Last Sunday evening, as I was heading back to my hotel in Newton, MA, I decided to stop off at the CVS drug store to pick up a bottle of white wine.
Oops.
Drug stores in Massachusetts don’t sell alcoholic beverages. And the liquor store next door was closed, too.
Now I see that it’s not just a question of day, time, and kind of store: proximity to a church is also a factor:

The owner of a Braintree gas station and convenience store says he won’t appeal the town’s decision to deny him a license to sell beer and wine, even though he doesn’t agree the sales would hurt the “spiritual and educational activities’’ of the church across the street.
[…]
Mobil on the Run is within 500 feet of St. Thomas More Roman Catholic church, and the town license board was required by state law to consider the church’s opinion, according to Town Clerk Joseph Powers.
The pastor of St. Thomas More Parish sent a letter to the board saying he had concerns about Mobil on the Run selling beer and wine because of the large numbers of children and teenagers who worship and take religious classes at the church.

And yet religious wackos keep insisting that “people of faith” are under attack from strident atheists and aggressive secularists….