Protesting at Church

I protest at church all the time.

I scoffed out loud at a hideous comment about the Connecticut shootings just last hour in Sunday School.

I am wearing my University of Utah tie today.

(Update: I just stomped out of priesthood over pontificating against secularism in relation to recent tragedies…by same guy I scoffed at during Sunday School.)

Maybe these are more tantrums than they are protests. Y’all know me well enough.

I wore my Democrat tie to church two weeks ago.

My church bag has a small Rage Against The Machine button on it.

I used to wear Crocs to church. Okay, no good principle involved there. Some of my protests are not against any solid institution, but against bourgeois norms of fashion and dress. (Sure, maybe I just lack fashion…freaking bourgeois fashion)

I read my NRSV for my personal scripture study and at Church. I do this because I love reading a good serious bible. Oh, and the KJV…well…you know. I also do it because I love that my wife rolls her eyes at me when I pull out the large hard-cover version I have from Oxford University Press.

In many ways, these are neither protests or tantrums (okay, sometimes they are tantrums).

These are breeching experiments. Like Judith Butler, I am not just bucking norms (me in a very minor way), but I am also watching to see how people react or respond.

Rarely do I get any response.

I am curious to see what kind of response women got wearing pants to church today (I will address protests and the Church later in the week). Not because I think any change will come about because of it, but because I think the reactions will tell us much about certain individuals, though I would be hesitant to make sweeping generalizations.