Worshipping the Wall of Separation

"Having never challenged the way they worshipped here, she'd never experienced the limitations. But the instant she stood up, alone and desperate, it seemed dreadfully obvious that some antiseptic, ill-tempered god of propriety had built a transparent wall between the congregaton and their own lives, and that what they now worshipped was that wall."

The Mom, preparing to intervene on her son's behalf during church.
David James Duncan, The Brothers K, p. 541