<p>This morning H and I went to our Conservative synagogue to enjoy Rosh Hashanah services. Services started around 9-9:30.</p>
<p>There was a (very large) man in the seat in front of us, with a son about 13 or 14? He wore a tallit, so at least of bar mitzvah age.</p>
<p>At about 10:45, the man pulled a large bag of m&ms out of his tallit bag, and quite openly starts emptying handfuls into his mouth and chomping on them. A few minutes later, the son pulled oreos out of his tallit bag…</p>
<p>At one point in the service when everyone stands, he spilled a bunch of candies on the floor and quite loudly let out an expletive taking the Lord’s name in vain…</p>
<p>The usher did come over at that point and have a quiet word with him…</p>
<p>A few years ago I participated in a pulpit exchange and was preaching to a congregation that also had an associate pastor, who was serving as my liturgist for the day. All during the worship service she took swigs from a bottle of Pepsi that she sat on the arm of the chair, up on the dais, facing the congregation.</p>
<p>Now, I often have a bottle of water in the pulpit during hot weather to moisten my throat. But it seemed really disrespectful to me to have a soft drink during the entire service.</p>
<p>On a lighter note, a funny story about snacking during a service. Many years ago, my husband and a friend went to the Bar Mitzvah of another friend’s son. My husband and his friend were both accustomed to a short Reform service. This Bar Mitzvah, however, was at a Conservative Temple, and they arrived at the 9am starting time, not realizing many guests would arrive later. Towards the end of the 3 hour service, small bags of nuts, dried fruit and raisins were passed out to the congregants. My husband and his buddy assumed these were snacks that they could consume, and did so. Only later, at the very end of the service, did they learn that this congregation had a tradition of tossing the fruit and raisins at the Bar Mitzvah boy to ensure a sweet and fruitful life! Oh well.</p>
<p>H hates when people bring candy/snacks etc to Mass. He thinks it is so disrespectful. Often this is for young children but still…45 minutes isn’t all that long to go without food and I don’t think our parents would have pacified us during church with food. It’s usually the kids that act up, so it’s not working anyway :)</p>
<p>I sat behind a very well behaved eight-ish year old and his dad. The kid was clearly bored but Dad interacted with him, wrapped him in his jacket/tallit when the AC made the sanctuary pretty chilly, and moved the kid to where he coiuld see the shofar. Kid sat there for 3+ hours doing at least as well as I was! No snacks in sight.</p>
<p>Have you ever been inside a Christian church that has a contempory, casual style of worship? One of those churches in our area has a Starbucks in the lobby and cupholders in the movie-theatre style seats (with which they replaced the pews about 4 years ago.)</p>
<p>I was at a crowded Sunday Mass once where overspill used vestibule to stand during service because there were no seats left inside the church. A man in the vestibule was smoking a cigar until an usher asked him to go outside…the guy with cigar said he WAS outside and a fight almost broke out until the cigar smoker finally left.</p>
<p>On one Christmas Midnight Mass many years ago, one parishioner was very drunk, and kept yelling out “Ho ho ho!” Years later I heard Johnny Cash’s version of Leonard Cohen’s song, Like a bird on the wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir…" so I figured this isn’t an uncommon occurrence.</p>
<p>I was at the weeky school Mass at my Ss’ Catholic school once when S2’s class was in charge of the music, readings, etc. One of the non-Catholic parents sat reading the newspaper and drinking coffee throughout the whole service! This particular family considered itself to be part of local high society and only sent their children to our school because it was one of the few alternatives to the public school system in our area. One would think they would respect the fact that they were in a house of worship, even if it wasn’t their particular faith tradition. I still get steamed when I think about this.
ETA: It never fails - The tackiest behavior is displayed by those who pride themselves the most on their money and so-called social position.</p>