ENTERTAINING RELIGION
On the Sunday nearest a recent Memorial Day, my wife and I attended a well-known church in Southern California. The church is noted for its pizzazz, but we hardly were prepared for everything that happened. For starters, a Native American, dressed in a buckskin jacket, sang “God Bless America,” and the minister interviewed a recently returned Beirut hostage. Then a military squad paraded up and down the aisles, boots clicking smartly on the floor and rifles rotated and shouldered in striking precision. Two high school bands came playing down the aisles, meeting before the chancel as majorettes twirled and spun their batons. As a finale, a dozen ushers marched across the chancel, carrying something that resembled an enormous carpet. When they had attached their burden to a series of wires, a ninety-foot American flag rose behind the choir, while the bands played, the majorettes twirled, the rifle guard stood at attention, and we all sang “The Battle Hymn of the Republic. “It…
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