For those among us who do not follow the particularities of United Nations programs and declarations, apart from birthdays and anniversaries June 5 might pass every year without much special notice. But every year since 1972, the United Nations Environment Programme has set aside June 5 to observe World Environment Day (WED), designed to be “one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action.” On this WED,...

A great deal of focus in the midst of the economic downturn has been on “green” jobs, that sector of industry that focuses on renewable sources of energy and that, according to some pundits and politicians, heralds the future of American economic resurgence. Here in Michigan, the long-suffering canary in the country’s economic mineshaft, the state government has particularly focused on these “green” jobs as an alternative both to fossil fuels and to fossil fuel industries, including most notably the...

Just how zealous for justice ought Christians be? I admit that I’m always just a bit put off when folks describe the prime mission of Christians as pursuing justice in the world. Let’s not forget that the foundational Christian reality is forgiving love on the basis of the divine justice manifested on the cross. Or as Luther puts it in mentary on Romans (emphasis added), This is the reason (if I may speak of myself) why even hearing the word...

In a time of changes and reform in institutions one wonders if reform is truly necessary. Oskari Juurikkala addresses this lingering thought and answers that, yes, reform is truly necessary but it needs to be rooted in true good and our faith in God. Juurikkala states: Institutions matter, but they do so in a way that differs from the reformist vision. According to Aquinas, human laws have two basic functions: to coordinate and to educate. But not to coordinate the...

I had occasion to ask a leader in a denominational global relief agency today whether he had seen any decline in North American interest in addressing international poverty, given the recent economic downturn. He said that he had among some of the major foundations and donors, who were being inundated with more local requests for funds (food banks, and so on). But he also said that among most mid-level and smaller givers, they were matching if not exceeding previous patterns...

This brings us to the central irony. The very people most inclined to gush about our “living Constitution” treat it like a Mr. Potato Head. Read More… My essay on the Constitution, judicial activism and the “living document” trope is here at The American Spectator. Here’s one passage: This brings us to the central irony. The very people most inclined to gush about our “living Constitution” treat it like a Mr. Potato Head: Ooh, states rights. Let’s pop that off...

Upon Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court, a number of voices on the Christian and religious blogosphere wondered about the absence of press attention to the religious makeup of the court. The new court’s makeup, whether or not Sotomayor is ultimately confirmed, is historic. As Terry Mattingly wrote at GetReligion, tongue planted firmly in cheek, “prepare for more headlines about Catholics taking over our nation’s legal discourse.” A few days later World’s Mickey McLean took note of the issue,...

One of President Obama’s campaign promises was health care reform, and he is now trying to follow through. Last year I looked at the respective candidates’ health care proposals in light of Catholic social teaching. In the midst of a national debate on health policy, it is time to revisit the issue. One of the best resources out there on the subject is the report from the Catholic Medical Association’s Health Care Task Force, published in the Linacre Quarterly in...

A classroom of elementary children learn what the bailout is really all about. Submitted in Right.org’s $27,599 anti-bailout petition. This one was a student project done on a shoestring budget. ...

Lieutenant Colonel Mike Strobl began his 2004 essay “Taking Chance” by saying, “Chance Phelps was wearing his Saint Christopher medal when he was killed on Good Friday. Eight days later, I handed the medallion to his mother. I didn’t know Chance before he died. Today, I miss him.” HBO turned Strobl’s essay into an emotional film about the journey of Chance’s body from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to his home in Dubois, Wyoming. Taking Chance is excellent at...