Dear Editor,

During these past few months my heart has been very burdened to reclaim America for Christ. With each additional school shooting, every murder of an unborn baby, my heart is convicted that this nation is in very serious trouble. How much longer will the Lord withhold His wrath?

I feel that it is my responsibility as a Christian to do something, but I am not quite sure what I should do. I am writing you in hopes you can help direct me to a career that would be effective in bringing America back to Christ."

Tis the season to be ostentatiously charitable. Behold the following press release: "Orlando, Fla.-(Business Wire)-Albertson's Food & Drug stores Wednesday announced that it has partnered with The Pillsbury Company and America's Second Harvest, the nation's largest domestic charitable hunger-relief organization, to donate three truckloads of food to the Orlando area. The Pillsbury Doughboy® and Green Sprout™ will be on hand to celebrate."

Maybe it's because, as a professor, I deal with lots of 20-year-olds. Maybe it's because I live in Austin, a charmingly weird town. But here's something I'll say straight out, and then wait for the slings and arrows of outraged readers: Much of the conservative Christian rhetoric we hear today misses the mark because it is either too hard or too soft.

What would you do if you were king of the forest, the philanthropist-boss of a $17-billion-plus foundation, one required by law to give away at least $850 million each year?

The perpetrators change-in 1990 it was Mapplethorpe in Cincinnati, now it's Ofili in Brooklyn-but throughout this decade, when religious protesters have attacked profane movies, plays, or art exhibitions, they have walked right into a media trap.

Editors tend to toss aside press releases, but one in a thousand begs for a response.

Flash: The "March of the Americas" was scheduled to begin on Oct. 1, 1999, with representatives of "poor people's organizations" gathering in Washington, D.C., for a 30-day walk to the United Nations in New York. The plan was to have not a dull walk but "an around-the-clock cultural festival, with musicians and poets performing during the day as the March makes its way through five states over thirty days, performing at rallies each night, and performing in bars and clubs."