Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Effective Compassion

October 16, 2007

More on ‘Southern’ Charity

As a quick follow-up to Ray’s post yesterday, be sure to check out the work of Arthur C. Brooks on charitable giving. The spring issue of Religion & Liberty featured an interview with him, and his book, Who Really Cares? Continue Reading...
October 15, 2007

Southerners Lead Church & Religious Giving

I remember riding back to seminary in Kentucky a couple years ago with a young lady and we pulled off the expressway to grab a bite. As we were getting ready to pay our bill, the young lady, who happened to be from Mississippi, said, “God is telling me to give 100 dollars to this young man behind the counter of this restaurant. Continue Reading...
October 04, 2007

Abandon SCHIP: Big Government Returns

The mammoth Congressional expansion of SCHIP is such a bad idea, even the normally big spending President Bush vetoed the bill. I wrote a piece titled, “Abandon SCHIP: Big Government Returns,” which is now available on the Acton Website. Continue Reading...
October 03, 2007

‘Call of the Philanthropist’

The new issue of Philanthropy Magazine features a cover story on Frank Hanna, vice chairman of the Acton Institute board of directors, and winner of the 2007 William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership. Continue Reading...
October 02, 2007

Faith, Funding, and Substance Abuse

Why might there be “increasing participation by religious organizations in offering substance abuse treatment funded by federal government vouchers”? Perhaps because, at least in part, “A program’s faith element relates to the people they serve and the type of help they provide, as programs with more explicit and mandatory faith-related elements are likely to be substance-abuse programs.” Continue Reading...
October 01, 2007

Patterson Stops Too Short In Jena Six New York Times Piece

Orlando Patterson, professor of sociology at Harvard University, penned a challenging piece on Jena 6 and our current racial tensions. I have learned much from Patterson over the years. For example, he was the first person to help me realize that we often confuse issues of race and class in America by assuming the race as the single variable accounting for the cyclical plight of poor blacks. Continue Reading...
September 10, 2007

Helping the “Bottom Billion”

Richard John Neuhaus is calling it “one of the most important books on world poverty in a very long time.” It’s Paul Collier’s The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It. Continue Reading...
September 05, 2007

Microfinance Challenged

PowerBlog has in the past endorsed the concept of micro-loans as a market-friendly and thereby effective way of aiding the poor, especially in developing countries. Now Arneel Karnani has attacked microfinance in a prestigious publication, largely on the basis of macroeconomic data. Continue Reading...