A Religionless Age

In a letter to Eberhard Bethge from Tegel Prison, April 30, 1944, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:

You would be surprised, and perhaps even worried, by my theological ...

What the World Really Needs

When Dietrich Bonhoeffer was almost hearing the stomping of the Gestapo boots to take him away and execute him, he wondered on paper what kind of people ...

The Wages of Sin

A physician told me he estimated that about 80 percent of the people who come to him come to him not because some strange bacteria has invaded their body, ...

Intolerance Can Be a Virtue

I was dismayed recently when I read what one senator said. This particular senator announced himself as a Republican candidate for the presidency. While ...

Back When We Needed God

Do you remember the Second World War? It was a time when people started coming to church as they never had before. From the mid-1940s up until 1950, churches ...

Being Filled and Feeling Empty

Lee Atwater, former Republican Party chairman, said this before he died: "(It’s all) about acquiring: wealth, power, and prestige. I know. ...

The Puzzle of Bad Living

The puzzle is why so many people live so badly. Not so wickedly but so inanely. Not so cruelly but so stupidly. There's little to admire and less ...

Uncommon Sense

Common sense isn't as common as it used to be.

The Origin of Simony

Simon Magus

First Century A.D.

Simon Magus set the precedent for the misuse of money that has plagued the Church for two millennia. His practice of sorcery ...

The Indulgence Huckster

The Indulgence Huckster

(1500s)

Johann Tetzel was a monk with a mission. He was to oversee the sale of indulgences--promises of divine forgiveness for the ...