Acton Institute Research Director Samuel Gregg was recently featured on three different radio shows. He discussed Becoming Europe as well as the complications resulting from a growing religious diversity in Europe.
Read more on Audio: Samuel Gregg on Secularism, Religion and ‘Becoming Europe’…
The Heritage Foundation recently interviewed Michigan businessman and entrepreneur Dick DeVos, a former candidate for governor, about how Michigan was able to pass their Right-to-Work law and what lessons conservatives can take away from the victory as they make the case for freedom.
Read more on Dick DeVos on Michigan’s New Right-to-Work Law…
When we think of markets, we may conjure up a picture of goods and services production, supply and demand economics, and freedom of exchange. This of course is an accurate depiction, but what if in addition to this, the marketplace is actually divinely inspired and can be utilized to fulfill God’s mission?
Read more on AU Online: ‘Building a Marketplace Theology’ series begins Jan. 22…
In a new book, The Good Rich and What They Cost Us, Robert Dalzell Jr. aims to address “a great paradox at the core of the American Dream: a passionate belief in the principles of democracy combined with an equally passionate celebration of wealth.”
In a review for the Wall Street Journal, Amity Shlaes notes that although the book provides an in-depth look at the history of American philanthropy, the author’s own personal prescriptions lend too high a trust to government redistribution:
“The Good Rich” starts out like a tour through a portrait gallery, describing rather than judging. For much of his narrative, Mr. Dalzell refrains from giving his own opinion explicitly and reports merely that the rich have often blamed themselves for their lapses or oversize good fortune, or that their peers did.
Toward the book’s end, though, Mr. Dalzell drops his own screen, putting forward a familiar argument: that democracy suffers unless wealth and philanthropy are redistributed to reduce economic inequality. Even the “good rich” cost us: They don’t give wisely, Mr. Dalzell contends, spending too much on “elite institutions like Harvard, Yale, MIT and Princeton, which seems unlikely to reduce the income gap by much.” …For the sake of the public good, then, the rich must fashion better charity projects while handing over more of their money to the government.
Such philanthropic efforts deserve to be thoroughly examined. Likewise, from the poorest of us to the wealthiest, we should be energetic in examining our own activities, using discernment and wisdom in how we use our resources. But as Shlaes indicates, if it’s difficult for we individuals to wrestle with these deep questions about stewardship — particularly when we’re calling on the Divine for wisdom, as many philanthropists under Dalzell’s microscope claim to have done — how much more difficult will it be for a bloated government machine to utilize proper discernment? Read more on Amity Shlaes on ‘The Good Rich’ and the Folly of Philanthropy…
The winter issue of Leadership Journal is on vocation and callings. In the lead editorial, managing editor Drew Dyck reminds us that while it’s important to affirm the calling of lawyers, journalists, and plumbers, we need to remember that being a pastor is a calling too:
Read more on We Should Affirm All Callings—Even Pastoral Ones…
Gleaning – A Guide to Christian Charity?
Andrew Spencer, Institute for Faith, Work & Economics
There are several important points wrapped up in the practice of gleaning which are significantly different than how assistance for the poor is often conducted today.
Yesterday, while his lawyers were busy defending against charges that the Obama administration violated the religious freedoms of his fellow citizens, President Obama was designating January 17 as Religious Freedom Day.
The author of the The Audacity of Hope has the audacity to hope that Americans will not snicker at the idea that he’s a defender of religious liberty. In his proclamation, Obama says,
Today, we also remember that religious liberty is not just an American right; it is a universal human right to be protected here at home and across the globe. This freedom is an essential part of human dignity, and without it our world cannot know lasting peace.
To be fair, Religious Freedom Day is proclaimed every year, so Obama really had no choice but to say that religious liberty is a universal human right that should be protected—even while his administration works tirelessly to undermine the religious liberty freedoms of Americans.
Read more on The Audacity of Irony: Obama and “Religious Freedom Day”…
There are some amazing economic and moral lessons, related to redistribution, zeo-sum fallacies, as well as virtue and desire, embedded in this Sesame Street video:
Can you think of any other ways that both Ernie and Cookie Monster might have been able to be happy instead of sad? And what if the object in question weren’t a cookie, but instead something like an apple, perhaps?
In my cautionary post on the constant temptation to indulge in earthbound economics, I mentioned that even seemingly noble, intangible features such as “happiness” can be just as futile and vain when pursued on our own terms and for our own limited purposes.
Read more on Happiness, Work, and the Eternal Quest for Meaning…
Vatican official: Armstrong’s misdeeds reflect ‘rotten’ cycling world
Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service
“It’s a world that is rotten, all of cycling, even soccer,” said Msgr. Melchor Sanchez de Toca Alameda, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture’s “Culture and Sport” section.
