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August 20, 2007

The New (Green) Robber Barons

What do you call titans of industry who influence governmental regulation to provide them with tax and subsidy incentives to make a business venture profitable? They used to be called robber barons…now apparently they’re “eco-millionaires.” Continue Reading...
August 20, 2007

John Wesley, ‘The Rich Man and Lazarus’

Readings in Social Ethics: John Wesley, “The Rich Man and Lazarus.” References below are to page numbers. A warning on the dangers of riches: “‘There was a certain rich man.’ And it is no more sinful to be rich than to be poor. Continue Reading...
August 17, 2007

Confessing Evangelical Economics

A number of comments have been floating around the blogosphere related to the news coming out of Colorado last week that a professor at Colorado Christian University was terminated because “his lessons were too radical and undermined the school’s commitment to the free enterprise system.” Continue Reading...
August 16, 2007

STAND on ‘Wristband Activism’

STAND, the Student Anti Genocide Coalition, is discussing Kaylin Wainwright’s Acton commentary about Darfur and campus activism on its blog. STAND, which says it has founded 700 chapters, answers Kaylin’s criticisms about campus “slacktivism” by pointing to its effective engagement on the Darfur issue. Continue Reading...
August 16, 2007

CARE Says ‘No’ to Federal Money

From today’s NYT: “CARE, one of the world’s biggest charities, is walking away from some $45 million a year in federal financing, saying American food aid is not only plagued with inefficiencies, but also may hurt some of the very poor people it aims to help.” Continue Reading...
August 16, 2007

Global Warming Consensus Alert: Blast From the Past

Jeff Jacoby, writing yesterday in the Boston Globe, takes a pleasant stroll down memory lane: INTRODUCING Newsweek’s Aug. 13 cover story on global warming “denial,” editor Jon Meacham brings up an embarrassing blast from his magazine’s past: an April 1975 story about global cooling, and the coming ice age that scientists then were predicting. Continue Reading...
August 16, 2007

Bridging Wesley’s Ditch

Stanley Cohen, the Martin White Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics, is quoted as saying that “good intentions become bad practices.” In his critique of rather lame attempts to realize justice in the world (related to faulty definitions of justice), Herman Bianchi writes, “Even more dubious is another frame in which the formula is often couched: ‘Justice is the constant intention to give everyone his due.’ Continue Reading...
August 15, 2007

Asylum vs. Assistance

In connection to Acton’s recent coverage of the New Sanctuary Movement, which shelters illegal immigrants in churches to protect them from deportation, see this fascinating Christianity Today piece that explains the history of the church sanctuary concept. Continue Reading...