Religion: Too Darned Dignified

Be strong, and quit yourselves like men . . . and fight.

—I Samuel 4:9

Dwight Eisenhower and his wife dropped into the chapel at Denver's Lowry Air Force Base last week and listened to a forcefully delivered sermon on that theme. The chaplain retold the rugged Old Testament story of how the Israelites, trusting in the sacred ark of the covenant as a magic talisman, had fought slackly against the Philistines, and of how the Philistines smote 30,000 Israelites by following the sturdy advice of I Samuel 4:9. The chaplain's point: too many rely...