Reading is an exercise for learning how to write and vice versa. I have read myself into being a Christian, but I have also written myself into being a Christian.

William James was not a prophet. He was a philosopher whose philosophy reflected his profound humanity.

By the time I had got to college, I had begun to read and had decided that most of what Christians believed could not be credible. So I became a philosophy major at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.

Christians are nonviolent not, therefore, because we believe that nonviolence is a strategy to rid the world of war, but because nonviolence is constitutive of what it means to be a disciple to Jesus.

The Tea Party grew out of indignation over the Wall Street bailout - an indignation shared by the vast majority of Americans. But the Tea Party ended up directing its ire at government rather than at big business and Wall Street.

What's just about a generation of people who rack up government debt for their own health care and retirement - while leaving their children and grandchildren to foot the bill?

Our two nations share the important values of democracy and freedom and liberty. My visit to the United States has indeed reinforced this mutual conviction and determination to ensure that our two peoples cherish these values.

If you have a government that is elected, they need to do the hard work - because if they don't, they won't be around the next time the ballot box is open.