Launched in 2004, Facebook has exploded to a reported 1.71 billion active users. Facebook’s stated purpose is to help users “connect and share” with the people in their lives. The ubiquity of Facebook and other social media, and the fact that the expressed purpose of social media is to “share” about ourselves, our life and our interests gives Christians the opportunity—and the responsibility—to ask ourselves a very important question. What do we “like”?

Paul Harvey once told a story about a tough lumberjack who went to town one weekend, fell in with a religious group, and was baptized. He went back to the lumber camp—much to the concern of his preacher, who worried that others would make fun of him. When he went back to town the preacher asked him how it went. He said, “They never caught on.”

A recent report by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace proposes the “establishment of a supranational authority to oversee the global economy” (New York Times, October 24, 2011).

In his famous book Man’s Search for Meaning, Dr. Viktor Frankl wrote of his horrific experiences as a survivor of Nazi concentration camps. Frankl, a psychiatrist, approached his imprisonment with a scientist’s analytical mind. He observed that prisoners who had a clear goal or a cause greater than themselves were the ones most likely to carry on and survive, even in the midst of sadistic brutality and cruel deprivation. Those without such a purpose were likely to perish.

In his famous book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Dr. Viktor Frankl wrote of his horrific experiences as a survivor of Nazi concentration camps. Frankl, a psychiatrist, approached his imprisonment with a scientist’s analytical mind. He observed that prisoners who had a clear goal or a cause greater than themselves were the ones most likely to carry on and survive even in the midst of sadistic brutality and cruel deprivation. Those without such a purpose were likely to perish. Frankl concluded that, as the philosopher Nietzsche observed, “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.”