[littlemissattitude]

Well, I didn't actually take those passages as "lecturing" or "preaching", shadow. And I feel that I must point out that, having had some rather interesting and disappointing adventures in religion myself, I'm awfully sensitive to being preached at.

And, hey, to each his/her own. If you want to give that part a miss, fine with me. But I feel a bit insulted that you find it "laughable" that my opinion is that those who skip or skim those parts might not get the full effect of the novel that Heinlein actually wrote, as opposed to the novel you and the others who don't read those parts wish he had written. I mean, I don't agree with your opinion about "Stranger", but I would never presume to call it laughable, considering that one of the wonderful things about this world is that there is plenty of room in it for more than one opinion on an issue.