A couple of further points in reply to Micah Mattix’s response on buying Christmas trees, based on his original post here. 1) I think Mattix’s characterization of the buyer as “selfish” goes a bit too far, and is not an accurate characterization of a good deal of market activity. “Self-interested” would be more accurate, and would allow for selfish actors, but would also allow more generally for benevolent actors. For instance, a nun who runs an orphanage has decided that...

In Austin, Texas, the organization Mobile Loaves & Fishes has started a new program for the homeless: Community First! a village of tiny houses and other small domiciles. Lee Morgan of the New York Daily News reported recently, A life of relative luxury awaits homeless people in Texas with the construction of a new gated neighborhood featuring a garden, drive-in theater and air stream motel. Hundreds of down-and-outs in east Austin will have the chance to get back on their...

The domestic threat to religious liberty and the global slaughter of Christians around the globe is ing harder to ignore. It certainly is now one of the most important news stories to follow for the New Year. Yesterday, I delivered a lecture on the topic of religious liberty to the faculty of Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Ind. My mentary is an abbreviated version of the portion of the lecture that focused on the current domestic threat. I’ve already...

Christian’s Library Press has just released the first-ever English translation of Abraham Kuyper’s Our Program (Ons Program), under the title Guidance for Christian Engagement in Government. First published in 1879 with the goal of preparing citizens for participation in the general elections, Kuyper’s stated purpose was twofold, as summarized by translator and editor Harry Van Dyke: “to serve antirevolutionaries as a guide for promotional activities and to prepare them for the formal establishment of an Anti-Revolutionary Party.” As for what...

Concepts you should know about explained in five minutes (or less). Leo Linbeck III, President and CEO of Aquinas Companies, provides an explanation petitive federalism and petition and governance relate in society. See also: 5 Minute Explainer: Subsidiarity ...

The Ballors went with a live tree this year. We bought it at Flowerland and I do not know the name of the farm whence it came. Over at the American Conservative, Micah Mattix reflects on the Christmas tree market, which in his neck of the woods is “notoriously unstable.” In Ashe County, North Carolina, says Mattix, a dilemma faces the small tree farmer: “It is not sell or starve, but it is sell or go without a new septic...

President Obama, in a move that highlights exactly how out-of-touch he is with most of America, is recruiting mothers to spread the good news of Obamacare…in the grocery store. In a meeting with “eight moms from around America,” according to a White House pool report, President Obama encouraged the mothers to sing the praises of Obamacare while they’re out shopping at grocery stores. Obama, speaking to the moms in the Oval Office, acknowledged that there have been problems with the...

Comedian Taylor Molly reminds us to, you know, like, be certain of our convictions? ...

Earlier this week, Rev. Robert Sirico appeared on Fox Business’ Varney & Co with Stuart Varney and Judge Andrew Napolitano to discuss Pope ments on economics. Watch the video clip below: Watch the latest video at ...

The phrase “Separation of Church and State” is not in the language of the First Amendment, and the concept was not favored by any influential framer at the time the Bill of Rights was drafted. So how did it e part of the jurisprudence surrounding the First Amendment? As Jim Lindgren, a law professor at Northwestern, explains, the Ku Klux Klan had something to do with it . . . 7. The first mainstream figures to favor separation after the...