I’ll let you think about the comparative.

Yesterday, despite the heroic or perhaps simply relentless efforts of the pastor, no, heroic – to enforce some degree of decorum at mass, the short shorts, the muscle shirts and the shoulders were out in number.

Some would say that this is a matter of temptation. But who is tempted in the church who is immune to temptation outside of it? No, it’s more than assuaging temptation. It’s about this most sacred space being taken seriously.

My solution: no communion for those who would not obey the pastor’s instructions.

Sound radical? You don’t know church history, then. And (I pray I am right) I am sure our Orthodox brethren have thus under greater enforcement than we. Even been to the Vatican? Try to get in dressed for the beach. It’s not about sexual modesty. It’s about reverence for the sacred places. Dress like you take it seriously.

I am the hottest man on earth, so to no one else are pants a heavier burden than to me when it is 30+ Celsius outside.

But surely we can be reverent with shorts on, Dr. Kerr?

Nope.

Do you not immediately lump a shorts-wearer into a category simply because of his shorts? I can’t take myself seriously in them. Men just look like big boys in them. Ever seen Stalin in shorts? That’d go over big with the boys in the Gulag.

Of course, if my solution were ever to be implemented a pastor would definitely need the bishop to back him up. I don’t expect it. A theologian still has to say what’s best. The pastors have to deal with it.

I have been wearing shorts to the occasional weekday mass. I don’t imagine I will any more. It’s about nothing other than taking that place seriously. It is the Kingdom of God.