My hometown of Lawler, Iowa in the 1950s featured much character. And many characters. In general, through the years there have been about 500 people who live there. I will tell you about one of them. His real name was Francis. We called him Hoot. I don’t remember why. Everybody I knew had a nickname. Someone called him that once and it stuck. ...

Around the year 130 AD, a Christian wrote these words in a letter to Diognetus, the tutor of Marcus Aurelius: [Christians] reside in their own nations, but as resident aliens. They participate in all things as citizens and endure all things as foreigners. . . . They obey the established laws and their way of life surpasses the laws. . . . So no...