Religion: Flowers & Sugared Water

What does a Roman Catholic from France see when he looks at religion in the U.S.? In the current issue of the French Catholic monthly Esprit are three critical reports from returned visitors.

Most church architecture in the U.S., writes Journalist Georges Fradier, "may evoke an English cathedral, a Corinthian temple or a bathhouse, but the interior is always the same: that of a third-rate movie palace . . . Varnished benches present a comfortable resting place for faithful buttocks. A drawing-room organ emits sugared water. A pulpit . . . two or three pots of flowers, that is all the decoration....

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