“There is no material poverty in the U.S.,” says the always-provocative Walter E. Williams. “What we have in our nation are dependency and poverty of the spirit, with people making unwise choices and leading pathological lives aided and abetted by the welfare state.” The Census Bureau pegs the poverty rate among blacks at 35 percent and among whites at 13 percent. The illegitimacy rate among blacks is 72 percent, and among whites it’s 30 percent. A statistic that one doesn’t...

“Christianity can and should be a leading influence in human culture,” says Greg Forster, “We do this not by seizing control of the institutions of culture and imposing Christianity on people by force, but by acting as cultural entrepreneurs.” A prime example of a cultural entrepreneur in the Bible, notes Forster, was Job: Job was a cultural leader because he served human needs. The connection is reinforced in the following verses, where Job seamlessly transitions back from his deeds of...

“I don’t build in order to have clients. I have clients in order to build!” At SlateMiya Tokumitsu writes that the motto “Do What You Love” really functions as a kind of capitalism-supporting opiate: “In masking the very exploitative mechanisms of labor that it fuels, DWYL is, in fact, the most perfect ideological tool of capitalism.” While Tokumitsu singles out Steve Jobs, perhaps Howard Roark might agree. If that’s true (and it is more than debatable), then this Think Progress...

In Acton’s newly published monograph, Catholicism, Ecology, and the Environment, Bishop Dominique Rey explores the relationship between man and the created world. In the book’s foreword, written by Acton’s Director of Research Sam Gregg, Gregg summarizes the Catholic view of man’s relationship to created matter: Man is understood as intrinsically superior to the natural world. He is charged with dominion over it in order that it may be used to promote integral human development. However, man’s dominion is not absolute....

Acton’s newest monograph, Catholicism, Ecology, and the Environment: A Bishop’s Reflection, is now available as a free ebook download until Monday, February 17. The book, with a foreword from Acton’s Director of Research, Sam Gregg, is authored byBishop Dominique Rey. Bishop Rey graduated with a degree in economics at Lyon and obtained a PhD in fiscal policy at Clermont–Ferrand. He served France as a financial inspector in the Ministry of Finance between 1976 and 1979. Bishop Rey earned a degree...

Why do liberal and conservative evangelicals tend to disagree so often about economic issues? This is the fourth in a series of posts that addresses that question by examining 12 principles that generally drive the thinking of conservative evangelicals when es to economics. The first in the series can be foundhere;Part 2 can be foundhere; and Part 3 can be found here.A PDF/text version of the entire series can be foundhere. 9. Social mobility — specifically getting people out of...

Peter Greer recently wrote a book about thespiritual danger of doing good, encouraging Christians to deal closely with matters of the heart before putting their hands to work. “Our service is downstream from the Gospel message,” he said in an interview here on the blog. “If we forget this, it’s just a matter of time before we self-destruct.” Just a year later, writing alongside co-author Chris Horst, he’s released another book, Mission Drift—this time focusing on the spiritual risks faced...

Rev. Robert Sirico Catholics@Work in Danville, Calif. is pleased to present Fr. Robert Sirico, the President of the Acton Institute, as their guest speaker at the March 11, 2014 breakfast forum. Rev. Sirico will be speaking about Pope Francis and his recent apostolic letter, Evangelii Gaudium, and the issue of poverty. John Duncan, president of Catholics@Work, says, After listening to and reading articles by Fr. Sirico on this subject it seems to me that there are two dimensions we must...

Finding the right pastor or priest for a congregation can be a trying ordeal. It is stressful for the candidates, stressful mittees, stressful for elders and bishops (where applicable). In some cases, qualified ministers have no church, and churches have no permanent minister. What accounts for the disconnect between what sort of candidates are vying for churches and the sort for which churches are actually looking? In economic terms, why is there seemingly a dissonance between supply (ministers) and demand...

Over at The American Culture, I have some thoughts about the first season of House of Cards ahead of the premiere of the second season today. As many have noted, the drop of the Netflix exclusive today coincides with Valentine’s Day, and there have been some serious considerations about how to plan for the contingency that only one of the partners in a couple enjoys the show. But the question of love is also a helpful analytic device for understanding...