This last week, my humble town of Chicago, Illinois was in the miracle-generating crosshairs of The Almighty himself. I am not entirely sure if it is a sign that my metropolitan-area neighbors had done good or evil, but nonetheless, we were blessed with a salt stain, in the apparent image of The Virgin Mary herself, on the wall of an expressway underpass. People are flocking to it, camping out, buying it flowers, you name it. Its become easy fodder for talk radio humor, late night television, all as one would expect.

While any rational person can look at the image and realize the foolishness of the theory, and we all get a laugh out of a mass of people going to such extremes- the episode is, indeed, a significant representation of how centuries-old religions play out in twenty-first century America.  continue reading "Our Lady of the Salt Stain"