I had this man in my last church who frequently greeted me at the end of the service by thrusting into my hand some newspaper article, usually from the Wall Street Journal, which he thought to be of help in his never-ending battle to educate his preacher.

One Sunday, he gave me an article by a national columnist, in which the columnist described how a young woman had been indicted in Chicago after her baby was found to have died from complications brought on by malnutrition and infection from rat bites. Why give me such an article? I found out at the end, when the columnist said, ''I wish these preachers, who are always talking about what ought to be done on issues like abortion, would get out of their ivory towers and into the real world. Then they might see things differently."

You hav…