The McDonald brothers opened their drive in restaurant in San Bernardino , California in 1940 complete with car hops. The more they promoted their barbecue the more their customers asked for hamburgers. So, they closed their doors, remodeled, fired the 20 car hops and reopened with the format that we associate with McDonalds today. They struggled for awhile but things eventually took off and they opened at other locations. By 1954 a milk shake machine salesman named Ray Kroc was so impressed with their success that he secured from the brothers the rights to franchise their name and business nationwide. Ray opened the first "Golden Arches" in Illinois in 1955. By 1961 he was rich enough to buy out the McDonald brothers' interest in the business and it was all his.
The first one that I ever recall eating at was on the north edge of Ft. Wayne, Indiana on U.S. 30. It was on our way to and from college at Winona Lake, Indiana. There were no tables or chairs, just a small area to walk in and order at a window and then go back to your car. The burgers were, as I recall, 15 cents. We had no idea at that time that this would become the largest restaurant chain in the world! The next step in this journey for us was a magazine article in the late 70's or possibly the early 80's.
The magazine was "Natural History" (an unlikely place to find an article about McDonalds). The title of the article was something like "McDonalds As A Religion". Before you dismiss this as preposterous consider the following. In the days before "fast food" places like McDonalds, Burger King (started about the same time as McDonalds), and Wendys (1969), selecting a place to eat, especially when you were traveling, could be a very risky "roll of the dice". Would you get a good meal or would you get ptomaine poisoning? Was the kitchen clean or . . . ?
On the other hand, when you were traveling and you wanted to attend church on a Sunday morning, you would go to a church of the denomination to which you belonged. If you were, for example, Lutheran you would go to a Lutheran Church knowing there would be no surprises. You knew exactly what the liturgy (order and form of service) would be. Thus, the Golden Arches, when they appeared on the landscape, told you "no surprises here; you know exactly what you will be getting and what it will cost". Anyone coming of age on this side of the advent of McDonalds cannot appreciate what it was like for the first time to have a restaurant chain available just about anywhere you traveled that would be as predictable and free of unpleasant surprises as the liturgy in your church denomination.
Fast forward to the present and the continued growth of McDonalds as a food service giant is still largely due to being predictable and free of unpleasant surprises. There is perhaps another way in which McDonalds resembles a religion. People crave what is often called "fellowship". On any given morning what do you see at many McDonalds? You see a "gathering of geezers" having fellowship! Retired men, and often women also, gather at McDonalds for "fellowship". And just as good churches "feed" you healthy spiritual food the menu at McD's is decidedly more healthy than just the "burger, shakes and fries" offered in the early days.
The Golden Arches are like a church in some other ways also. Most churches gladly welcome a large group of traveling visitors to drop in on a Sunday service. So, if you are traveling with a bus full of young people you don't have to think twice. Stop at McDonalds and you know you will, with rare exceptions, be welcome. One other observation: it seems to me that more and more McDonalds restaurants have ceased to be "fast food" places. Now it's "take a number and wait for your food". That may or may not make McD's like a church but it is not necessarily bad. I have been part of men's Bible studies that met in a back corner of the dining room of McD's. If we are anything less than supremely grateful to God for the abundant, affordable food and clean restrooms available to us at this moment of history then we are . . . well you know.
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