My first visit to a health club was in the 1970s. Health clubs were new. My friend Frank told me he had a membership and that I could come with him as his guest for a workout.

When I met Frank at the club, we went into a room filled with weight machines. I'd never seen these things before in my life. Frank called it "the circuit." The idea was to spend a few minutes on each machine, exercising all ...

When I was a teenager, I became fascinated, appalled, and grieved by the literature of the Holocaust … One scene that haunts me is a picture from Auschwitz. Above the entryway to the concentration camp were the words, Arbeit macht frei. The same thing stood above the camp at Dachau. It means, "work makes free"—work will liberate you and give you freedom.

It was a lie—a false hope. ...

In May of 2006, the Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association published a study conducted by the National Science Foundation on the side effects of several indoor air purifiers. Surprisingly, the study found that certain ionic air purifiers (those using a process called ozonolysis) actually produce pollution.

Here's how it works. Ionic air purifiers function by charging airborne particles ...

Grace is opposed to merit, but it is not opposed to effort.

—Bradley Nassif, professor of biblical and theological studies at North Park University (Chicago, Illinois)

This morning I received the latest promotional e-mail from a clothing provider I really like to patronize: L. L. Bean. I read the subject line with interest: "Double Coupon Dollars: Our Gift to You."

The old sales trick worked. The promise of something free compelled me to open the e-mail. But the first words I read from the e-mail itself gave me a different message: "Earn Double Coupon Dollars." Wait. ...

In the Christian life, nothing, nothing at all, can be purchased at the do-it-yourself shop.

—Author Harry Blamires

In June of 2006, Warren Buffet, the world's second-richest man at the time, announced that he would donate 85 percent of his $44 billion fortune to five charitable foundations.

Commenting on this extreme level of generosity, Buffet said: "There is more than one way to get to heaven, but this is a great way."

There is only one religion, and that is to be good.

—New York Times editor, Henry Grunwald (1922–2005)

Kathy was one of 13 children raised by a common father and three mothers in a polygamist community in Utah. [The community was a part of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a sect that split from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the 1890's.]Growing up, she was burdened by the unrealistic expectations of the cult: "We were constantly told to 'keep sweet,' ...

Two researchers with the National Study of Youth and Religion at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) interviewed over 3,000 teenagers about their religious beliefs and have written up their findings in a new book. The social scientists summed up the teens' beliefs:

(1) A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on Earth.

(2) God wants people to be good, nice, ...