A reader writes:
The protestent church I attended used the exact same wafers. I'd imagine there are many other protestent congregations that do as well. We let our religious leaders have sex – granted only in marital bonds, so to speak – so the Astroglide wouldn't be scandalous. I would also assume a priest would have an assistant buy the wafers. Certainly his time would be better spent doing something else.
Another reader points to this Onion classic (NSFW). Another writes:
To throw another anecdotal log onto the fire, the hotel/conference center where I work just hosted a three-day retreat for several ministers. The big joke circulating the building was the pay per view bill of the head minister. Looking at the conference schedule side by side to his pay per view bill, whenever he had a break between sessions he was leading, he would be in his room watching hour after hour of gay porn!
And Astroglide need not be for gay sex. It could also be for wanking, for mutilated penises. But that, of course, is also a mortal sin – as sodomitical as gay sex. Robbie George once conceded that the state theoretically should be able to police and prevent masturbation but practicality made it impossible. Funny how that never made it into the Kirkpatrick NYTMagazine puff piece.
The Dish 