Chesterton Appreciated This Kind of Humour, But Not the Evil It Describes

Father's got the sack from the waterworks
For smoking of his old stony briar.
Father's got the sack from the waterworks
For fear it'd set the waterworks on fire!

Excellent poetry. But not an excellent work place, that waterwork.

Take a look at a similar situation:

Church Militant : Fed's Want the Sanctuary Lamp Extinguished at Catholic Hospital
https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/feds-want-sanctuary-lamp-extinguished-at-catholic-hospital

Fortunately, they backed down:

UPDATE (5/9/2023): On May 5, the Biden administration backed down and rescinded its threat to freeze funding over St. Francis Health System's sanctuary lamp.

The vice president and senior counsel at Becket Law, Lori Windham, stated, "The government has seen the light and has abandoned its attempt to force an Oklahoma hospital to blow out a small candle or stop serving elderly, disabled and low-income patients."

She added, "The government knew it was playing with fire — today it announced its decision to allow the living flame so Saint Francis can continue to serve God and its community, as it always has."

While I am glad they did, I am much less glad at the culture that made the threat in the first place./HGL