The first bit of grown-up advice I can remember receiving was the familiar admonition that if I wished to succeed in life, the one thing I must remember is to never discuss either religion or politics with anyone.

Like most grown-up advice, this one was lousy.

I have often found that discussing either of these two forbidden subjects have almost always resulted in the liveliest of evenings and the most delightfully stimulating of conversations. Indeed, I think it is fair to say that it was just such discussions that led me into seminary and out into the world as a Lutheran Pastor.

And it is as a pastor that I discovered what is really the forbidden subject.

Not politics or religion, not even sex or original sin.

No, the great taboo topic, the one that will get you into trouble every time is, obviously and always, money.

Ask someone where they stand on abortion or Albania, how they feel about the Pope’s latest encyclical or the pastor’s recent sermon and you’ll get yourself an earful. But ask those same folk what their gross annual income was last year or, even worse, what they gave away to charity and be prepared for the great freeze.

"That’s nobody’s business but mine and God’s and I’m not so sure about God."