A friend of mine taught ethics at a Christian college. Several years ago, there was a scare on campus because a student had been raped. Since my friend wanted his students to deal with actual ethical situations, he began the next class session with a question: “If a friend came to your room in tears, telling how her date had just raped her, what is the first thing you would do to help her?”

After a moment’s reflective silence one student raised her hand and asked, tentatively, “Pray?”

The whole class tittered in nervous laughter, relieved to have a spot of comic relief to ease the tension. Even my friend found himself smiling and shaking his head slightly. “Of course,” he said, “but then what would you do?” For the next hour he led the gathering in an ethical discussion of social care for so…