"Who does he think he is, anyway? He can't treat me like this! Doesn't he know who I am?"

Focusing on other people's faults is a popular pastime. We seem to enjoy trying to decide who among us is the most or the least qualified. This happens in families and on the job, in churches and in the political arena.

"A battle cry for Christian reform" blared a big headline in the Charlotte Observer. The article featured a picture of "one of the country's top 25 evangelical leaders" and carried a lengthy interview in which he answered questions about what Christians should be doing in today's world.

"And now for the invocation…" said the mayor of my town as the Town Council began its meeting. I was pleasantly surprised to see this practice has survived in our secular age.

The chamber of City Hall was filled with people, young and old, with business to bring before the mayor and commissioners. Some were there for kudos and awards; others had problems and complaints and were there to seek redress.

The big headline in the Financial Times on Wednesday, October 17, 2007, was "Investors flee US securities." It seems that "[f]oreign investors slashed their holdings of US securities by a record amount as the credit squeeze intensified." Apparently, faith in America as a good investment is diminishing.

The article quotes Alan Ruskin, chief investment strategist for RBS Greenwich Capital, as saying, "The bad news is that [the data] plainly show how vulnerable the dollar is to a continuation of the credit crunch-risk adverse environment."