Men Of The Cloth

November 19, 2009

in Passenger Stories

Back in the mid-1990’s, I boarded a Delta flight from Helena, Montana to Salt Lake City, pretty much the only way to get anywhere else in the world if you lived in Helena, Montana. I was going to visit my parents in Georgia.

Little did I know that at the time, the Pope was visiting America. Consequently, every Catholic bishop and priest in a 200 mile radius was booked onto that flight. As we boarded the small 737 for the flight to SLC, I was stuck standing at the front of the plane in the first class section as we all waited for the chattel to store their voluminous carry-ons in the overhead bins.

As I stood there in the aisle, I surveyed the first class section. Every seat was occupied by a “man of the cloth” dressed in black with a white collar and a large collection of gold bling-bling around their neck, as if they were headed to some rapper concert. Each of these men (no women of course) had a large alcoholic drink in front of them (this was a 6:30 am flight in order to meet connecting flights in SLC).

As I stood there surveying the situation, I couldn’t help but to announce out loud, “So this is where all that money that I give to the church goes!” (I haven’t been a practising Catholic for over 40 years, after I was kicked out of catechism class for advocating birth control.)

Forty years of pent up anger melted away as every face in first class turned bright red and all conversations stopped until I passed through to coach. Coach class ticket to SLC: $150.00. Embarrassing the Catholic hierarchy of Montana: PRICELESS! For everything else, you can go into debt with Master Card.

Hugh November 19, 2009 at 12:33 am

So, really, there was no flight from hell, you simply used this site as a forum for your anti-Catholic sentiments. As a very practicing Catholic, 1)I believe that parts of this are embellished, if not outright made up, 2) I am offended by your post, and 3) I forgive you.

Next time, find a Catholic bashing website, there are plenty, and make your post there. This isn't the proper forum, and I'm hoping the site moderators remove this.

BlueMole November 19, 2009 at 12:39 am

My, aren't you touchy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VABSoHYQr6k

Catholocism is just a cult that caught on, Keep throwing money at those statues, they have lots of lawsuits to settle

Aaron November 19, 2009 at 10:22 am

This kind of dialogue is a good way to ruin this website.

Elodie November 19, 2009 at 12:13 pm

Exactly. This a site about horrid flights, not your personal views on religion.

Josh November 19, 2009 at 12:14 pm

Hugh, I'm offended by almost every post you make. I liked this story and would love to say something like this to a catholic priest 🙂

JVM November 19, 2009 at 12:15 pm

I for one, found your post quite humorous. More people should stand up to these cults.

JVM November 19, 2009 at 12:18 pm

And, totally off the airline subject….I went to a casino with a friend. It was his first time there. When he noticed all of the blue-haired senior citizen patrons. He said loudly, "I thought these f0lks were on fixed incomes". Of course very few heard him, as the slot machines were drowning out their hearing aid capabilities.

BlueMole November 19, 2009 at 12:29 pm

Aren't most of us on fixed incomes until we a) get a merit raise/promotion, or b) get a Cost Of Living Adjustment (Sorry seniors, inflation is negative this year, but you won't take a cut like the -4% at my company), or c) get a better or another job???

This obviously does not apply to commission/tips jobs, or investment incomes. Large swings (+/-) are possible.

LMT November 19, 2009 at 2:46 pm

A+

Gregg - admin November 19, 2009 at 4:10 pm

This website has such a wide assortment of stories that there's probably something to offend everybody. It has stories involving various religions, ethnic groups, sexual persuasions, etc. which some commentators have deemed to be irreverent and offensive. However, there is a difference between this story and the other ones. Those stories included some aspect of a flight from hell; this one didn't. Not only was it off-topic, but as some of the commentators noted, the story was intended to espouse a personal bias. That's not what this site is about. Therefore the story shouldn't have been posted (although perhaps it could be said that the writer created a flight from hell for the other passengers!).

This website is called "Flights From Hell," and therefore all stories should contain at least some aspect of that theme. I'll be more cognizant of that in the future, although a wide interpretation will be allowed in determining what constitutes a flight from hell. After all, everyone has their own personal viewpoint on that matter. I'll also try to be better aware of personal agendas. Stories set up with the intent to debase other religions, races, sexual preferences, etc. won't be posted. We won't be employing a politically correct filter; if a story is true it's true regardless of the circumstances. But in the future we'll do a better job of ensuring that posts describe personal experiences and not reflect personal biases.

To ensure that comments don't further spiral into religious arguments, I'm halting any further comments for this story. You're welcome to contact me directly (contact@flightsfromhell.com) if you'd like to discuss the issue further.

sexygal September 11, 2014 at 11:18 pm

I highly doubt that you can "halt the comments" cuz here's another one!!!

Comments on this entry are closed.




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