As the current century dawned, Time magazine placed Einstein on the front cover as the Person of the Century. By happenstance, Mohandas Gandhi was on the back cover as part of an advertisement for a computer company. I suppose that says something about our values. What is it that we really think is most important in life? In church we talk about the need for Christians to be "different," a chosen people, a royal priesthood. What does that mean? How do Christians need to be different?

Over the years, I have had both traditional and nontraditional students comment on the ancient account of the martyrdom of Vibia Perpetua (181-203 AD) in the arena during the persecution of Christians by the Emperor Septimius Severus. This story was widely circulated in the ancient world as a model of the kin…