No matter what is happening in the community, we gather to offer homage to the Most High God, and nothing should distract us from this purpose.
—John Killinger

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 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 ...