Americans Plan to Scale Back on Holiday Spending This Year

A Gallup poll taken back in October asked Americans to predict how much they’ll spend on Christmas gifts this year. The average came out to $805. ...

The Futility of Rooting Out Sin Apart from The Holy Spirit

For the last 20 years sociologist Peter Simi has spent time with and studied white supremacist groups and individuals. Many groups, such as the White ...

Man Desires the Trust of His Homeless Friend

A little while ago I wandered into the wrong hospital room at Stony Brook University Hospital (New York). A middle-aged man with only a few teeth and ...

St. Francis's Extreme Embrace of Poverty

Among his many virtues, [St. Francis of Assisi] is known for his passionate embrace of poverty. Not only did he forbid his emerging Order to own property, ...

Ascetic Koinonia

Pachomius was an Egyptian soldier won to Christ by the kindness of Christians in Thebes. After his release from the military around A.D. 315, he was baptized. ...

Nature Helps Depression

America is swimming in a sea of Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil! In 2006 alone, over 190 million prescriptions were given for antidepressants. The swim is a ...

Wealthy Investor Damages a Picasso

Throughout his life, Pablo Picasso is estimated to have produced about 13,500 paintings or designs, 100,000 prints or engravings, 34,000 book illustrations, ...

Statistics on the Prosperity Gospel

The cover story of the September 18, 2006, edition of Time magazine asked, "Does God Want You to Be Rich?" In researching for that article, Time phoned ...

Statistics on Materialism

Amount the U.S. spends annually on imported toys: $23,631,000,000

Amount spent by the next 10 highest toy-importing countries combined: $21,729,000,000

CEO Focused on Materialistic Competition

Peggy Noonan describes an encounter with an American CEO in her book John Paul the Great:

I am talking with the head of a mighty American corporation. ...