David Brooks’ piece about the way the recession is changing not only “the American dream” but particularly the Christian response to the American dream: “The Gospel of Wealth“

I was going to recommend Time Magazine’s “The New Drug Crisis” in the current issue, but I guess they’ve decided to take some content offline. So I can’t link to it, but I can recommend reading it and considering what it means for our culture when there are more deaths from accidental overdoses on prescription pain medications than traffic fatalities (which is true in over a dozen states…).

Finally, fellow beliefnet blogger Jana Reiss has an interview with authors of a new book about parenting children with special needs: “Shut Up About Your Perfect Kid.” The interview focuses on their journey from self-published authors to Random House, but the book seems interesting for readers of this blog as well.