The churches are empty.

Not all, and not always, but you get the point.

I take nothing away from faith communities or people of faith.

In fact, I wish there were more of them, the way things are going. The withering of roots. Loss of memory. Loss of corners.

I recently read a profile of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran pastor, unwavering critic of the Nazi regime and important religious writer who was murdered by the Gestapo two weeks before liberation in 1945.

Witnesses say he walked to the gallows calm and unafraid, and with a prayer on his lips.

He wrote The Cost of Discipleship. It deals with the practice of true faith and with the authenticity of an individual’s relationship to the teachings of Christ.

Bonhoeffer writes about stupidity — an unusual topic. He describes it as “a powerful force, resistant to intervention,” and adds that “stupidity arms itself against correction.”

You can easily find current relevance by observing the lethal circus to the south, whose real dangers hide behind the antics of the fool in the White House.

Canada’s own Naomi Klein has illuminated these deeper social dangers and risks in a lengthy Guardian piece titled........

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