August 22 marked the tenth anniversary of welfare reform. The 1996 legislation made radical changes to the process of receiving unearned government cash. The results have been massive reductions in child poverty, increases in employment, and a subsequent increase in the freedom of the poor from government control.
In an interview conducted by Faithful America , a website affiliated with the National Council of Churches , a man named Dan expresses some of the hardships faced when working for a minimum-wage job. “A lot of times you don't get to pay your bills,” he says. “A lot times you just stick them back, you're usually in debt. You usually don't ever get them paid.”
A minimum wage set by agreement between employer and employee establishes the best entry point for people with few skills to gain experience and develop the abilities needed to advance.
After the much-hyped importance of values in the 2004 election, the Democrats are hoping to ride values to victory by bridging the biggest gap in the American electorate in 2004 — the division between those who attend church regularly and those who do not.
If filling our cars with gas and heating our homes with petroleum represent such a grave and tremendous threat, a theological question emerges: Why did God create oil?
One of the many fruits of a free market system that sometimes produces unimaginable wealth for some people who can freely decide to put it to use in the world – for good or for ill.
Superman, the secular savior-figure, manifests the superlative qualities that the world worships: power, strength, immortality. Jesus Christ embodies mercy, weakness, and suffering. But as Paul also writes, “The foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.”
In recent years, an extraordinary change has occurred at the level of international social policy discussion. The “population bomb” parlance of alarmists such as Paul Ehrlich has given way to the “population implosion” warnings of European government and United Nations officials.