayer and that will be the last of it.

Oops, I was wrong. The priest then proceeded to devote his entire sermon to Referred Law 6, as I'm sure he has been doing every Sunday and will continue to do until the election Nov. 7.

Now, some Catholic Church abortion rhetoric is tolerable and even commendable. I don't support abortions. I think it's immoral, and I have no problems with prayers such as, "Please God, help women considering this choice the value of life," or even "let's pray that there are fewer abortions in this country."

It crosses the line, however, when the rhetoric becomes, "Please God, let the baby-killers realize that they are evil and smite them with your vengeance, so that more children who are unwanted can be born to crack-addicted mothers and pushed into the foster care system." Everything about this church was crossing that line (though not with those exact words), and I found myself becoming more irate, and then just really depressed.

I toyed with the idea of reporting the church to the IRS, because I'm fairly certain that that prayer would be sufficient grounds for the church to lose its tax-exempt status. But I'm too sad about the whole ordeal, so instead I think I'll just boycott that particular parish from now on – no matter how close it is to my apartment.