The New Cathedrals? Suburban mega-churches move into public life.
by Mark D. Tooley
06/16/2006

WHEN TWO FAIRFAX COUNTY POLICE OFFICERS were slain by a deranged teenager in mid-May, their funerals were both held at the 10,000-member McLean Bible Church in Vienna, Virginia, about 15 miles outside Washington, D.C.

Detective Vicky Armel, the mother of two young children, was a recent convert to Christianity and an active member at an evangelical church in Culpepper, Virginia. Master Police Officer Michael Garbarino was a faithful member of St. Mark Orthodox Church in Bethesda, Maryland. His priest presided over an Orthodox funeral service in McLean Bible's enormous auditorium, where 2,400 mourners had gathered, with over a thousand more seated in viewing rooms.

The funerals of both officers Armel and Garbarino were understandably public events, attracting thousands of grief-stricken friends and respectful strangers, along with politicians and civic leaders. Such funerals in the past may have been held at a cathedral or a traditional Gothic structure belonging to Episcopalians or Presbyterians, or perhaps a tall-steepled Baptist structure. the rest