My college earth science professor left a lasting impression on me for his open hostility toward religion.  His final lecture was a ranting speech.  He paced the floor and shouted and finished his diatribe standing on the lab table pointing his finger in the air like an old-fashioned evangelist.  “Free your minds,” he told us.  As a twenty-year-old non-churchgoing college student, I found the lesson very entertaining.  However I did notice a double-standard.   A pro-religion message from a professor would not have been tolerated in a state-funded public university.  It was only acceptable for a teacher to attack religion.

     As the recent snow flew past my office window, my mind drifted back to an experience in Chicago while I attended seminary.  On one of the coldest days of the year, Laura and I took our son, Ian to a McDonald's restaurant near our home.  Ian was just a toddler, and we had to bundle him up until he looked like a bag of laundry with a face on it. The restaurant was packed with people and parkas; we were lucky to find a table where we could start unpacking our kid.  But I noticed that two seats at a counter were cold and untouched.  These were on either side of a homeless man reading a newspaper.