Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'poverty'

April 27, 2010

Pure and Undefiled Religion

James 1:27 states: Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. Continue Reading...
January 25, 2010

Ineffective Compassion?

Writers on this blog have pointed to a lot of examples of effective compassion when it comes to charity and public policy. But what can ineffective compassion, or maybe just a lack compassion, look like? Continue Reading...
January 14, 2010

Haiti: Two Days Later

The Big Picture blog has some remarkable images from the last 48 hours in Haiti (warning: there are disturbing images among the collections). In the wake of the disaster, many are looking back at Haiti’s history to see what has kept this nation in generations of economic despair. Continue Reading...
December 22, 2009

The Regressive Carbon Tax

A new NBER working paper promises to blow up the myth that it is primarily the wealthy that will bear the cost of taxes on carbon emissions. In “Who Pays a Price on Carbon?” Continue Reading...
December 01, 2009

How to effectively fight poverty

In advance of the Acton Institute’s conference, “Free Enterprise, Poverty, and the Financial Crisis,” which will be held Thursday, Dec. 3, in Rome, the Zenit news agency interviews Dr. Samuel Gregg, Director of Research. Continue Reading...
November 30, 2009

Deacons, Secularism, and the Welfare State

A few weeks ago Hunter Baker posted some thoughts on secularism and poverty, in which he wrote of the common notion that since private charity, particularly church-based care, had failed to end poverty, it seems only prudent to let the government have its chance. Continue Reading...
November 11, 2009

Secularism and Poverty

A colleague recently mentioned that a wag had observed the church had failed to solve poverty, so why not let the federal government have a try? I think it is interesting that anyone, such as the wag in question, could think that the federal government can effectively solve the problem of poverty. Continue Reading...
September 03, 2009

Health Care and ‘Rights’ Talk

I’m becoming more and more convinced that the talk of health care as a ‘right’ is so vague as to border on willful and culpable obfuscation. I certainly advocate a rich and complex description of ‘rights’ talk, such that simply calling something a ‘right’ doesn’t end the ethical or political discussion. Continue Reading...
September 01, 2009

What Can the Church Do?

Ron Sider: “If American Christians simply gave a tithe rather than the current one-quarter of a tithe, there would be enough private Christian dollars to provide basic health care and education to all the poor of the earth. Continue Reading...