Americana: Unflagging Religion

Should the death of Jesus Christ on Good Friday be an occasion for Americans to lower their flags as a gesture of patriotic mourning? Few would say so, but New Hampshire's archconservative Governor Meldrim Thomson Jr. thinks otherwise. Last week, as he has in two previous Holy Weeks, Thomson ordered all flags on public buildings lowered as a sign of recognition that "the moral grandeur and strength of Christianity [is] the bulwark against the forces of destructive ideologies."

This time five clergymen, backed by the New Hampshire American Civil Liberties Union, decided it was time to call a halt. They sued...

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