By Evan Koons Remember this: the church is the body of Christ, given as a gift, for the life of the world. Your church is the body of Christ, given as a gift, for the life of the world! And what do we know about Christ’s body? It was beaten and bruised and offered as a gift for the life of the world. And this is where another mystery is revealed: In living this way, not only are we the body of... Read more
By Elise Hilton No doubt about it: hiring a convicted felon is a gamble. For someone out of prison, it can seem as if no one wants you. You’re too much of a risk. Then someone takes that risk. And it changes everything. For a man named Three Feathers, who had spent more than 28 years in either state or federal prisons, it meant a chance at life – literally. He told his employer that had he not been hired,... Read more
By Joseph Sunde In a stunning video, Matt Bieler strings together beautiful images and a few simple words to celebrate the work of three stay-at-home moms from three different regions of the country. The tasks shown, like those of any mother, are numerous and varied, and those explicitly mentioned follow accordingly: breakfast-maker, sibling caretaker, teacher, cleaner, doctor, angel. “She’s with me all the time,” one child whispers. In our celebration of work — the dignity it brings, the service it provides,... Read more
By Joseph Sunde The modern age has introduced many blessings when it comes to child-rearing and child development, offering kids ever more opportunities for education, play, personal development, and social interaction. Yet as time, leisure, and wealth continue to increase, and as we move farther away from years of excessive and intensive child labor, we ought to be wary of falling into a different sort of lopsided lifestyle — one that over-elevates other goods (e.g. study, practice, play) to the detriment of good old-fashioned labor.... Read more
By Anthony Bradley The story of Chicago-based Supreme Life Insurance Company of America, one of the most venerable black-owned businesses in American history, challenges the prevailing fiction that minority customers need the government to guarantee services for them and is a dynamic reminder of the power of markets as a basis for economic freedom. Supreme was originally incorporated as the Liberty Life Insurance Company in 1919. An amazing 1969 study of the company by Dr. Robert C. Puth inadvertently dispels all... Read more
By Evan Koons Hello Fr-angers and St-riends, Perhaps you’ve completed For the Life of the World: Letters to the Exiles, or maybe you’re just starting out. You might even be somewhere in the middle. Wherever you are with the series, consider this a friendly reminder to dig deeper. Take some time to check out these great books and the field scholars that went into making FLOW. They will lead you into a more robust “wondering at God” – who he... Read more
By Sarah Stanley François Michelin (1926-2015), former leader of the the world’s second-largest tire maker, died early yesterday at the age of 88. Michelin was actively involved in the French tire company, Group Michelin, until 2002, driving unprecedented growth for the company. His “passion for innovation” and “his uncompromising attention to quality” no doubt caused the tire company to thrive. Automotive News reported a statement from current Group Michelin CEO Jean-Dominique Senard: “On behalf of the Group’s employees, I would like... Read more
By Joseph Sunde In our efforts to serve others and do good in the world, we humans have a remarkable tendency to fall short, no matter how carefully constructed or well intended our plans and designs may be. When failure occurs, economists are likely to point to some kind of knowledge problem, noting that, for instance, Western Congregation X didn’t (and perhaps couldn’t) know or foresee that sending hundreds of free shoes to Developing Nation Y would put Local Merchants A, B, and... Read more
By Oskari Juurikkala To provide a synthesis of Pope Francis’s thinking on the economy is both difficult and easy. It is difficult, because he has never offered extensive and systematic reflections on such questions; his pronouncements are found here and there, inseparable from a broader moral and spiritual message. At the same time, he has said quite a few things about economic questions, and he is deeply interested in economic values and outcomes. Of course, he views them not as isolated technical questions, but as... Read more
By John Bolt The following is an adapted excerpt from Economic Shalom, John Bolt’s Reformed primer on faith, work, and economics. It is reprinted here with permission from Christian’s Library Press. In common usage, the two questions “What are you going to be when you grow up?” and “What are you going to do when you grow up?” are practically interchangeable. Yet, there is a significant difference between them. The second one is functional and utilitarian; implied in the question is another... Read more
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