The Story Behind the Self-Storage Movement

In the 1960s Jim Knuppe was building apartments in the Bay Area around San Francisco. Apartments are cramped and usually do not have garages, and Mr. ...

Former North Korean Prisoner Talks about Happiness

According to Amnesty International, North Korea has a vast network of gulags that imprison over 200,000 people. The most feared camp is known as "Total ...

Black Friday Trampling at Walmart

Professor James A. Roberts uses the following true story to illustrate the power of our "worldwide consumer culture" (which he defines as "the ...

If Your House Were Burning, What Would You Grab?

If your house was burning, what would you grab on your way out the door? That question intrigued photographer Foster Huntington, so he gathered his must-save ...

Changing Blue Jean Fashions Shows the Triumph of Veneer Over Depth

In their book Veneer, Timothy Willard and Jason Locy argue that contemporary American culture often values image or appearance over depth of character. ...

Similarities in Brain Responses to Religious Icons and Consumer Goods

Neurologists [once] scanned the brains of people of faith as they recalled and reexperienced the times they felt close to God, either in prayer, worship, ...

Importing the Idol of Consumerism

David Livermore writes in Serving with Eyes Wide Open:

My friend Ashish came from Northern India to visit me in Chicago. We were eating at Gino's Pizzeria ...

Slogan or Message?

We must be aware of trivializing the gospel, of presenting it in a form that compromises the radicality of its message. If someone is used to seeing or ...

Cost of Living

What some people mistake for the high cost of living is really the cost of high living."

MasterCard Mentality

Christians, of all people, should understand that the MasterCard mentality is not the way to master life. The pattern Jesus established was one of deferring ...