Time & Perspective Quote by Wellington Mara

Mara talks like a man who ran a franchise in a brutal, fickle league and still believed some institutions should not behave like teams chasing the standings. The line is built to do two things at once: defend the Church by declaring moral continuity, and indict a political opponent by painting him as someone who treats ethics like bylaws you tweak to suit the members.

The country-club jab is the engine. It’s a class-coded metaphor that turns “changing teaching” into something small, snobby, and self-serving: golf rules, dress codes, quiet rebrandings for comfort. By choosing that image, Mara implies the Governor’s argument isn’t just wrong, it’s unserious - the kind of reasoning you’d expect from people who confuse preference with principle. It also positions the Church as the opposite of elite convenience: an institution whose claims are meant to be stubborn enough to survive fashion.

The subtext is less theological than strategic. “Never changed” is an absoluteness designed to close debate, not invite nuance about doctrine, development, or historical messiness. The phrase “as the Governor would have us believe” signals a culture-war posture: the audience is being rallied against a political narrative, not asked to weigh evidence. In context, this reads like a lay Catholic power broker using plainspoken moral framing to police the boundaries of public legitimacy: the Governor isn’t merely proposing policy; he’s allegedly accusing the Church of opportunism. Mara’s retort is to flip the charge - opportunism belongs to politics, not to faith.