King was right: the most segregated hour in America is Sunday from noon to one

Bilgrimage, without saying so, considers the discontents of the Paulines, Teabggers, Birchers, Birthers, Deathers and Earthers, for whom gays are as scary as health care reform:

Our being there is the problem, even more than our being gay. Our being there and being gay, and our refusal to apologize for or conceal our identity, is the problem. The problem we create simply by being there—by existing—for many of our brothers and sisters is the problem of confronting otherness and difference where they do not wish to confront otherness and difference: in church; in their church.

I am convinced that many people choose church membership and involvement in churches as a way of escaping from the challenge to deal, on an ongoing basis, with difference that presents a challenge to them. What many believers seek within churches is an enclave of other like-minded, like-skinned, like-thinking, like-educated people with whom to feel comfortable.

For many churchgoers, church and the experience of going to church is about affirming that the world—their world—continues to make sense, when the broader world appears to be falling apart. The self-identity of many churchgoers is built around the assurance that, when all outside symbols of authority appear to be crashing to the ground, at least one thing remains certain: the Bible. God. The authority of pastors. The Truth proclaimed by the magisterium. The catechism and the creed.