Very early one morning I had dropped my car off at the mechanic’s, and having nothing to do that day, and not being in any sort of hurry, I decided to walk home since it was not all that far.

I walked through an old cemetery dating to before the War for Independence to read the last standing headstones, and checked out a lot of downtown buildings until I reached the bus terminal.

On the days I volunteer at the Whaling Museum, I have to walk pass the terminal in both directions, and there always seems to be a lot of the same people loitering there. Because my schedule has me walking by on certain days at certain times, I am sure there are those whose daily school, work, or other schedule has them being there at those times, so they really aren’t loitering, but there are also those who, regardless of the day or time, congregate there because they are homeless, drug dependent, mentally ill, or just like hanging out downtown and have people to hang out with in that area.

But other than the occasional loud greeting, someone yelling in anger, or that ever present person in all environments who lacks volume modulation, the terminal is largely orderly.

As I was walking by the small retaining wall that is often used as an outside bench, my phone buzzed and, thinking it might be the mechanic, I took out my phone and sat down on the wall to take the call.

I had just finished rejecting the call as unknown when I saw two nuns from Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity with their simple, white cotton sari with a blue border, talking to various people, most obviously homeless, and handing them baked goods out of the tote bags they carried as they walked around the inside and outside of the terminal.

When they got to me, I greeted them as they me, and politely told them that I was not in need as I was simply checking my cell phone and was practically home  anyway as I lived just up the street, pointing to my building, and that there was probably someone more in need.

One of the sisters pointed out that it was really early, that when I got home I would probably get a cup of coffee as they intended to do when they got back to their convent, which is around the corner and two blocks from my apartment, and would like something with that coffee.

There was no preaching, no grilling me on my beliefs, no sacred salivating while hoping to pounce if I gave the wrong answer to the question, “Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?”, no quiz in any form on any subject, just two Portuguese baked goods to go with my coffee when I got home.

Apparently that is how they conducted their mission. No sermon, no warnings of the eternal flames in the afterlife, no uncomfortable praying just to get the cupcake; just a friendly greeting, a bit of small talk, the baked good, and the departure.

A quiet example that spoke louder in favor of Christianity than that guy a few years ago who pulled in front of me in a grocery store parking lot to ask the Jesus acceptance question in such a way I knew the wrong answer could be deleterious to my health.

I may not be all that formally religious any more, but I will remember that morning as a positive interaction with people who act in accordance with their beliefs.

I had been involved in the Roman Catholic Church since Baptism. Parochial school with nuns as teachers, altar boy, choir, member of the church sponsored Boy Scout troop, were capped off with me going to a seminary from which I eventually left because the longer I stayed in, the more obvious the politics of the church became.

And since that move, I was pushed further away The only cheap viagra tablets thing which has to be done is to take herbal supplements for low energy and stamina. It offers effective treatment for order viagra from canada spermatorrhea, impotence, poor ejaculation and low sperm count and motility. The cGMP enzyme breaks down by an enzyme sildenafil sale in the penis. In order to https://pdxcommercial.com/order-7125 discount viagra prevent the risk of adverse effects. as the Catholic Church seemed to enter into a competition with the Southern Baptist Convention and evangelicals to see which could be proven the most judgmental, and in the process moved further from the opened windows of Pope John XXIII and more toward the far right leanings of Pius XII, in modern times, John Paul II vs, Benedict XVI.

While I was living in Oklahoma, a state whose politicians compete with each other to prove which is the most “Christian” and, therefore, the best person to elect, when asked if he was a Christian, a candidate responded that he was Catholic. To many this was tantamount to saying, “no,” and to the rest he was considered in their minds and in political ads to not be the right kind of Christian.

Not to be left out of this politicization of religion and replacing the Beatitudes with the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition, there are influential Catholics who are applying that “not enough” label to Joe biden.

At the RNC Convention during Prime Time, the former coach of the Notre Dame football team, Lou Holtz, called Biden a “Catholic in name only”, a judgment he passed on to anyone present or watching at home.

Notre Dame was quick to distance itself from that,

“While Coach Lou Holtz is a former coach at Notre Dame, his use of the University’s name at the Republican National Convention must not be taken to imply that the University endorses his views, any candidate or any political party.”

Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island had warned the people of his diocese to keep their children away from the Pride Festival and Parade in the capitol city a year or two ago because children should not be brought to places that could subject them to possible, though not specified, harm, this while his own diocese has its problems with pedophile priests who met their victims at events to which their parents brought them, or allowed them to be present at.

He now has a political warning for his flock about Joe Biden,

 “The first time in a while that the Democratic ticket hasn’t had a Catholic on it. Sad.”

He, of course, was, as is always the case after the far right makes a painfully asinine statement, joking.

Speaking at the RNC convention Sr. Deirdre Byrne of the Little Workers of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary praised Trump as “the most pro-life president this nation has ever had”, while declaring that the Biden-Harris ticket is “the most anti-life presidential ticket ever”, going so far as to  falsely state that Biden supports “infanticide.”

From now until elections we will hear more of this because, it would seem, that there are those in the church who believe  “flock”  is just a nice way to view Catholics as a whole as mindless sheep who no longer believe in Church teachings on racism, economic inequality, and the dignity of immigrants like Biden goes.

For a while, earlier in the present campaign, I knew some people who rejected Peter Buttigeig, not because of policy differences, but because his campaign chose not to have a meet and greet in a Gay bar that had dancer poles because of the obvious bad optics with them in pictures of first openly Gay candidate running for president, and doing well, in a Gay bar which could be seen as a tacit promotion of a Straight assumption about Gay people, and this proved he was, somehow, not “Gay enough”.

Those Catholics in positions to influence people’s thinking who want to promote their “pro-life”, anti-Gay, misogynistic, anti-public education,  anti- people-living-their-lives-free-of-constant-judgment agenda will attempt to paint Biden as “Not Catholic enough” as if that is of any importance to those who are not Catholic anyway.

These people would never be seen giving baked goods to the bus terminal people without exacting a price.