Writing in the Sacramento Bee, Margaret A. Bengs cites Rev. Robert A. Sirico’s Heritage Foundation essay “The Moral Basis for Economic Liberty” in her column on munities and government budget battles.

As a priest, Sirico has met many entrepreneurs “who are disenfranchised and alienated from their churches,” with often little understanding by church leaders of the “vocation called entrepreneurship, of what it requires in the way of personal sacrifice, and of what it contributes to society.”

This lack of understanding, he believes, is due to the collection basket economic model which “tends to foster a view of the economic world as a pie that needs to be divided.” The entrepreneur, instead, engages in producing wealth, not redistributing it.

“Entrepreneurs create jobs, reduce human suffering, discover and apply new cures, bring food to those without, and help dreams e realities,” he says. In contrast, “the welfare state is too often thought of in morally favorable terms, but its social consequences, however well-intended, can be largely damaging.”

Read “Putting faith in economics to help the poor” in the Sacramento Bee.

Also see Acton’s Principles for Budget Reform and download the free “What Would Jesus Cut … from the Constitution” poster.