Mindspire Blogs By Michael P Lennon
“Between Pews and Papers”
By Michael P Lennon Jr
There seems to be a peculiar obsession these days with who is sitting in a pew and who isn’t. As if attendance alone is the measure of a man. As if faith were a register to be signed, stamped, and filed neatly for public inspection.
I’ve seen the chatter. I’ve read the lines.
“Does he go?”
“Doesn’t he go?”
“Is it enough?”
They ask it about .
They imply it about the rest of us.
Let me save everyone a bit of time.
No—and it doesn’t matter.
Now, before the paper brigade start sharpening their pencils, let’s be clear. There’s a difference between faith and performance. One is lived quietly, often imperfectly, in the ordinary moments no one writes about. The other is staged, photographed, and debated by people who weren’t invited to begin with.
We’ve inherited a strange habit in this country—this need to see belief in motion. A church door opening. A figure walking in. A headline forming before the hymn has even started.
His father, , carries a role bound—constitutionally and symbolically—to the . His late grandmother, , wore her faith with a quiet consistency that never needed explaining.
That was their way.
But here’s the part people seem reluctant to accept:
not every generation expresses belief the same way.
Some speak it.
Some show it.
Some simply live it—and leave it at that.
And then there are those of us—yes, myself included—who don’t feel the need to clock in every Sunday to prove a point to anyone, least of all strangers with column inches to fill.
I don’t report to a pew.
I report to my conscience.
That may not make for dramatic reading, but it does make for an honest life.
Because here’s the truth no headline quite captures:
You can sit in a church every week and learn nothing about decency.
You can never sit in one at all and still understand respect, truth, and how to treat people properly.
The building helps some. It doesn’t define all.
So must it be in the paper?
Must it be announced, analysed, and turned into a quiet little verdict?
No.
Some things—faith among them—are better left unbroadcast.
Not hidden. Just… not performed.
And if that sounds familiar, it should.
Because whether you’re a Prince or a bloke minding your own business, the principle is the same:
You don’t owe the world a public display of what you believe.
You owe it how you behave.
Everything else is noise.
— Michael P Lennon Jr
