Don't try to open a church with a church key

April 24, 2009 - "Don’t try to open a church with a church key" By Joseph Parish. I can remember when I was growing up my father would always mention a “Church Key” and all his friends and family knew perfectly well what he was talking about. Today few of the current generation have any concept of what a “Church key” is. Now, we are talking about 1930 - 1960 as a time frame for this slang used to designate a common bottle opener. Click here