''An angel of the Lord said to Philip, 'Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.' This is a desert road. And he arose and went. And behold, an Ethiopian, a eunuch,...had come to Jerusalem to worship."

Some time ago I wrote an article, in a church publication, criticizing my own denomination's infatuation with racial, gender, ethnic quotas. So many Asian women for this committee, Native Americans for that board. I don't like quotas. I don't mind them for the government; after all, I see no way for the government to work justice other than with legalistic means such as ethnic, gender quotas. But in the church, I argued, we shouldn't need, in the church, quotas to force us to do right.

I received a long letter from a person in Kansas. She thanked me fo…