There is a group of workers out there who are uniquely qualified for many jobs, intensely interested in working and being as independent as possible, often joyful in attitude and thankful for the little things many of us take for granted. They are adults with cognitive and intellectual disabilities. I’m not talking about “pity” jobs here. I’m talking about people with real talents who are looking to share those talents with others in a way that is mutually beneficial. Most...

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has issued its 2015 annual report on religious liberty around the world. In their report, the USCIRF documents religious freedom abuses and violations in 33 countries and makes county-specific policy mendations for U.S. policy. One country worthy of particular attentions is Afghanistan. For the past nine years USCIRF has designated Afghanistan as a country of particular concern, a country where the violations engaged in or tolerated by the governmentare serious and are...

What would you do if you hated independent bookstores? Maybe you work for or a bookseller shot your dad or you just want people to read less. For whatever reason, you want to see small businesses that sell books go out of business. What should you do to help destroy your local bookstore? As San Francisco is finding out, the best strategy for destroying small booksellers is to simply raise the minimum wage. In November, 77 percent of voters approved...

For decades The Episcopal Church (ECUSA) has faced declining membership (in 1966, the ECUSA had 3,647,297 members; by 2013, the membership was 1,866,758, a decline of 49 percent.) But even when people are leaving the pews someone still has to pay for those pews, as well as the other overhead costs e with running a large organization. Not surprising, the denomination has sought ways to bring in additional revenue. Currently, the ECUSA has two primary sources of e. According to...

Christians make up a tiny minority in the nation of Pakistan, where the state religion is Islam. In many places, Pakistani Christians are persecuted and enslaved. Nowhere is this more evident in the kilns and brick-making industry. According to Christians In Pakistan, entire families are ensnared in “debt bondage” in the kilns, with children as young as five working. The normal routine of a ‘pathera’ or family working at a brick kiln is rolling balls of clay, placing them in...

Some of the earliest documentation of children being cared for in foster homes can be found in the Old Testament and in the Talmud, notes the National Foster Care Parent Association (NFPA). And early Christian church records also show children were boarded with “worthy widows” who were paid by collections from the congregation. The modern foster care movement also has roots in religious-based charity. In the mid-1850s, the work of Charles Loring Brace, a minister and director of the New...

Seattle has now mandated an increase in minimum wage. The economic ramifications are being felt, especially throughout the restaurant industry. Several Seattle restaurants have done away with tipping, but are adding a mandatory service charge on a customer’s bill. Restaurants often operate on thin margins, so higher wages quickly impact profitability. As opposed to tips, a service charge es part of the restaurant’s overall revenue. The restaurateurs say the service ponent will be used exclusively for employee wages, benefits and...

While Internet access is nearly ubiquitous in the West and in many other parts of the world, about 5 billion people still cannot access the world marketplace and information engine that is the ‘net. Some places don’t have connectivity or a ready power supply; for other people, the cost of a laptop is out of their reach. (Yes, smart phones and tablets can access the Internet, but they don’t offer the storage, keyboard, mouse or operating system that puter does.)...

When divorced from God’s plan, work is merely labor, a rudderless everyday job. Today May 1 is Labor Day in Italy and in virtually all of Europe. Alas, it is hardly festive. There is not much to celebrate here in terms of job growth and wealth creation. Economic figures across this Old and Aging Continent are like proverbial diamonds in the rough: there is much potential for glory, but with a lot of precision cutting and polishing still to do....

At The Stream, Anne Bradley writes about the freedom that free trade brings. Why does free trade matter? We live in a world of scarcity: we have unlimited wants and limited means (resources) to satisfy those wants.As individuals, we aren’t good at producing everything we need to survive. We are limited in our talents and opportunities.We flourish when we are free to trade the things we are better at producing for the things we are not as good at producing....