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Welfare, work, and human dignity
A website called Over Fifty and Out of Work offers Baby-Boomers who have lost their jobs an opportunity to share their stories. Many talk of age discrimination in hiring practices as they look for new work, but all speak of the trial of wanting to work but being unable to find it. The stories reveal that work is a significant factor in one’s self-worth and, I would add, a duty of human dignity.Something is rotten in the state of Europe
Europe is plagued by ethicists describing incest as a fundamental right, the unwillingness to acknowledge that certain strains of Islamic theology are feeding today’s terrorism, the reluctance to engage in serious economic reform, the resurgent anti-Semitism laced with paranoid conspiracy theories, and the absence of any real leadership anywhereThe image of God and you
Conversations about human dignity often, and rightly, refer to the biblical concept of the image of God. In the creation account in Genesis 1:27 we read that “God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” The third person pronouns are fitting here because the text is providing a narrative depiction of a past event. Those human beings back then were created by God.Kirk and state: What next for Scotland?
Before he was arrested and ultimately burnt at the stake, the great Presbyterian martyr George Wishart dissuaded his young disciple John Knox from following him to martyrdom with the famous words, “Nay, return to your bairns and God bless you. One is sufficient for a sacrifice.”Our sentimental humanitarian age
I always thought it would be difficult to imagine a period in which the West would be more adrift than the 1970s. Being a child at the time, I was spared consciousness of most of that miserable decade. Thus far, however, the second decade of the 2000s seems likely to give the 10 years that spawned Watergate, stagflation, the Carter presidency, the Oil Crisis, Idi Amin, the Baader-Meinhof Gang, Jim Jones, Pol Pot, the Red Brigades, and the Iranian Revolution (to name just a few of the star attractions) a serious run for its money as a byword for Western decline.Economics, the environment and the Orthodox Church’s Eucharistic vision
Our economic activity in the marketplace can be faithful to the Eucharist we celebrate on Sunday morning. What is needed is not a new economic model but a deeper awareness of the Eucharistic roots of our economic life.Defining social justice
I hope to offer a more nuanced view, grounded in the history of modern Christian social thought and action that might have broader appeal, even to those conservatives who are otherwise repelled by the phrase "social justice."The Church’s call to steward God’s mission in the world
The essence of stewardship is about finding your place — that is, all the dimensions of your many callings — in God’s economy of all things ( oikonomia).The holy war on corporate politicking
The Religious Left's long-running campaign to silence those with different views has moved aggressively into corporate boardrooms. CEOs and directors of public companies are being hectored by social justice activists to abandon lobbying and other political activities. Let's hope they don't succeed.Immigration: A principled Catholic approach avoids emotionalism
For weeks now, Americans’ eyes have been fixated upon the humanitarian disaster unfolding on our southern border, as some of the least among us seek to enter the United States without permission from what is, after all, a sovereign nation. We’ve also witnessed outpourings of raw fury as Americans, including many Catholics, vent their frustration with the federal government and Congress, due to the economic and political dysfunctionality bred by the failure of our immigration laws.Heretics and heresies, new and old
You may not have realized it, but Tony Dungy is a heretic. Does the former football player, coach and now TV analyst hold beliefs that are considered heretical by his fellow Christians? No. But his recent doubts about Michael Sam as an NFL player (you’ll recall Sam as the All American college athlete who has publicly announced that he’s gay), caused Dungy to be viewed as a heretic by members of another sect that is gaining adherents at a rapid pace.Christianity, socialism, and wealth creation
Through much of the post-war period in the West, the formation of economic policy was dominated by Keynesian activism on the part of governments seeking an increasing role in providing public services, reducing material poverty, and reshaping income redistribution.