The Touchy Huggy Section

When Margie and Dan Banks listen to the sermon at their Assembly of God church, they often fall into a habit that's hard to break: He scratches her back lightly in a slow circular motion, and she rubs his neck, sometimes twirling his hair around her little finger.
    "We honestly don't realize we're doing it," Margie says.
    But other church-goers have found it so offensive that finally their church, like many others, added a "couples section" for the "affectionately gifted" — those who can't keep their hands off each other on Sunday mornings.
    "It was getting to be a problem," says pastor Dave Towns of his church's "touching issues."
    Darla Knabe usually sits with her 17-year-old son, and often catches herself massaging his shoulders. He works construction during the week and needs the relief, she says. But twice, the person behind her has asked her to stop.
    "It's hard not to be affectionate toward someone you love, especially when your heart is so open from worship," she says.
    Other couples go to greater extremes. One church-goer from Tacoma saw a man and woman give each other "full-on back massages" throughout the pastor's sermon.
    "She rubbed him down from neck to glutes, and then he turned around and did the same for her," the observer says with disgust.
    A man from Boise says he finally left the sanctuary after observing a man "playfully flip and caress" his wife's ear lobe during most of the service.
    "Why do people wait until Sunday morning to do that stuff?" he asks.

Read more HERE.