Wilberforce and the band of abolitionists knew that a private faith that did not act in the face of oppression was no faith at all.

Over the years since I became a Christian, I have always deliberately explained that I have 'accepted Jesus Christ.' These words are invariably translated into 'Colson's professed religious experience.' I discovered that one major U.S. daily, as a matter of policy, will not print the two words Jesus Christ together; when combined, the editor says, it represents an editorial judgment.

The first 20 stories written about a public figure set the tone for the next 2,000 and it is almost impossible to reverse it.

Today's widespread relegation of religion to merely something people do only in the privacy of their homes or churches would have been unimaginable to the founders of the republic - even those who personally repudiated orthodox Christian faith.

Moral crusaders with zeal but no ethical understanding are likely to give us solutions that are worse than the problems.

Hostility to religion is having an effect. In 1963, the number of Americans who said that they believed the Bible is literally true was 65%. Today, the number has dropped to 32%.

We humans, you see, have an infinite capacity for self-rationalization.