May 14
Batty priorities
Two pieces of paper have passed my desk recently (the second coming today). The first reminded us all of the importance of bats as a protected species. Even if they were filling the church with their droppings, you could do nothing to get rid of them, but simply cover your furniture and floors with dust sheets when the church wasn’t in use. Any high level work in a church needed you to swear that there was no evidence of bat activity before you would be allowed to mend the hole in the roof.
The second piece of paper I saw today was advice on bats and rabies. A few years ago someone in Scotland caught rabies from a bat and died. The leaflet wanted to reassure us that while a significant proportion of bats (perhaps 20%) were carrying rabies, it did not easily jump between species. However, we were strongly advised to wear gloves if handling a bat. If a bat flies into your home, you are allowed to take it outside, but you should wear gloves to do. If it nests in your church, you may not even disturb it.
So there you have it. In the name of conservation you must permit a rabies carrying species to take over and dictate the use of your church. Stuff the idea of pleasant user-friendly surroundings, and stuff the health and safety of the people. Diseased flying rodents must be protected.
They call this nature-loving. I call it unnatural.
May 14th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
if you would but baptize and confirm them, you’ll never see or hear from them again.
May 14th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Are you allowed to pray them out? Are there any restrictions on how those prayers are uttered? I can suggest people who will cast these unclean beings out of God’s holy temple at a volume and screech frequency that I’m sure no bat could stand.