Sundays That Stink

John Knight

Walking out of church is something you do only as a last resort. To walk out of church feels a bit like walking out of the presence of God, or snubbing the communion of his saints.

But for a small minority of people, walking out of church is often the only way to survive. These people suffer physical discomfort in church almost every week. Their discomfort has nothing to do with illness or with what they've been eating. It has everything to do, rather, with whom they sit next to. These people are terrorized by allergies - in particular, allergies to scents. For them, church can be a nightmare.

Fragrances, especially in morning services, can be potent. The combined fragrances of several hundred people in an enclosed, ill-ventilated place can set off severe reactions.

If you're a scent-sensitive person, many a church service goes like this: You find a place in a pew and prepare yourself to worship in oneness with your fellow believers. With only two minutes to go before the service begins, you breathe a sigh of relief. You've chosen a good place. You're surrounded by the right people. You're going to make it through the service, the songs, the prayers, the sermon. If all goes well, you'll be on your way rejoicing when the service is over. This is going to be a good Sunday!

Then it happens. A last-minute arrival squeezes into your pew, and you pick up a whiff of sweetness that could mean trouble. Your neighbor has splashed on more aftershave than usual. He may have felt exuberant this morning. Or she may be experimenting with the perfume her schoolmates rave about and concluded that more is better.

The service begins. You try to ignore the fragrance. "Today," you tell yourself, "it'll be OK." But you're wrong. Every time you inhale deeply, your sinuses react. You decide to try shallow breathing, but that, too, takes its toll. You wish you could leave because you know worse symptoms are in store. But you dare not. The church protocol bred into you dictates that you don't cause a disruption.

A half hour into the service, you feel a tightness in your chest. Your head begins to pound. Your singing has lost its vigor. Soon, the words from the pulpit will lose their coherence. You pray that this time the sermon will be short and you will be able to get out quickly, where the air is fresh.

As the sermon nears its end, however, your allergic reactions start to cause nausea. The dull pain in your head is moving toward a migraine, your stomach churns, and beads of sweat collect on your forehead. Soon, you'll feel shivers; if you manage to last the entire service, people may well comment on how pale you look and ask if you are OK. Church has turned into a nightmare. You'll need most of Sunday to recuperate.

Of course, church isn't the only place where scent-allergic people are victimized. But in the workplace, we can find ways to tell others what offends us. In restaurants, we can move to another table. Church is different: there we dare not tell others we don't like the way they smell.

Is there a solution? Many restaurants are a step ahead in dealing with fragrance sensitivity. Some communities have passed laws to ban the excessive use of fragrances where food is served. Many medical facilities forbid staff to wear fragrances. Patients may react! Although the ingredients that trigger severe reactions haven't been isolated, allergists have found that certain, but not all, fragrances that are supposed to make us more attractive set off severe reactions in some people.

What can the church do?

Recognize that wearing heavy perfumes can inflict great discomfort to some. A few years ago, a national conference on disabilities took place at a local college, and hundreds of volunteers were needed to escort registrants. All were advised to abstain from using fragrances.

Short of abstinence, church members should at least cut back. If nothing else, lighter applications of scent will make last Christmas's bottled gift last longer. Commercials tell us that fragrances are meant to foster intimacy. So maybe scents should only be noticed at intimate distances. The biblical command not to offend others has relevance here.

Church members who are hypersensitive (the percentage may surprise you) must feel comfortable enough to move over or, if necessary, walk out. They will also find a better comfort level in the evening service, which fewer people attend and by which point the morning's dose of scent has worn off.

No one denies that in today's society, body odor is unacceptable. Our frequent baths or showers should, however, suffice to make us acceptable to others in our church pew. To add excessive fragrance can, for some, turn a perfectly fine worship service into an ordeal.

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