Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Public Policy

September 06, 2005

Start where you are

Like everyone else outside the Gulf Coast (i.e., not a direct victim or a tireless rescue worker, volunteer, or military member there to help), the TV remote has become my constant companion. Continue Reading...
September 02, 2005

Dunn deal: A challenge for the NFL

Pro running back Warrick Dunn, a native of Louisiana, is challenging every NFL player (other than New Orleans Saints) to donate at least $5,000 to hurricane relief efforts. “If we get players to do that, that would amount to $260,000 per team. Continue Reading...
September 01, 2005

Lootin’ in Louisiana

Following the devastation in New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina, bands of looters are running rampant throughout the city. Things have gotten so bad that New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin “ordered virtually the entire police force to abandon search-and-rescue efforts and stop thieves who were becoming increasingly hostile.” Continue Reading...
August 31, 2005

For our freedom and yours: Remembering solidarity

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the formation of Poland’s Solidarity movement. Samuel Gregg says that Solidary gives us a view of a labor union whose “stand for the truth about the human person and against the lie of Marxism contributed immeasurably to the collapse of one of the two great totalitarian evils that disfigured the twentieth-century.” Continue Reading...
August 31, 2005

Robertson’s fatwa

Rev. Robert Sirico responds to Pat Robertson’s highly-publicized call for the assassination of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. “What is needed here, I believe, is a time of reflection. Christianity is not a national religion. Continue Reading...
August 30, 2005

The voice of a secular prophet

The Americans brought this on themselves. That’s one reaction coming from around the world as it surveys the devastation following Hurricane Katrina. In what can only be described as callously political maneuvering, Germany’s environmental minister Jürgen Trittin said today, “The increasing frequency of these natural events can only be explained through global warming which is caused by people.” Continue Reading...
August 30, 2005

Fair trade goes bananas

You may have heard of “fair trade,” one of the more recent economically-myopic efforts to act as “guarantees that farmers and farmworkers receive a fair price for their labor.” I’ve written before about the fair trade coffee movement (especially in the Church), which has perhaps gained the most public attention. Continue Reading...
August 29, 2005

The ethics of ‘price gouging’

Hurricane Katrina passed over New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf coast earlier today, and reports of “price gouging” are already coming in. In Alabama, when the governor declares a state of emergency, it triggers a legal barrier to “unconscionable pricing.” Continue Reading...
August 29, 2005

‘The Dangers and Follies of Protectionism’

The European Union is running into some problems with its quota policies on Chinese goods: The European Union will tomorrow put proposals to member states for the release of millions of Chinese garments stacked up at customs warehouses since the EU imposed import limits in June, said EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson. Continue Reading...
August 26, 2005

The Matrix anthropology

It’s been determined that the view of the human person at work behind “The Human Zoo” exhibit is best exemplified by Agent Smith’s monologue from the original installment of “The Matrix.” Continue Reading...