Mother’s Day doesn’t have anything to do with Christianity, but Evangelical churches customarily make an event of it. The cover of the worship program says “Happy Mother’s Day!” and moms present are asked to stand up mid-service while everyone applauds. In the Bible belt chrysanthemum corsages are distributed, identifying the breeders. The plight of the infertile or single woman (neither is exactly celebrated in Christian culture) doesn’t seem to be an issue to those who orchestrated the special mommy recognition.

Recognizing mothers during church seems harmless enough and quite lovely really, and it is, if you haven’t suffered a miscarriage, infertility or an abusive/absent mother. Statistically, many people attending a church service have been affected by at least one of these. A Mother’s Day service couched in God-speak may not be what they need.

Such survivors feel conspicuous if they don’t clap and smile during the applause portion of the program (clapping and smiling being the brick and mortar of Christian culture) so some posturing is assumed in order to endure the service. And it’s a fresh, caustic hell for the woman who has miscarried to be asked by the guileless church greeter, “Are you a mother? Well you get a corsage if you are! No? Oh, it’s a long story? Wait, don’t cry. Come back! Jesus loves you!”