"Until you walk a mile in another man's moccasins you can't imagine the smell." - Robert Byrne

In the "There's Hope for America" department, only 1,972 Cadillac Escalade trucks were sold last year. But as someone pointed out, twice that number were stolen, a much easier way to get one.

Monday I sent a message to the guy from whom I bought the VW almost three years ago, along with a couple of pictures of the finished project. He lives in the tiny town of Clarkdale, in the hills about an hour north of here, and has a side business finding, restoring, and flipping VW's. He had to sell this one because he was in the middle of a divorce and needed the cash. I asked if he could give me what he knew about the car's history and he replied today with some details on the two owners prior to him. One worked for the local paper in the nearest real town, and the guy from whom he bought it had a shoe repair business. He bought it for his wife who always wanted a Beetle, and she drove it for several years. When she died of cancer he couldn't bring himself to sell it so he parked it in his barn, where it sat for 30 years before this guy found it. The cool part: he sent me this picture of the car sitting in the barn before he pulled it out. This kind of discovery is the stuff guys like me dream about.

This morning I had to go to the local Christian "Bookstore" to get some supplies for Sunday. Can't remember the last time I was there. In the five minutes it took to get what I needed and get out I ended up something between disgusted and furious, and it hasn't worn off yet.

Somebody explain to me the difference between what goes on in that store and the tables of the moneychangers Christ overturned. In both cases the goal was profit and the means to that end was exploiting the worshipers. Up near the entrance was a display of stuffed animals. What??? Am I at a carnival midway? Over to the left, clothing with bumper sticker quality drivel printed on the sleeves. Jewelry, kitsch for walls, tables, and bookshelves, and - oh yeah -  some books. Books where the title is in small print but the author's name and picture dominate the dust jacket.

I was reminded of something I shouldn't have needed reminding about: Christianity is big business and there's no shortage of profiteers who will do whatever it takes to get a piece of the profit pie. Too many American Christians are consumers who will spend stupid money on all manner of bric-a-brac and goo-gaw but won't spend 15 minutes a day reading their Bible. They can't spell theology but they can tell you the title of the latest CD from a dozen different Christian bands.

And that is the difference between the moneychangers and what I saw today. They took advantage of the Jewish pilgrims who came to the Temple to worship, only to discover they couldn't purchase the required sacrifices with the money they brought. Only temple currency could be used, and the moneychangers charged an exorbitant profit to make the conversion. What I saw today involved no rigged scheme, no coercion. The store was full of people all too willing to hand over their money so the maker, the middleman, and the merchant could all get a piece of the action.

Most Americans are incredibly shallow, and American Christians are no exception.
Aaaargh!