June 6, 2012 - worshipping a different sort of god
 

And now, in a little segue from the Silver Jubilee and the Prince Consort... I bring to you the sect that worships Prince Phillip, and then the all-female sect in Russia that worships Vladimir Putin, and from there to the Cao Đài, whose principal saints are the Chinese nationalist Sun Yat-sen, the Vietnamese poet Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm, and French author Victor Hugo.

I visited one of their temples in Vietnam in 1994 and it was the most colourful temple I had ever visited (and I've see a lot of colourful temples in India and Thailand). The worshippers were incredibly welcoming and tolerant of the many goggle-eyed foreign tourists, without being in any way pushy about trying to convert us. I like both of those factors in any religion.

I saw the Cao Dai temple in Tay Ninh on my first day in Vietnam in 1966.

It was quite an eyeopener and I visited it as often as I could until the Army (US) put it off limits. Couldn't have all that peace, love and justice stuff, ya know.