Went to church on Christmas day with my mother, to the Catholic church where I went as a child. St. James is a relatively low-energy experience, getting its generally well-heeled parishioners in and out within an hour so hockey matches need not be missed; if necessary (as when the Mission Circle describes it activities for homeless girls in Tijuana), the liturgy is pruned. (For a feeling of the Spirit you need to go to its poor cousin, the affiliated Spanish-language Mission St. Leo.) But it was different this time - different because this was my first church service in California after the passage of Proposition 8. What if the church you grew up in was one in which you saw gay couples, indeed, gay marriages and families? Or: if the society in which you grew up was one in which you saw gay couples, gay marriages and families but these were absent in church?