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 ...

A Father Without Wisdom

A recent Duke graduate asked his old man late one night when he went back home, "Look, I'm getting ready to go out into life. Tell me what you know. Go ...

Adrift Without Faith

Life has an orientation, a final end toward which everything moves. I realize, however, that I can say this only because I am a Christian. I know that ...

War After War After War

I've been told that there are places in Europe where you can sink a spade into the earth, and in just two or three spadefuls of earth, you can dig ...