Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Public Policy

December 13, 2013

Business and Askesis

Today at Ethika Politika, I look at the busyness of the Advent season through the lens of Orthodox Christian asceticism in my essay, “Busyness and Askesis: An Advent Reflection.” The Advent season in the United States is typically ransacked by shopping, parties, visits with family, and the like. Continue Reading...
December 13, 2013

TCC: Lessons in Liberty & Restraint

Last week, an exciting new organization called the Transatlantic Christian Council (TCC) hosted its inaugural conference. The theme of the conference was “Sustaining Freedom”, which aligns well with the Council’s mission “to develop a transatlantic public policy network of European and North American Christians and conservatives in order to promote the civic good, as understood within the Judeo-Christian tradition on which our societies are largely based.” Continue Reading...
December 12, 2013

Conscience Is Key To Business, But Only The ‘Correct’ Kind

Business, we are told, is supposed to have a conscience to survive. For instance, Chad Brooks at Fox Business says that businesses have to be “socially conscience” in order to attract customers: Young consumers consider social responsibility most when shelling out big bucks for products such as automobiles, computers, consumer electronics and jewelry, the study found. Continue Reading...
December 11, 2013

Inflation and the Minimum Wage

In yesterday’s edition of The Transom, which I highly recommend, Ben Domenech included a discussion that places the debates over raising the minimum wage within the broader context of the effects of inflation more generally. Continue Reading...
December 06, 2013

Mandela’s Vision for Ecumenical Economic Engagement

Here’s a key section from a speech given by Nelson Mandela in 1998 at the World Council of Churches: At the end of a century that has taught that peace is the greatest weapon in development, we cannot afford to spare any effort to bring about a peaceful resolution of such conflicts. Continue Reading...
December 05, 2013

Plan to Privatize the DIA Still Alive

Earlier this year I argued for a plan that would privatize the DIA, allowing for the City of Detroit to cash in on a measure of the collection’s worth to satisfy creditors and simultaneously protect the DIA’s artwork from being parceled out in bankruptcy proceedings. Continue Reading...
December 04, 2013

How to Think About Money Like the Working Poor

After reading a comment thread in which her online friends were complaining about poor people’s self-defeating behavior, Linda Walther Tirado wrote an articled titled “Why I Make Terrible Decisions, or, Poverty Thoughts,” which chronicled her struggles with near abject poverty. Continue Reading...