Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'poverty'

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...
August 19, 2009

Prioritized Giving

There’s more evidence that amidst the economic downturn people are becoming more careful and intentional about the kinds of charities they fund. We’ve seen that those likely to continue to flourish are those that have cultivated a “family-like” connection with their donors. Continue Reading...
June 30, 2009

Report: Pope’s New Economics Encyclical Leaked

According to the Catholic News Agency, an Italian newspaper claims to have acquired some parts of the upcoming Caritas in Veritate encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI.  Some of the quotes published by Corriere della Sera are claimed to be from the encyclical and align with the predictions that the Pope will be advocating for morality to be the basis of solving our economic crisis. Continue Reading...
June 08, 2009

Keeping up Giving amidst a Downturn

I had occasion to ask a leader in a denominational global relief agency today whether he had seen any decline in North American interest in addressing international poverty, given the recent economic downturn. Continue Reading...
May 15, 2009

Review: Money, Greed, and God

The belief that the essence of capitalism is greed is perhaps the biggest myth Jay W. Richards tackles in his new book, Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism is the Solution and not the Problem. Continue Reading...
April 17, 2009

PBR: The End of Poverty

This Sunday I’ll be giving a talk at Fountain Street Church on the life and work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. His unfinished Ethics is a tantalizing work, full of insights and conundrums. Continue Reading...
October 30, 2008

Busted

The lyrics to “Busted,” written by Harlan Howard, and made famous as performed by Johnny Cash: My bills are all due and the babies need shoes, But I’m Busted Cotton’s gone down to a quarter a pound And I’m Busted I got a cow that’s gone dry And a hen that won’t lay A big stack of bills Getting bigger each day The county’s gonna haul my belongings away, But I’m Busted So I called on my brother to ask for a loan ‘Cause I was Busted I hate to beg like a dog for a bone, But I’m Busted My brother said, “there’s not a thing I can do, My wife and my kids Are all down with the flu And I was just thinkin’ about callin’ on you, ‘Cause I’m Busted.” Continue Reading...
October 27, 2008

Obama Reparations Radio Interview Begs a Question: Does Wealth Redistribution Actually Help the Poor?

A 2001 radio interview of Barack Obama surfaced yesterday in which he said that “one of the tragedies of the Civil Rights movement,” and one of the limitations of the Warren Supreme Court, was that although they won such formal rights as the right to vote and “sit at the lunch counter and order,” they “never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth.” Continue Reading...