Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'poverty'

March 01, 2012

Bonhoeffer on ‘the view from below’

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: There remains an experience of incomparable value. We have for once learnt to see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the outcast, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed, the reviled – in short, from the perspective of those who suffer. Continue Reading...
February 27, 2012

Cost-Effective Compassion

What are the best ways to help the poor in developing countries? Answering that question is not as straightforward as you might assume, says development economist Bruce Wydick in Christianity Today. Continue Reading...
February 23, 2012

Commentary: Human Excellence and the Moral Life

After 50-plus years of social unraveling, many reformers still see the “therapeutic model” as a cure for what ails American society. Or would a return to the classical virtues, as a means of healing first the person and then the culture, be the way of renewal? Continue Reading...
February 20, 2012

Gleaner Technology

Gleaning is the traditional Biblical practice of gathering crops that would otherwise be left in the fields to rot, or be plowed under after harvest. The biblical mandate  for the practice comes from Deuteronomy 24:19, When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. Continue Reading...
February 08, 2012

Bruce Springsteen’s Charity Bawl

While reading the Wall Street Journal not so long ago, I came across an article and two opinion pieces that, each in their way, told a story far different than one rendered in Bruce Springsteen’s forthcoming album, Wrecking Ball. Continue Reading...
December 22, 2011

Religion & Liberty: An Interview with Dolphus Weary

Dolphus Weary has a remarkable story to tell and certainly very few can add as much insight on the issue of poverty as he does. When you read the interview, now available online in the Fall 2011 R&L, or especially his book I Ain’t Comin’ Back, you realize leaving Mississippi was his one ambition, but God called him back in order to give his life and training for the “least of these.” Continue Reading...
December 02, 2011

‘Bond Aid for Brussels’

In my opinion, those words coming from the mouth of Declan Ganley were the most memorable from our distinguished speakers at yesterday’s conference “From Aid to Enterprise: Economic Liberty and Solutions to Poverty” in London. Continue Reading...
November 23, 2011

Safety Nets and Incentives

Over at the Economix blog, University of Chicago economist Casey B. Mullin takes another look at some of the recent poverty numbers. He notes the traditional interpretation, that “the safety net did a great job: For every seven people who would have fallen into poverty, the social safety net caught six.” Continue Reading...