Jordan J. Ballor

Jordan J. Ballor (Dr. theol., University of Zurich; PhD, Calvin Theological Seminary) is director of research at the Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy at First Liberty Institute.

Posts by Jordan J. Ballor

February 13, 2014

Liberating Our Labor

At Slate Miya 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.” Continue Reading...
February 10, 2014

Swedish Researcher Says Culture Matters for Innovation

West Michigan is welcoming a new researcher to the area, and Dr. Stefan Jovinge says that culture matters a great deal for incubating innovation. Jovinge, previously of Lund University in Sweden, is one of the world’s foremost scientists investigating the ability of cardiac cells to repair themselves, and he’s joining the Van Andel Institute and at the Spectrum Health Frederik Meijer Heart & Vascular Institute in Grand Rapids. Continue Reading...
January 30, 2014

Discerning Between Service and Disservice

“‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say–but not everything is beneficial. ‘I have the right to do anything’–but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others” (1 Cor. Continue Reading...
January 29, 2014

Presuming the Best

Kierkegaard once wrote, “The majority of men are subjective toward themselves and objective toward all others, terribly objective sometimes–but the real task is in fact to be objective toward one’s self and subjective toward all others.” Continue Reading...
January 15, 2014

Hoisting the Black Flag

H.L. Mencken once said, “Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.” Over at Political Theology Today, I take a look at what a confrontation between a pirate and Alexander the Great has to teach us about politics and proximate justice, taking some cues from Augustine and Cicero, and in conversation with John Mueller and Peter Leeson. Continue Reading...
January 08, 2014

Detroit’s ‘Get out of Bankruptcy Free’ Card

Aaron M. Renn’s reflections on the implications of Detroit’s bankruptcy are worth reading, especially as relate to the DIA, a topic of some previous interest over the last year or so: In the case of the DIA, the city owns the museum and the collection. Continue Reading...
January 07, 2014

Trickle-Down Welfare Economics?

Over at NRO, Thomas Sowell takes on what he calls the “lie” of “trickle-down economics.” Thus, writes Sowell, “the ‘trickle-down’ lie is 100 percent lie.” Sowell cites Bill de Blasio and Barack Obama as figures perpetuating the “lie,” along with writers in “the New York Times, in the Washington Post, and by professors at prestigious American universities — and even as far away as India.” Continue Reading...