It has all the elements 
of a Shakespearean drama: power, money, religion, and sex. But is it The Tempest, or Much Ado About Nothing?

The answer to that question depends upon whom you ask.

At the center of the controversy is Angel Food Ministries. Founded in 1994, the Monroe, Ga., organization feeds poor families. But even though it calls itself a ministry, part of the controversy is whether it is really a very profitable business.

Microcredit is not a new idea. The practice of making small loans for entrepreneurial activities has been around at least since the 19th century. But the idea has taken off in recent years. In 1983, Bangladesh's Grameen Bank was founded explicitly to make microloans. The success of the bank spawned literally thousands of imitators and earned Grameen and its founder, Vanderbilt-educated Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.

Financial advisors are in the business of helping their clients make money. When they are successful, they stand to make a lot of money themselves.

And by almost any measure financial advisor Tim Mohns was successful. His practice was growing rapidly, his clients were making money, and two years ago the then 39-year-old was making more than a quarter of a million dollars a year.

William Shakespeare said that a rose by any other name still smells the same, but not so international currencies. And when the value of the U.S. dollar sometimes stinks, no one feels that more acutely than American missionaries, or foreign nationals who depend on American dollars to sustain their work.

Despite a recent rally in the value of the U.S. dollar-due, ironically, to the problems of the U.S. financial markets spreading overseas-the dollar is generally trading below levels of two years ago, and major ministries are feeling the pinch.

President Barack Obama called the nation to service in the weeks leading up to his inauguration. And on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Americans across the country responded, fanning out to soup kitchens, neighborhood cleanup projects, blood banks, and numerous other helpful community initiatives in every state. About 13,000 such projects generated a widespread sense of participation in Obama's presidential installment and the accompanying promise of change.

Now what?

William Lobdell's recent book Losing My Religion chronicles his conversion to Christianity-and his subsequent rejection of Christianity after a decade of covering religion for the Los Angeles Times. Many of those stories had to do with Christians and the way they handled money.

"Evangelicals don't give anywhere near 10 percent of their income to charity," Lobdell said. "Only a very few, often on the fringes of mainstream or evangelical Christianity, behave with their money as if they believe the Gospel is actually true."

The news that former Nasdaq chairman Bernard Madoff may have defrauded investors of as much as $50 billion sent yet more waves through the jittery financial markets. Those waves ended up being tsunamis for some charities, at least three of which will close their doors entirely as a direct result.