Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Crony Capitalism

April 23, 2014

Small Business Owners Can Be Cronies Too

Politicians don’t come cheap. To buy one’s influence you generally need deep pockets, which is why crony capitalism tends to be the domain of “big business.” But a recent article in Slate by California restaurateur Jay Porter shows that some small business owners dream of being cronies too. Continue Reading...
March 14, 2014

Charles Koch on Cronyism

You are unlikely to find a pair of siblings who are both as admired and reviled as the Koch brothers. Charles and David Koch are billionaire philanthropists, heads of the nation’s second largest private company, and activists who promote libertarian causes. Continue Reading...
January 20, 2014

MLK, Jim Crow, and the Rule of Law

The legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., like most mortals, evokes a certain ambivalence regarding what should be celebrated and what should be rightly critiqued. There are certainly parts of his life and thinking that warrant correction, rebuke, and challenge, but this will be true of all us if we live long enough. Continue Reading...
November 22, 2013

Israel Really Wants A King (Part I)

I recently posted some thoughts at The Power Blog on “God’s Problem With Centralized Power”, which took a macro view of what I believe to be God’s clear disdain for mankind pursuing their own ends instead of His articulated purposes when it comes to how we organize ourselves communally. Continue Reading...
November 06, 2013

Sid Meier, Slot Machines, and the Flow of Vice

My wife despises Sid Meier. She’s never met him, nor would she even recognize his name. But she knows someone is responsible for creating the source of my addiction. For over twenty years I’ve spent (or wasted, as my wife would say) countless hours playing Civilization, Meier’s award-winning strategy game. Continue Reading...
October 16, 2013

Monks Triumph Over Cronyist Morticians

The morticians wanted the monks shut down—or even thrown in jail—for the crime the Benedictines were committing. Until 2005, the monks of St. Joseph Abbey in St. Benedict, Louisiana had relied on harvesting timber for income. Continue Reading...