The New York Times has a new articled titled “Religious Conservatives Embrace Proposed E.P.A. Rules” that raises the question: are the Times’ editors irredeemably biased or are they just not all that bright? Presumably, you have to be smart to work for the Times, right? So it must be another example of what my friend and former Get Religion boss Terry Mattingly calls “Kellerism.” Mattingly coined the term Kellerism in homage to former Times editor Bill Keller, who said that...

No one wants to be poor. No one enjoys figuring out how to stretch meals to last just three more days. No parent wants to tell their child they can’t play a sport or get a new backpack because there is simply no money. No one wants to be evicted. Poverty in America is a reality; so what are we going to do about it? The American Enterprise Institute has a few ideas. They’ve taken a look at where we...

Stephen Dubner, one-half of the Freakonomics team, knows that tackling big issues can big problems, and that’s often why big issues (think: poverty) don’t get solved. Dubner’s thought? Think small. Don’t try to solve everything; solve one thing. It’s much plicated, you’ll have easier access to the data that you’ll need. Most importantly, you will preserve one of your most precious resources: optimism. He gives details in the following short video. ...

It’s August. Still plenty of time to tackle that summer reading list. The good folks at Intercollegiate Review want to make sure that you don’t waste any time on junk – after all, life is too short for bad wine or bad books. Of course, you are free to debate any of their choices but in most cases, wretched is wretched. Here are a few of their “bad” picks and the thinking behind their choice. Alfred Kinsey, et al.,Sexual Behavior...

Christian churches in the West have been focused on redistribution of e rather than the creation of wealth, says Brian Griffiths in this week’s Acton Commentary. Through much of the post-war period in the West, the formation of economic policy was dominated by Keynesian activism on the part of governments seeking an increasing role in providing public services, reducing material poverty, and reshaping e redistribution. In the United States, President John F. Kennedy launched the New Frontier program and his...

“To achieve a moral ecology under which the dignity and solidarity of all peoples can thrive,” says Michal Novak, “we must take small steps, little by little—yet not lose sight of the goal.” Caritapolis, the City ofCaritas. That is, in effect, how St. Augustine definedThe City of God.Obviously, most of the world is not Christian, nor even Western, so a term likeCaritapolisis not native to much of humankind. Pope Paul VI and later popes preferred the expression “civilization of love.”...

Today is the first World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, as declared by the United Nations. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement: To stop the traffickers, we must sever funding pipelines and seize assets. I urge all countries to ratify and fully implement the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime and its Protocol on Trafficking in Persons.” International Justice Mission is one of many organizations that fight human trafficking on a daily basis. They track down both...

There’s a famous essay by Leonard Read titled “I, Pencil” in which an eloquent pencil (yes, pencil) writes in the first person about plexity and collaboration involved in its own production. “Here is an astounding fact,” the pencil proclaims. “Neither the worker in the oil field nor the chemist nor the digger of graphite or clay nor any who mans or makes the ships or trains or trucks nor the one who runs the machine that does the knurling on...

Today at The Imaginative Conservative, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, in an excerpt from his recent book, bemoans what he sees as “The Spoiling of America.” While sympathetic to his support for self-discipline, I find his analysis of our consumer culture to be myopic. He writes, Without even thinking about it we have gotten used to having it our way. Because excellent customer service is ubiquitous we believe it must be part of the natural order. The service in the restaurant is...

The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter has declared today, August 1, to be a World Day of Prayer for Persecuted Christians in Iraq, Syria and the Middle East. They ask that Christians use this day to pray for the perseverance of their Christian brethren in war-torn areas, and that they will be delivered from further suffering. It is fitting that all people of good faith pray for this. At The Federalist, writer Mollie Hemingway says we need to pray, but...